Sensenbrenner
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Jim Sensenbrenner
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 5th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1979
Preceded by	Tom Barrett
Born	June 14, 1943 (1943-06-14) (age 65) Chicago, Illinois
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Cheryl Warren Sensenbrenner
Children	Frank Sensenbrenner Bob Sensenbrenner
Residence	Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
Alma mater	Stanford University, University of Wisconsin
Occupation	attorney
Religion	Episcopalian

Frank James (Jim) Sensenbrenner, Jr. (born June 14, 1943) is an American politician who has been a member of the Republican Party in the United States House of Representatives since 1979, representing Wisconsin's 5th congressional district (map). The district, the state's richest, includes most of Milwaukee's suburbs, including Waukesha, West Bend, Brookfield, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin, Menomonee Falls and Wauwatosa. It was numbered as the 9th District until 2003. He has been unwavering in his support of the Bush administration's War on Terror.

He is the former Chairman of the House Science Committee and the former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; with the Republican loss of control of the House he finished his 6-year term as Chairman, and was not able to be chosen as the Judiciary Committee's ranking minority member (that honor went to Lamar S. Smith of Texas).¹

Background

Sensenbrenner was born in Chicago, Illinois, into a wealthy family. He was raised in Shorewood, Wisconsin, and attended the private Milwaukee Country Day School, from which he graduated in 1961. He matriculated at Stanford University and graduated with a B.A. in Political Science in 1965. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1968.

In 1977, Sensenbrenner married Cheryl Warren, daughter of the influential Wisconsin Republican, former state attorney general and U.S. District Court Judge Robert Warren. The couple has two sons, Frank (born 1981), and Bob (born 1984). When not in Washington, Sensenbrenner resides in Menomonee Falls. His family also owns a summer home on Pine Lake near Delafield.

Political career

While at Stanford, Sensenbrenner served as staff assistant to California Congressman J. Arthur Younger. He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1968, the same year he graduated from law school. He was there until 1975, and in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1975 to early 1979. When 9th District Congressman Bob Kasten vacated his seat to run for governor in 1978, Sensenbrenner ran in the election to succeed him, defeating his primary opponent, Susan Engeleiter, by 589 votes.² He was elected in November 1978 and has been reelected 14 more times with no substantive opposition, sometimes running unopposed. His district was renumbered as the 5th after the 2000 census, when Wisconsin lost a district.

In the November 2006 general election, Sensenbrenner faced Democrat Bryan Kennedy, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from Glendale for the second consecutive time,³ and defeated him again.⁴

Legislative record and stance on issues

In 1998, Sensenbrenner had an important role in the impeachment of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, acting as one of the House managers.

Sensenbrenner introduced the USA PATRIOT Act to the House on October 23, 2001. Sensenbrenner did not write the USA PATRIOT Act; the primary author was Assistant Attorney General of the United States Viet Dinh. In November 2004, Sensenbrenner and California Congressman Duncan Hunter objected to provisions of a bill that, among other things, created a Director of National Intelligence, a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission.

In 2005, Sensenbrenner authored the Real ID Act, which requires additional scrutiny of citizenship before issuing drivers' licenses and creates a federal database of state-issued identification. He attached the controversial act as a rider on military spending bill HR418. Subsequently, it was passed by the Senate without debate.⁵

Sensenbrenner believes in criminal prosecution of broadcasters and cable operators who violate decency standards as opposed to the current FCC regulatory methods.⁶

On June 17, 2005, Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, abruptly ended a meeting where Republicans and Democrats were supposed to be debating the renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act and walked out in response to Democratic members raising issues regarding human rights violations at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay and the ongoing Iraq war. He ordered the court reporter to halt transcriptions of the proceedings, C-SPAN cameras covering the meeting be shut off, and that discussion on the issue be halted. Sensenbrenner defended his actions by claiming that the Democrats and witnesses had repeatedly violated House Rules in discussing issues he believed to be unrelated to the subject of the meeting.⁷ His abrupt walkout was contrary to House parliamentary procedure, which is to adjourn either on motion or without objection. Political journalist Matt Taibbi described the incident in a profile of the 109th Congress published around Oct. 2006: "Last year, Sensenbrenner became apoplectic when Democrats who wanted to hold a hearing on the Patriot Act invoked a little-known rule that required him to let them have one. "Naturally, he scheduled it for something like 9 a.m. on a Friday when Congress wasn't in session, hoping that no one would show," recalls a Democratic staffer who attended the hearing. "But we got a pretty good turnout anyway." Sensenbrenner kept trying to gavel the hearing to a close, but Democrats again pointed to the rules, which said they had a certain amount of time to examine their witnesses. When they refused to stop the proceedings, the chairman did something unprecedented: He simply picked up his gavel and walked out. "He was like a kid at the playground," the staffer says. And just in case anyone missed the point, Sensenbrenner shut off the lights and cut the microphones on his way out of the room. Commenting on Sensenbrenner's actions, Jon Stewart remarked on the Daily Show, "Oh my God, he literally took his gavel and went home; we are officially being governed by children."

