Anna Eshoo

Early life, education, and business career

Anna Eshoo was born in New Britain, Connecticut, of Assyrian and Armenian heritage. Her mother fled from Armenia to Iraq, and subsequently to the United States. Her father, Fred Georges, a jeweler and watchmaker, was an Assyrian Christian. She is a Chaldean Catholic.

Eshoo is the oldest of three children. She has a brother, Frederick Kenneth Georges, and a sister, Veronica May Georges.

She earned an Associate of Arts degree in English from Cañada College in 1975. She worked for the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) between 1963 and 1966 and for Arcata National Corporation between 1966 and 1970.

Early political career

She was Chair of the San Mateo Democratic Party between 1978 and 1982. She was also a member of the Democratic National Committee in the 1980s. She was Chief-of-Staff to Speaker pro tempore Leo McCarthy of the California State Assembly between 1981 and 1982. She was elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in 1982 and served until 1992. She was president of the board in 1986.

Elections

In the middle of Eshoo's second term on the San Mateo Board of Supervisors, she ran for Congress in California's 12th congressional district. She won the Democratic primary with a plurality of 43%, but lost the general election to Republican Stanford law professor Tom Campbell, 51–46%.

Campbell gave up his congressional seat to make an unsuccessful bid for the United States Senate, and Eshoo entered the Democratic primary for the open seat, which had been renumbered as the 14th District. She won the seven-way primary with a plurality of 40%. In the general election, she defeated Republican nominee Tom Huening, 57–39%.

She survived the Republican Revolution, winning re-election with 61% of the vote.

During this period she never won re-election with less than 65% of the vote.

She won re-election against Republican Ronny Santana 70–22%.

She won re-election against Republican Dave Chapman 69–28%.

After redistricting, Eshoo ran for and won re-election in California's 18th congressional district based in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties.

After a bitter race that brought to the fore some dissatisfaction over party leadership, Eshoo lost a party vote for the Democrat who will serve as ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Nancy Pelosi had said Eshoo's elevation to the top Democratic spot on that committee would be important for the Democrats, allowing Eshoo "to tap into lucrative fundraising interests in Silicon Valley and elsewhere that the committee has jurisdiction."

She won re-election against Republican Richard Fox 71–28%.

Tenure

In 2003, Eshoo was elected by her Democratic colleagues in the 108th Congress as an At-Large Democratic Whip, and she has served in that position to the present.

On January 30, 2008, Rep. Eshoo formally endorsed U.S. Senator Barack Obama for President.

Energy

In 2005, Eshoo worked with Nancy Pelosi to develop the Democratic Innovation Agenda, which calls for America to achieve independence from Middle East oil over the next ten years. She has led efforts to raise fuel standards for automakers, and pursued reliance on alternative energy sources both in California and nationally. Legislation includes:

Click here to download a copy of Eshoo's floor statement on H.R. 3321, the New Direction for Energy Independence Act.

Human rights

Eshoo is a strong supporter of the gay rights movement. In 1992 when a gay bashing mailer was directed at Supervisor Tom Nolan (the first openly gay supervisor in San Mateo and her opponent for her congressional seat) Eshoo stood fast in defending him, his record and years of service. She opposed the Marriage Protection Amendment and the Marriage Protection Act. Her website says the bill is "discriminatory, singling out for the first time a minority to prevent their interests from being considered by the highest courts in the land."

As one of just two Assyrian members of Congress, Eshoo has worked hard to protect indigenous Assyrian Christians in Iraq from continuing religious persecution and political exclusion. She authored an amendment to H.R. 2601, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, requesting that "special attention should be paid to the welfare of Chaldo-Assyrians and other indigenous Christians in Iraq."

Rep. Eshoo has been a strong supporter of the Congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. She also supports closer ties between Armenia and the U.S.

Rep. Eshoo has fought strongly against certain provisions of the Patriot Act, particularly Section 215 (Access to Business Records), which gives federal investigators the right to obtain any tangible business record without obtaining a subpoena.

