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Rep. Jim McDermott
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Jim McDermott was born in Chicago, IL on December 28, 1936. He was the first member of his family to attend college, and went on to finish medical school. After completing his medical residency and military service, he made his first run for public office in 1970 and served in the State Legislature from the 43rd district in Washington State. In 1974, he ran for the State Senate, and held the office for
three terms.


In 1987, after 15 years of legislative service, Rep. McDermott decided to leave politics and continue in public service as a Foreign Service medical officer based in Zaire, providing psychiatric services to Foreign Service, AID, and Peace Corps personnel in sub-Saharan Africa. When the 7th district Congressional seat later became open, he returned from Africa to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. He began serving in 1989 to the 101st Congress and is currently serving his 12th term.


A physician, Rep. McDermott is especially interested in health care issues. While in the state legislature, he developed the Washington Basic Health Plan, the first state program in the country to provide low-cost health insurance to the unemployed and working poor. In the Congress, he is active in health care reform issues. He founded and chairs the Congressional Task Force on International HIV/AIDS and introduced the AIDS Housing Opportunities Act, a new program enacted into law in 1990 authorizing $156 million in FY 92 for special housing assistance for people with AIDS. Rep. McDermott, the co-author of National Health Care legislation, is leading the fight in the House of Representatives to guarantee all Americans comprehensive health care coverage.


Rep. McDermott is married to Therese Hansen, an attorney in Seattle. He has two adult children and a granddaughter. McDermott attends St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle.

Blog Entries by Rep. Jim McDermott

Congo at a Crossroads

0 Comments | Posted November 28, 2011 | 7:49 AM

The Democratic Republic of Congo, in the heart of Africa, is not filling the world's headlines, but it is at a crossroads. Today's elections and the kind of governance that ensues could take Congo and Central Africa towards peace and realizing its potential, or -- the terrifying alternative of allowing...

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Trading With South Korea

0 Comments | Posted April 28, 2011 | 2:12 PM

Written from South Korea

The Korea free trade agreement is something that is good for both the United States and Korea. For South Korea, this is an opportunity to solidify their position as a world economic power by establishing a relationship with the United States. They are in a situation...

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Playing Politics with Women's Rights

0 Comments | Posted April 12, 2011 | 10:37 AM

Investing in the health of American women should not be a partisan dispute. Family planning decisions belong to women, their doctors and their families, not to ideologues in Congress. Unfortunately, House Republicans have made attacks on women's health services a top priority of the 112th Congress. Even more startling is...

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Crushing Workers Won't Solve Deficits

0 Comments | Posted March 9, 2011 | 1:24 PM

While millions of ordinary Americans have been struggling to cope with the harsh economic realities of the last two years, Republican elected officials have focused their attention on ways to take political advantage of widespread hardship. Republicans have decided that ongoing economic turmoil offers a perfect opportunity to go after...

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We Call on Gadhafi to Quit Violent Crackdown

0 Comments | Posted February 23, 2011 | 3:55 PM

The violence in Libya is unconscionable and the international community must unite in opposition to this brute use of force against non-violent protesters.

Yesterday's speech by embattled Moammar Gadhafi reinforces the fact that he is willing to cling to power through whatever means necessary. Calling himself a 'martyr' and...

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Saving the Senate From Itself

0 Comments | Posted December 29, 2010 | 9:17 AM

This month's tax deal starkly illustrates the enormous power wielded by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In fact, his role confirms our government is not operating as a democracy ruled by the will of the majority, but as a strangled entity tightly in the grasp of the Senate Republican minority...

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Will a Republican Tsunami Drown the Unemployed?

0 Comments | Posted November 16, 2010 | 11:11 AM

While the pundits and politicians continue pontificating on the meaning of the Nov. 2 election, one message is already clear: Americans are extremely worried about jobs and unemployment. According to CNN polling, voters said that unemployment is roughly twice as important as all other top issues combined. And the Wall...

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So You Want to Privatize

0 Comments | Posted October 28, 2010 | 12:28 PM

Last week, former President George W. Bush emerged from his Texas mansion to declare that the biggest failure of his presidency was not privatizing Social Security. President Bush should take a good look around because he failed at a number of things, but failing to gut one of America's most...