Sensenbrenner was the main sponsor of H.R. 4437, a bill passed by the House in 2005 that would provide additional criminal penalties for aiding and abetting illegal immigration.⁸

On September 8, 2005, Sensenbrenner voted against a bill to provide $50 billion in emergency aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.⁹ The bill passed and was signed into law by President George W. Bush.

On December 16, 2005, Sensenbrenner introduced the Digital Transition Content Security Act.

In 2006, it was reported that Sensenbrenner would help lead the effort to pass the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006, which is supported by large copyright holders and opposed by fair use activists.¹⁰

Sensenbrenner receives high marks from the National Taxpayers Union, an anti-tax non-profit organization.¹¹

In 2006, Sensenbrenner joined with House Speaker Dennis Hastert in expressing outrage concerning the FBI raid of the congressional office of Democratic Representative William J. Jefferson, asserting constitutional concerns over separation of powers. He held Judiciary Committee hearings in May 2006 on this issue. Many Republican and conservative pundits, including Rush Limbaugh, took a dim view of this stance, deeming it politically damaging to the Republican Party, and a June 1, 2006, ABC news poll found 86% of Americans supported the right of the FBI to search a congressional office when they obtain a warrant.

In Fall of 2006, The Animal Fighting Prohibition Act bill unanimously passed the Senate, but Sensenbrenner used his position to block final House consideration of the legislation, even though the bill had 324 cosponsors. The Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act, S. 382 and H.R. 817, creates felony-level penalties for animal fighting activities.

In Fall of 2006, H.R. 552 The Right to Life Act had hearings scheduled for December 12, 2006, at 10 am, but Sensenbrenner canceled them right before the House adjourned on December 9 at 3:17am.¹² The purpose of H.R. 552 is to "implement equal protection ... for the right to life of each born and preborn human person." In the 109th Congress, the legislation collected 101 cosponsors.¹³

In 2006, Sensenbrenner was rated the second-worst member of the House by Rolling Stone magazine and dubbed "the dictator".¹⁴

Electoral history

See also: United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, 2008

Other

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2007)

• Sensenbrenner has a net worth of about $11.6 million.¹⁵ He has put his money into stocks, detailing his investments down to the penny each year in the Congressional Record.²
• In January 1998, Sensenbrenner won $250,000 on a D.C. Lottery ticket, purchased on December 18, 1997 at Congressional Liquors, the liquor store on Capitol Hill.¹⁶ He won $1,000 in the Wisconsin Lottery in the spring of 2007, and he won another $1,000 in that state's Super 2nd Chance lottery in September, 2007.¹⁷
• Sensenbrenner was the top-ranking House member in terms of travel costs paid by private interests from 2001 to mid-2005.² In 2005, he reported more privately funded travel than any other member of Congress. Between January 2000 and July 2006, he took about $200,000 worth of privately funded travel.¹⁸

• Before his 2006 re-election bid, Sensenbrenner received $492,511 (or 67.5% of his campaign funds) from political action committees (PACs) and $233,903 (32%) from individual contributions. His campaign spent little on his re-election bid.¹⁹ Despite his small spending amount, he was able to win easily and donated $100,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.²⁰
• In March 2005, Sensenbrenner sided firmly with the parents and siblings of the late Terri Schiavo, who fought unsuccessfully in the federal courts to secure home care of their mentally-damaged daughter.
• Sensenbrenner was named the 2006 "Man of the Year" by the conservative publication Human Events because of his opposition to open-borders immigration policies.²¹
• Sensenbrenner was the only Republican to join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Congressional delegation to meet the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India during the March 2008 protests against China by Tibetans.²² While there he said, "In the US Congress, there is no division between Democrats and Republicans on the issue of protecting Tibetan culture and eliminating repression against Tibetans around the world".²³

See also

• Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005

Notes

External links

• Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. official U.S. House site
• Jim Sensenbrenner for Congress official campaign site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• Critique of Sensenbrenner at ThrowTheRascalsOut.org
• Sensenbrenner's opening statement at the Clinton impeachment trial January 14, 1999
• The Worst Congress Ever Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, October 17, 2006