California Senator Barbara Boxer
Her memberships on numerous committees and subcommittees enable her to introduce legislation that will help her constituents. She serves on the Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee, Environment & Public Works Committee, and the Foreign Relations Committee. She is chair of the Superfund, Toxic Risks, & Waste Management Subcommittee as well as the International Operations & Terrorism Subcommittee. She serves as a member on the Communication subcommittee, Consumer Affairs subcommittee, Foreign Commerce & Tourism subcommittee, Oceans & Fisheries subcommittee, Surface Transportation & Merchant Marines subcommittee, Clean Air subcommittee, Transportation, Infrastructure, & Nuclear Safety subcommittee, African Affairs subcommittee, and Near Eastern & Asian Affairs subcommittee (Boxer 2002A).
President Bush gave approval in February 2002 to make the Yucca Mountain Site as a final depository for nuclear waste. However, as Chair of the Superfund, Toxic Risks, and Waste Management Subcommittee Senator Boxer realizes how much of a serious threat this is to the health and safety to those in California especially since such a project could result in groundwater contamination of the regional aquifer in eastern and southern portions of the state. She vows to urge her colleagues in Congress to stop the Yucca Mountain Site Project. (Boxer 2002F)
Senator Boxer is an original cosponsor of the Patients’ Bill of Rights, Senate Bill #6, that was later co-sponsored by thirty-one senators. This bill would allow patients access to needed specialists and emergency rooms as well as guaranteeing a fair appeals process when health plans deny care. It would help protect the doctor-patient relationship and hold HMO’s accountable for their decisions. The HMO Patients’ Bill of Rights that Boxer wrote in 1998 was incorporated into this bill. (Boxer 2002E) The bill would protect consumers in managed care plans and other health coverage by amending the Public Health Service Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. The bill was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on January 22, 2001 (S.6 2001).
Boxer introduced the Family Planning and Choice Protection Act in 1999, Senate Bill #1400. This act shows her commitments in giving women the right to choose, strengthening family planning funding, and increasing funding to protect health care clinics from violence. She supports the use of federal funds to pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest, when the mother’s life is in danger, or when it is medically necessary or appropriate. The bill says that RU-486, the abortion pill, must undergo the same thorough process as any other drug reviewed by the FDA. (Boxer 2002 D).
Boxer also introduced the Children’s Environmental Protection Act, Senate Bill #1112, which would require the EPA to set health and safety standards to protect children and the elderly. The introduction of this act clearly shows that she is committed to both health care and education. Clean air standards are currently set to protect the average 155-pound adult male but standards need to be raised since children breathe more air, eat more food, and drink more water than the average adult. As a result, they are more vulnerable to harmful toxins (Boxer 2002 D). Boxer first introduced the bill to the Senate on May 24, 1999 (S.1112 1999). She reintroduced the bill on May 9, 2001 as Senate Bill #855 since it never emerged from the Senate Environment and Public Works committee the first time even though she is a member of the committee. This bill is an example of the fact that many bills introduced in Congress are stuck in committee. Boxer reintroduced the bill despite a lack of co-sponsors because she feels the bill is necessary (S.855 2001). However, most proposed bills fail to successfully come out of committee and never become law.
Senator Boxer introduced the Resources 2000 act, Senate Bill #446, on February 23, 1999. This bill would use funds from existing offshore oil and gas drilling fees to provide funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Historic Preservation Fund, and for building urban parks and recreational facilities (Boxer 2002C). This bill was sent to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has had four hearings on the bill. There are eleven co-sponsors to the bill (S.446 1999). The bill is identical to the House of Representatives Bill #798 by the same name and both were introduced on the same date. The H.R. 798 bill was referred to four committees and two subcommittees and had 106 co-sponsors. The last major action on the bill occurred in the form of committee hearings being held on March 10, 1999 (H.R.798 1999). The Resources 2000 bill had much more support in the House than in the Senate. Senator Boxer helped introduced Senate Bill #2279 in March 2000, a bill to include Dillonwood Giant Sequoia Grove as part of the Sequoia National Park (S.2279 2000). The bill is similar to the House of Representatives Bill #4020 also titled “Dillonwood Giant Sequoia Grove Park Expansion Act”. H.R. Bill #4020 was voted on by the House under suspension of the rules and then it was sent to the Senate. The Senate amended the bill by creating an amendment with unanimous consent. The House accepted these changes and it was cleared for the White House. The president signed the bill and it became Public Law #106-574 in December 2000 (H.R.4020 2000).
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the Los Angeles Padres National Forest in Big Sur, the Cleveland National Forest near San Diego, and the Tahoe National Forest have all been added to federal land preserves as a result of Senator Boxer’s ability to secure over $231 million of funding. She created a government-owned Presidio Trust in San Francisco to manage over 500 historic buildings and preserve the 1,480 acres that originally were going to be sold. She achieved her goal in receiving $29 million of funding to clean up the New River, $40 million to help Richmond clean up contaminated water in the Bay Area, and $52.5 million for the construction of an international wastewater treatment plant at the San Diego/Tijuana border (Boxer 2002C).
Senator Boxer was awarded the Groundwater Advocate Award on February 22, 2002 by the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority for her efforts in accelerating the cleanup of the contaminated groundwater in the San Gabriel Valley. She helped put pressure on the EPA and companies that are accused of tainting the groundwater drinking supplies with cancer-causing chemicals. A $250 million, 30-year-plus cleanup agreement was reached last month despite several years of unsuccessful negotiations (Rester 2002).
Sudden Oak Syndrome has killed thousands of California’s oak trees and as a result has created fire hazards and threatens homes. Her efforts in fighting this disease enabled her to secure a $1 million commitment from the U.S. Forest Service to combat the disease. Sudden Oak Death Syndrome Control Act of 2001, Senate Bill #997, includes previsions such as providing more than $70 million in funding over the next five years to local, state, and federal agencies to implement fire prevention measures and treatment, conduct research and monitoring, and for outreach concerning Sudden Oak Death Syndrome. (Boxer 2002B) The bill was referred to the Senate Agricultural, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee on June 7, 2001 (S.997 2001).
California’s Central Valley was hurt at the end of 1999 because of a citrus freeze. However, Senator Boxer was able to secure federal assistance by urging President Clinton and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Glickman to “issue disaster declarations in the affected counties”. (http://boxer.senate.gov/issues/agriculture.html, Boxer, 2002B) She testified in support of federal assistance at a joint hearing of the California Senate Committee on Agriculture & Water and the Assembly Committee on Agriculture (Boxer 2002B).
On February 13, 2002, Senator Boxer praised the Senate in passing The Farm Bill, it is now on its way to the House. The Farm Bill includes many previsions to benefit farmers throughout America. Some of these previsions include a new dairy program that establishes payments to California farmers to guarantee a stable daily industry, a prevision that requires the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a plan to ensure the conservation plans are more equitably distributed to California, and increased funding for the Market Access Program. The program is an initiative to help farmers market their specialty crops in the international marketplace and it is crucial to marketing California and U.S. agricultural products worldwide. Because of Senator Boxer’s efforts, annual attempts to cut funding for the program have been defeated (Boxer 2002B).
Even though California is a large state, Senator Barbara Boxer is able to effectively represent all of her constituents on a variety of issues such as health care, environment, public safety, and agricultural issues. Citizens who want to become informed on what goes on in Congress should visit http://thomas.loc.gov and www.c-span.org. Californians who have concerns about their state or federal government should visit Senator Boxer’s website, http://boxer.senate.gov/. In 2004, when voters in California vote for the Senate election, they should vote for Barbara Boxer.
