|
 
Jan
Schakowsky
May 26, 1944– U. S.
Congresswoman from Illinois (Democrat)
Address: 515 Cannon House Office
Bldg., Washington, DC 20515
Jan Schakowsky, a Democratic U.S.
representative who has served Chicago, Illinois, and its suburbs for
the past five years, is known as one of the most progressive voices on
Capitol Hill. A citizens' advocate and grassroots organizer before her
election to the Illinois General Assembly and, later, the U.S. House
of Representatives, Schakowsky has long sought universal health care,
increased funding for public education, and the protection of the
rights of women and senior citizens. A vocal critic of President
George W. Bush's administration, she has spoken out against both its
domestic and international policies. "I'm scared of this
administration," she told Eric Martin for the Daily Northwestern
(April 29, 2003). "Their vision of the world and the role the United
States should play and the heavy hand in shaping the rest of the world
really does frighten me." Her victories in Congress include the
passage of bills created to increase federal assistance for abused
women and children, protect the rights of battered immigrant women,
reform election laws to guarantee that registered voters are not
turned away at the polls, expand low-income housing opportunities, and
assist small business owners and farmers. "Schakowsky is articulate,
outspoken with a disarming wit and unabashed in her support of a
progressive political agenda," Lynn Sweet wrote for the Chicago
Sun-Times (January 9, 2003), and John Nichols, writing for the Nation
(January 26, 2004), called her "a savvy liberal who knows not only how
to be right on the issues but also how to win elections."
The congresswoman was born Janice
D. Danoff in Chicago on May 26, 1944 to Irwin and Tillie (Cosnow)
Danoff. She received a B.S. degree in elementary education from the
University of Illinois in 1965, and soon afterward she married and
began raising a family. Her first experience in running a campaign
came in 1969, when she led the fight to put dates indicating freshness
on products sold in supermarkets. Along with five other women living
outside Chicago, Schakowsky, then the mother of two young children,
formed the group National Consumer Union. Its members questioned stock
clerks and store managers to decode the meaning of the bar codes on
products, which were the only indication of how long they had been
sitting on store shelves. From their basements, the women of the
National Consumer Union printed and sold 25,000 "code books," gaining
publicity--including a spot on the Huntley-Brinkley Report, a
nationally broadcast news program--and eventually succeeding in
getting so-called freshness dates put on many food items that have
limited shelf lives. "That experience with our little group of women
was so incredibly empowering that it changed my life," she told Peter
Brand for the Hill (May 14, 2003). "And my view of myself was changed
from being an ordinary housewife to an ordinary housewife that could
really make a difference."
When her children were older,
Schakowsky began working for Illinois Public Action, the state's
largest public-interest organization, which fought for tougher
measures to protect the public from toxic industrial chemicals, among
other goals; she was the group's program director from 1976 to 1985.
She served as executive director of the Illinois State Council of
Senior Citizens from 1985 to 1990, leading campaigns for lower-cost
prescription drugs and tax relief for seniors as well as financial
support for spouses of nursing-home residents.
Schakowsky was elected to the
Illinois State Assembly in 1989 and served for eight years,
representing the state's 18th District. A Democratic floor leader and
secretary of the Conference of Women Legislators, she also chaired the
Labor and Commerce Committee and served on the Human Service
Appropriations, Health Care, and Electric Deregulation Committees. As
a state representative she sponsored bills to strengthen the Hate
Crimes Act, which targets crimes motivated by the victims' race,
gender, nationality, or sexual persuasion; to increase support for
public libraries, day-care centers, and home-delivered meals for
seniors; and to allow parents leave from work for school conferences.
She also introduced the first bill in the nation aimed at guaranteeing
homeless people the right to vote.
In November 1998, with 74.6 percent
of the vote, she was elected to represent Illinois's Ninth District in
the U.S. House of Representatives, replacing the outgoing Democrat
Sidney Yates, who had served 24 terms. The Ninth District, a
Democratic stronghold, includes several neighborhoods in northwest
Chicago as well as the suburbs of Evanston, Skok, Des Plaines, Park
Ridge, Golf, Morton Grove, Glenview, Lincolnwood, and Niles.