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A Day Without the Democrats

0 Comments | Posted October 20, 2010 | 9:29 AM

Recently, I watched the movie, A Day Without a Mexican. It's a hypothetical look at life in Los Angeles without Latinos, and the impacts on the society were they to disappear for one day. Yesterday, I read a newspaper article noting that unemployment insurance is due to come to a...

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Health Care Reform Benefits: Truth vs. Pure Politics

0 Comments | Posted September 23, 2010 | 9:49 AM

Six months ago today, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, one of the most important pieces of health care legislation in more than a generation. Six months later and the sky is still there, grandma hasn't been euthanized, and the dreaded death panels have ceased to materialize. Six months...

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Some Surprising News About "Crack Babies"

0 Comments | Posted May 4, 2010 | 11:09 AM

In 1965, New York State pioneered an innovative effort to encourage the adoption of children out of foster care. New York recognized that children with special needs within the foster care system generally languished in care and faced severe barriers to adoption. Attempting to overcome some of these barriers, and...

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A Piecemeal Approach to Health Reform Won't Work

0 Comments | Posted January 23, 2010 | 4:33 PM

As we learned the results of the Massachusetts Senate race, we all knew we would need to re-examine our options to get a final health reform bill through Congress. On Wednesday morning, discussion about our next move was rife with speculation and ambiguity. And while I think we need to...

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Building a House of Health

0 Comments | Posted October 22, 2009 | 10:07 AM

President Obama is trying to bring about the largest change in social policy in more than 75 years. To do that, he has to get consensus among 300 million Americans who fall into two basic categories: those worried that change will not go far enough, and those worried they will...

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He Neglected to Tell You...

0 Comments | Posted August 12, 2009 | 11:18 AM

It should come as no surprise that agents of the status quo are dispensing false and misleading information about health care reform. More than anything else, they fear the American people taking control of their health care system for the first time.

The medical industry wants to maintain their...

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An Energy Future for Us and the Planet

0 Comments | Posted May 19, 2009 | 12:07 PM

America is the economic engine that drives the global economy, and it's about time we ran that engine on clean and renewable energy. We have within our power the ability to transform America into nation that wisely and responsibly consumes and produces energy, and provides leadership that enables the world...

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We Must Never Forget and Never Relent in Our Fight Against AIDS

0 Comments | Posted December 1, 2008 | 12:22 PM

World Aids Day, December 1, 2008

World Aids Day is a day to bear witness, to celebrate the progress we have made and to re-dedicate ourselves to the fight by telling our own personal stories. When experiences are shared from every corner of the globe, we remind the world of...

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As GM Goes, So Goes America

0 Comments | Posted July 23, 2008 | 2:56 PM

And Health Care is Going, Going, Almost Gone for Millions of Americans.

Another 9.0 quake rattled America's health care crisis to the core last week, but coming amidst the wreckage to the U.S. economy from nearly eight painful years of bad policy by this administration, many people mistook it for...

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The Iraq War: What Might Have Been

0 Comments | Posted March 19, 2008 | 1:27 PM

As we mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, the most troubling fact, in a long and tragic list of troubling facts, is that we already know there will be a sixth anniversary. Worse yet, depending upon the outcome of the November election, there could be a seventh, tenth,...

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Fixing AMT is the First Step in Restoring Fairness

0 Comments | Posted November 15, 2007 | 2:16 PM

The R in "Republicans" must also stand for "Rich." That's the only plausible explanation I can find to explain why my Republican colleagues in the House prefer to sink the American middle-class to keep afloat unfair and bloated tax breaks for the rich, and I mean Rich with a capital...

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I Want Congress to Participate in an Iran War Game

0 Comments | Posted November 9, 2007 | 3:12 PM

Too many times today, we hear the American people and politicians say about the Iraq war, "If I only knew then what I know now I would have not supported it, or demanded more information and assurances beforehand."

This is precisely why I think that Members of Congress- with...

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