Rep. Eshoo also introduced "Kevin's Law," which would have given the U.S. Department of Agriculture the power to close down plants that produce contaminated meat.

As an Assyrian and Armenian American, Rep. Eshoo is co-chair and co-founder of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus. She also serves on the Board of Advisors of THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy, a freedom of religion organization.

Immigration

Rep. Eshoo has worked to create a legal "pathway to citizenship" for foreign workers of all kinds, from doctors and computer programmers to migrant farm workers. She has voted to increase the annual cap on H-1B visas to allow more temporary foreign professionals to work in the United States (especially those with Master's Degrees or higher).

In her state of California, where as much as 90% of the agricultural workforce is composed of illegal immigrants, Rep. Eshoo cosponsored H.R. 371, the Agricultural Jobs Act, which would confer blue card status on illegal immigrants who had worked an agricultural job in the United States for 150 days or more. This bill never became law.

National security

On July 29, 2015, Eshoo co-introduced H.R. 3299, the Strengthening Public Health Emergency Response Act of 2015, which would streamline government decisions and provide incentives for vaccines and treatment of dangerous pathogens and diseases. Eshoo co-sponsored the legislation along with lead sponsor Rep. Susan Brooks in response to a report released in October 2015 by the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.

Other legislation includes:

Technology

In November 2005, Rep. Eshoo led the House Democratic Caucus in introducing the "Innovation Agenda." Representative Eshoo developed this comprehensive policy in conjunction with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and others after extensive consultation with Silicon Valley and tech leaders around the country, venture capitalists, and scholars.

She authored two bills authorizing electronic signatures which became law, The Government Paperwork Elimination Act of 1998 (GPEA) and ESIGN. She also introduced controversial legislation to help alleviate the proliferation of unsolicited email, known as spam. The U.S. House of Representatives passed The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (S. 877), which authorizes a “Do Not Spam” list, regulates commercial email, and imposes fines on spammers. Eshoo authored the Consumer Internet Privacy Enhancement Act of 2001 (H.R. 237), created a program to provide discounts to schools and libraries for Internet access, and authored the Computer Donation Incentive Act.

Rep. Eshoo introduced HR 2428, the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2009. The bill would require new federal road projects to include plastic conduits buried along the side of the roadway, and enough of them to "accommodate multiple broadband providers." "According to industry experts, more than half of the cost of new broadband deployment is attributable to the expense of tearing up and repaving roads," said Rep. Eshoo. "By putting the broadband conduit in place while the ground beneath the roadways is exposed, we will enable any authorized communications provider to come in later and install fiber-optic cable at far less cost." The bill is supported by Google.

Together with Rep. Edward Markey Eshoo introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009, which would make Net Neutrality the law.

Rep. Eshoo currently serves as co-chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus, a bipartisan group of over 150 members of the House and Senate working to educate their colleagues about the promise and potential of the Internet.

Eshoo supported the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2013 (H.R. 3675; 113th Congress), a bill that would make a number of changes to procedures that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) follows in its rulemaking processes. The FCC would have to act in a more transparent way as a result of this bill, forced to accept public input about regulations. Eshoo expected Senate support for the bill, saying that they "shouldn't find it menacing" and arguing that the bill "is about the functioning of the FCC in the 21st century."

Youth

Eshoo created student advisory boards in 1993 consisting of youth from her congressional district, who advise her on policies and make recommendations, and are located in Palo Alto, San Mateo and Santa Cruz. The students attend biweekly meetings and choose one topic to focus on each year. Past topics have included health care, the crisis in Darfur, medicine, voter reform, foreign affairs, and the media. Eshoo also hosts a congressional arts competition, which students can apply to win.

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Personal life

She was married to attorney George Eshoo and is now divorced, with two children, Karen and Paul. She now resides in Atherton, California.

Organizations

Awards and honors