Adam Schiff

Adam Schiff is the Democratic representative of California's 29th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, a seat he has held since January 2001.http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001150 He was re-elected to serve a sixth term in the 2010 midterm election, defeating his Republican opponent John Colbert with 65 percent of the vote.http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/results/california

Schiff serves on several committees and subcommittees in the House. He is a member of the Appropriations Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The subcommittees on which he serves include the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies; the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property; the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government; and the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs.http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=9489

Schiff was born in Framingham, Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 1982 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985.http://www.schiff4congress.com/main/?page_id=2 Starting in 1987, Schiff spent six years working as a criminal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, where he prosecuted the first FBI agent to be indicted for espionage.http://schiff.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=2§iontree=2 In 1996, he won a seat in the California State Senate.http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001150 During his four-year term as a state senator, Schiff chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Juvenile Justice and the Joint Committee on the Arts.http://schiff.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=2§iontree=2

As a state senator, Schiff led efforts to overhaul child support, pass a patient's bill of rights, and guarantee access to the latest textbooks in classrooms.http://schiff.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=2§iontree=2 Key issues for Schiff during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives have been improving national security and ensuring the health, safety and education of children.http://www.schiff4congress.com/main/?page_id=2 Schiff co-founded the Democratic Study Group on National Security in 2003, which has hosted speakers on topics ranging from missile defense to postwar planning.http://schiff.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=2§iontree=2 Additionally, Schiff co-founded the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press in 2006, which promotes free press around the world by condemning media censorship and the persecution of journalists.http://schiff.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=2§iontree=2