Congresswoman Ellen O. Tauscher is currently serving her fifth term representing California’s 10th Congressional district, which includes San Francisco’s suburbs in Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano Counties. She is a leader on defense, homeland security, high-tech, transportation and veterans’ issues and is one of Congress’s leading experts on nuclear nonproliferation. As the newly elected chair of the New Democrat Coalition and a Blue Dog, her fiscally responsible, bipartisan, independent brand of leadership was coined “Tauscherism” by Time magazine.

Rep. Tauscher has been called one of the “50 most powerful people in politics” by George magazine. At the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, she gave a nominating speech for Sen. Joe Lieberman’s Vice Presidential bid and she spoke on issues of national security at the 2004 Convention in Boston.

Before coming to Capitol Hill, Rep. Tauscher worked in the private sector for 20 years, 14 of which were on Wall Street. At age 25, she became one of the first women to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. She later served as an officer of the American Stock Exchange. After moving to California in 1989, she founded the first national research service to help parents verify the background of childcare workers when she was looking for childcare for her daughter. She also published a book to help working parents make informed decisions about their own childcare needs.

Rep. Tauscher is the only member of Congress to have two national defense laboratories – Lawrence Livermore and Sandia California – in her district. The district also includes Camp Parks Army Reserve facility and Travis Air Force Base, home of the 60th Air Mobility Wing. She sits on the House Armed Services Committee. She led efforts in Congress to improve America’s homeland security by streamlining the federal bureaucracy into a single Department of Homeland Security to better deal with the threat of terrorism.

Rep. Tauscher has taken an active role in foreign policy and national security while in Congress, particularly as a vocal advocate for precautions, including temporarily increasing the size of our Army and Marines, to ensure success in military endeavors. She has traveled to Iraq twice since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom and visited troops and foreign leaders in Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries while serving in Congress. She has also served on congressional delegations to Bosnia, Colombia, Korea, Russia, Yugoslavia and NATO headquarters in Brussels. Rep. Tauscher was recently elected to serve as the Vice Chair for the Future Security and Defense Capabilities Subcomittee of the Defense and Security Committee of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly.

Much of Rep. Tauscher’s work in Congress focuses on working to stop the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. She is the leader in the House of Representatives on the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation’s Nuclear Threat Reduction Campaign, which is working to reduce the threats associated with nuclear and biological weapons, and she has been a prominent opponent of development of new nuclear weapons and nuclear “bunker busters.”

Rep. Tauscher is regularly a member of the American delegation to the annual Wehrkunde Conference on security policy in Munich. She has addressed the Fletcher Conference on National Security, the Army Two-Star Conference for Commanders and has been a participant in the Army War College’s Strategic Crisis Exercise. She was appointed by the Speaker of the House to serve on the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Rep. Tauscher is an advocate for working families and businesses and has played a key role in many of the New Democrats’ signature programs. She coauthored a major prescription drug plan, and she has introduced the State Infrastructure Banks for Schools Act to provide innovative approaches to rebuild our nation’s aging public schools and libraries. As the co-chair of the New Democrat Coalition’s Entitlement Reform Task Force, Rep. Tauscher participated in the White House Conference on Saving Social Security. And, she was appointed by her peers to co-chair the Democratic Caucus Task Force on Campaign Finance Reform.

As the senior Bay Area Member of Congress on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Tauscher is working to revitalize California’s infrastructure and reduce congestion throughout the country. She holds a seat on the Aviation Subcommittee, where she played a pivotal role getting common-sense measures like background checks for airport employees included in the sweeping aviation security legislation that passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks. She also serves on the powerful Highways and Transit Subcommittee, which determines the nation’s transportation needs and authorizes federal funding for transportation and transit projects across the country.

As National Vice Chair of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Rep. Tauscher travels across the country meeting with elected officials and building a base of New Democrats for state and national office. In her new capacity within the New Democrats, Rep. Tauscher will lead the centrist, pro-growth members of the House to find mainstream solutions on issues such as technology and trade. Rep. Tauscher has served on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and chaired the group’s Democratic Business Forum. She is also a past Finance Chair of the New Democrat Network.

Rep. Tauscher was the first person in her family to attend college and earned a degree in Early Childhood Education from Seton Hall University. Born in Newark, N.J., she lives in Alamo, Calif., with her daughter, Katherine.

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