Schakowsky currently serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and
on the subcommittees for Oversight and Investigations, Environment and
Hazardous Materials, Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, on
which she is the ranking member. In past years she sat on the Banking
and Financial Services Committee, the Government Efficiency Committee,
and the Financial Management Committee, for which she was the top
Democrat on the Government Reform Subcommittee. She is chief deputy
whip of the House Democratic Leadership team and a member of the
Congressional Human Rights Caucus. She lists her top priority as
providing universal health care for Americans; her other causes
include economic and social justice, the prevention and punishment of
violence against women, stricter gun-control measures, and a national
investment in public education and housing.
In November 2000, in cooperation
with Fannie Mae, a government-backed organization that promotes home
ownership, Schakowsky announced the Anti-Predatory Lending Act, which
she authored to help home owners refinance bad loans, save their home
equity, and prevent foreclosure. She has also introduced the Financial
Consumers' Bill of Rights Act, a comprehensive bill to put an end to
automatic teller machine (ATM) surcharges and excessive bank fees and
to provide effective privacy protection for customers. Schakowsky has
voted for funding for alternative sentencing options for criminals and
against tougher prosecution and sentencing of juveniles. She opposes
the death penalty; supports more extensive DNA testing in criminal
cases, including mandatory DNA testing in all cases involving federal
executions; and advocates stricter sentences for hate crimes.
Schakowsky voted against funding military border patrols to battle
drugs and terrorism, while coming out in favor of allowing
needle-exchange programs in Washington, D.C., and legalizing the
medical use of marijuana. In the area of education, she voted to
require states to test students, supported the effort to reduce class
sizes to 18 students for first, second, and third grades, and argued
for increased funding for teacher training. She supported the White
House-sponsored Leave No Child Behind Act, which provided funds for
teacher training, smaller classes, school construction, and
after-school programs, but has said that the law will be ineffectual
since the budget for the program is $7 billion short. In 2003 she
voted with the minority against the national energy policy supported
by President Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney, which provided
tax breaks to companies to promote energy research and development;
the plan, she maintained, endangers the environment. She voted to
raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, aimed at energy
conservation; to provide incentives for the development of alternative
fuels; and to prohibit oil drilling and development in the Arctic
National Wildlife Reserve. She also wants to regulate wholesale
electricity and gas prices.
In the international arena,
Schakowsky voted to uphold the ban on U.S. citizens' traveling to Cuba
until that country's political prisoners are released, to give $156
million to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Third World debt
reduction, and to provide food and medical aid to Africa. She voted
against permanent normal trade relations with China, in light of that
nation's human-rights abuses and labor practices, and against
withholding $244 million in back payments owed to the U.N. by the U.S.
A strong defender of civil liberties, she has been particularly vocal
about the need to protect the rights of U.S. citizens since the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, which, she
maintains, resulted in legislation curbing these liberties. "I feel
many civil liberties have become the casualty of 9/11," she told
Nicole Adamson for the Northwestern Chronicle (November 1, 2002,
on-line). "The Attorney General and the President through executive
orders have been all too willing to sacrifice civil liberties.
Particularly at times of stress we need to be very careful that we
don't limit constitutional rights." She has criticized the detention
of prisoners without due process at U.S. facilities in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, and has voted against a constitutional amendment prohibiting
desecration of the American flag.
Schakowsky has sponsored the
Women's Caucus policy agenda, which includes legislation aimed at
curbing violence against women and children, reducing child abuse and
neglect, reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act of 1999,
providing housing assistance to victims of domestic violence, and
protecting female prisoners from sexual assault by prison employees.
The congresswoman voted against banning so-called partial-birth
abortion, human cloning, and the funding of family-planning programs
as part of aid to foreign countries. She also voted against the
funding of health-care providers who do not supply information on
abortion; fought for affordable prescription drugs for senior citizens
and people with disabilities, as well as quality at home, hospice, and
nursing care for seniors; and supported financial assistance for child
care and child health and housing initiatives.
Prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion of
Iraq, undertaken for the stated purpose of ridding that nation of
weapons of mass destruction, Schakowsky was one of 126 House Democrats
to vote against legislation giving President George W. Bush authority
to use military force there; she contended that the U.S. should have
worked harder to gain international support for the war. The measure
passed both the House and Senate, allowing Bush to launch an attack
against Iraq on March 19, 2003. "It is in the United States' interest
to have strong international bodies in order to isolate rogue nations
and rogue states," Schakowsky said in an appearance on Crossfire on
CNN (March 12, 2003, on-line). "And just to say, 'It's my way or the
highway,' or 'If the United Nations won't rubber-stamp what we believe
is right, then good-bye, Charlie,' that is ridiculous. . . . The
United States itself is becoming isolated, and unless we decide we're
going to be the policemen everywhere and go in guns blazing . . . then
I think we need to be helping to strengthen the United Nations." She
said that while the president was not obligated to seek the U.N.'s
permission to go to war if U.S. security was at stake, Iraq did not
present an imminent threat to America. She later co-sponsored a
resolution calling for an independent commission to investigate the
intelligence used to justify the preemptive attack against Iraq,
where, as of mid-2004, no weapons of mass destruction had been found.
In October 2003 Schakowsky voted
against giving an additional $87 billion for the occupation of Iraq,
pointing out that Congress had authorized $63 billion for the Iraq war
and occupation in April 2003 and arguing that additional money would
not further the security of U.S. troops. She said that the initial
funding would have been enough to support operations in Iraq if the
Bush administration had not given a significant portion of it to
companies that were supposedly rebuilding Iraq but have allegedly been
involved in war profiteering. While Schakowsky did not support the war
initially, she said that the U.S. now has an obligation to maintain a
presence in Iraq until the Middle Eastern country is stabilized.
"Let's do what is right in terms of internationalizing the effort in
Iraq, to bring real peace and democracy there, to, in a reasonable
time bring our troops home. . . . Right now, this administration is
unwisely spending the money, giving it away, war profiteering is going
on," she told Neil Cavuto for Fox News, in an interview available on
CEOWire (October 10, 2003, on-line).
Schakowsky hopes the United States
will playa constructive role in ending violence in another conflict in
the Middle East, that between Israelis and Palestinians. The
congresswoman, who is Jewish, told Eric Martin that she is a Zionist
who supports a two-state solution to the conflict, with Palestinians
given a homeland and with security guaranteed for Israel. She said
that important prerequisites for achieving peace in the region are an
end to violence and terrorism on the part of Palestinians and an end
to the expansion of Israeli settlements. In addition to opposing
President Bush's policy in Iraq, Schakowsky has denounced his tax
policy as being unfairly advantageous to the rich at a time when basic
social needs are not being met. "I'm very concerned with reordering
priorities," she told Nicole Adamson. "It seems to be the priority of
President Bush and the Republican leadership to give tax breaks to the
people who need it least. We need to address unmet needs such as
health care, drug benefits for the elderly, education, and the need
for affordable housing. This is a big issue in our community with the
elderly and families who need a roof over their heads. Also we need to
make social security truly secure. It's these bread and butter,
kitchen table issues that affect most Americans. Also pensions
security needs to be addressed. There is a need for genuine homeland
security where we protect our ports, chemical plants, and nuclear
power plants. There are people trying to hurt and kill us and we have
not done a good job in addressing some glaring problems. Right now all
this is taking a [backseat] to tax cuts for the rich."
While many liberal voters and
political leaders in the U.S. have backed the Green Party, often
complaining that the Democratic Party has moved too far to the
political center, Schakowsky believes that the Democratic Party is
progressives' best hope for enacting change. "My view is that our
future isn't in the Green Party but the Democrats can't dismiss their
arguments and positions," she told the Web site BuzzFlash (February
2001). While she lauded the Green Party's position on environmental
and trade issues, she expressed anger that the third-party
presidential candidacy of the consumer advocate Ralph Nader had drawn
votes away from the Democratic nominee Al Gore in the hotly contested
2000 election. (After the U.S. Supreme Court called a halt to vote
recounts in Florida, Gore--who had won the popular but not the
electoral vote--conceded the election to the Republican George W.
Bush.) "I'm mad at Ralph," she told BuzzFlash. "I think of myself [as]
someone who is an organizer and wants to build a progressive majority.
I don't hold Al Gore and the Democrats blameless. But . . . the
indisputable fact is that without the Nader votes, Gore would be
President." During the 2004 presidential campaign, Schakowsky
initially backed the former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who dropped
out of the race in February.
