Barbara Boxer

Biography

A forceful advocate for families, children, consumers, the environment, and her State of California, Barbara Boxer became a United States Senator in January 1993 after 10 years of service in the House of Representatives. Elected to a third term in 2004, she received more than 6.9 million votes, the highest total for any Senate candidate in American history. A national leader on environmental protection, Senator Boxer is the first woman to Chair the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). On the Committee, she advocates forcefully for clean air and water, with a particular focus on the fight against global warming. She also Chairs EPW’s Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming, Oversight, and Children’s Health Protection. In addition to her work on the EPW Committee, Senator Boxer has won numerous awards for her efforts to create a cleaner, healthier environment. She authored the amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act ensuring that drinking water standards are set to protect children and other vulnerable populations. She has been a leader in the fight to remove arsenic from drinking water, block oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and along California’s coast, stop the use of human subjects in pesticide testing, and revitalize the Superfund by making polluters – not taxpayers – pay to clean up the toxic waste they leave behind. A champion of quality public education, Senator Boxer wrote landmark legislation establishing the first-ever federal funding for afterschool programs. With her leadership, support for afterschool has risen dramatically. The first federal appropriation for afterschool programs was in fiscal year 1995 – for $750,000. Over the next eight years, funding increased to reach $1 billion per year, covering 1.4 million children. She is now pushing for coverage of 3.5 million children by 2007.