In a speech at Northwestern
University, in Evanston, Illinois, Schakowsky said that politicians
need aggressive strategies to combat low voter turnout. "People don't
vote, even those who care, because they believe they can't influence
the outcome of public policy issues," she said, as reported by
Jennifer Leopoldt for the Daily Northwestern (May 20, 2002).
"Politicians themselves contribute to the lack of public involvement
by misreading what people want." She said that while many believe that
large financial contributions have more influence on political policy
than does lobbying, "people power still trumps money power every day
of the week." At the same time, she believes Americans must make a
greater effort to influence public policy and that the wealth of
information available on the World Wide Web can help them do so. She
told BuzzFlash, "In my thirty years of organizing, the common things I
would hear at meetings and gatherings are 'I don't know what's going
on' and 'I don't know who to write to.'" With the Internet, she said,
"all that info is a click away. . . . There's no excuse anymore for
people not to be completely wired, literally, into what is going on."
Although she is considered to be
one of the most progressive members of the House of Representatives,
Schakowsky has forged alliances with conservative members of Congress.
"My colleagues, in general, . . . are pretty rigid," Dan Burton, a
Republican from Indiana who has worked with her on children's issues
and open-government initiatives, told Brand. "I think [Schakowsky] is
someone that realizes you have to work together."
Schakowsky has amply demonstrated
her skill as a fund-raiser for her party, having raised, or
contributed from her campaign funds, a total of $1.2 million for the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, with additional funds
going to candidates for statewide races. She has said that the secret
to raising money is dedication; when she ran for Congress in 1998 and
faced two Democrats in the primary race, she called almost every
female law partner in Chicago, asking for support and mentioning that
Illinois's House delegation had no women. "Twenty-five hours a week I
would sit on the phone," she told Brand. "It's not like I'm well
connected. There's no rocket science here--it's just about doing it."
As the chair of Women LEAD, a fund-raising subsidiary of the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that targets female donors
and contributes money to female candidates, she raised approximately
$25 million during the 2000 election cycle. One of her strategies as
head of Women LEAD is to recruit more minority women as candidates and
to seek the help of Hispanic, African-American, and Asian-American
women in selecting them.
In 2000, in her race against
Republican challenger Dennis Driscoll, Schakowsky was reelected with
76.4 percent of the vote; she spent about $1 million on her campaign,
while Driscoll spent $60,000. She received 70.2 percent of the votes
cast in the 2002 election, spending $864,500 to beat her Republican
opponent, Nicholas Duric, and the Libertarian candidate, Stephanie
Sailor. Although there was speculation that Schakowsky would run for
the Senate against Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald in 2004, she
ultimately decided against it, and has backed Barack Obama, a lawyer
and senator in the Illinois General Assembly, in the race.
Schakowsky was named Rookie of the
Year by the Illinois Environmental Council in 1991 and Outstanding
Legislator by the Interfaith Council for the Homeless in 1993. She has
been named Legislator of the Year by many organizations, including the
Community Action Association (1991), the Champaign County Health Care
Association (1992), the Illinois Nurses Association (1992), the
Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (1993), the Illinois Council
of Senior Citizens (1993), and the Illinois Association of Community
Mental Health Agencies (1994). She is a member of the American Civil
Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women, the National
Council of Jewish Women, the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance, the Midwest
Governing Council of the Jewish Congress, the Labor Union UNITE!, the
Evanston Mental Health Association, the Evanston Historical Society,
Evanston Friends of the Library, and the Rogers Park Historical
Society. She is also on the advisory council of the board of directors
of Palliative Care Center of the North Shore. The congresswoman
married Harvey E. Schakowsky in 1965; the couple divorced in 1980
after having a son, Ian, and a daughter, Mary. From her 1980 marriage
to Robert Creamer, she has a stepdaughter, Lauren. She has four
grandchildren. She and her husband live in Evanston, Illinois. In her
spare time she enjoys traveling, horseback riding, and reading.
SUGGESTED READING:
BuzzFlash (on-line) Feb. 2001; Hill p10 May 14, 2003;
house.gov/schakowsky; Northwestern Chronicle (on-line) Nov. 1, 2002
 |
