Representative Bob Filner
Bob Filner brings experience as a local official, educator, community leader, and neighborhood activist to Washington as the U.S. Representative from California's 51st Congressional District. The 51st District encompasses the southern portion of the City of San Diego and includes the South Bay cities of Chula Vista and National City, and all of Imperial County. One of the most ethnically diverse in the nation, the 51st District's population is 55 percent Latino, 15 percent Anglo, 15 percent Filipino, and 15 percent African American.
Congressman Filner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 4, 1942 and was raised in New York City. He is married to Jane Merrill and has two children - a daughter Erin who lives in New York and son Adam who lives in San Diego with his wife Kim and their children, Madeline and Joseph.
Bob earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Cornell University (1963), a master's degree in history from the University of Delaware (1969) and a doctorate in the history of science from Cornell University (1973). He is one of only a handful of members of Congress with a scientific degree and one of only 22 members in the House of Representatives holding a Ph.D.
While in college, Bob became active in the struggle for civil rights. In 1961, he joined the first Freedom Rides and was arrested and imprisoned for several months in Mississippi. His case was one that went to the Supreme Court and served as a basis for the overturn of unjust segregation laws.
A history professor at San Diego State University for more than 20 years, Bob was active in several San Diego community issues, including housing, job development, education, environmental protection, and civil rights.
In 1975, he was selected as a congressional fellow by the American Political Science Association and served as a legislative assistant to Senator Hubert Humphrey and Congressman Don Fraser.
Bob's first elected office was as a San Diego school board member where he served from 1979-1983. His opposition to the closing of neighborhood schools led to his being drafted as a candidate for the San Diego school board. Strong community support propelled him to a victory over a long-time incumbent. Bob's "back to basics" approach made school administrators more accountable, slashed millions of dollars in bureaucratic waste, improved test scores, and made homework mandatory.
Although Bob was the only democrat on the board, his colleagues elected him board president in 1982. During his tenure, he conducted a national search for a superintendent that resulted in the hiring of Tom Payzant, who went on to serve as U.S. assistant secretary of education for primary and secondary education.
Bob served on the San Diego City Council from 1987-1992. He won re-election in 1991 with more than 70 percent of the vote, and that same year he was elected by the council to serve as deputy mayor of the City of San Diego. Bob created the city's first Economic Conversion Committee and wrote the city's Economic Conversion Plan. He also found creative ways to fight neighborhood crime, including the introduction of Police Walking Patrols and a Citizen Graffiti Patrol.
Bob was elected to the United States House of Representatives by a 2-to-1 margin in 1992. He was immediately named to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Now in his eighth term in Congress, and re-elected by overwhelming margins in each election, Bob has continued to demonstrate that the confidence of this diverse community is well-deserved.
He became one of a handful of freshmen legislators to get legislation passed - in his case, a critical bill amending the Clean Water Act to allow San Diego to save billions of dollars while meeting environmental standards. He also successfully inserted language in the Transportation Appropriations bill that terminated the study of an unwanted international airport in his district.
In early 2007, Bob was elected to be chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. In that capacity, he has continued as a tireless leader for veterans, winning the praise of thousands of individual veterans and high accolades from national veterans' organizations. Currently, Bob is fighting hard to provide the quality health care and benefits that our veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan desperately need and deserve. He successfully fought to include, in the 2007/2008 budgets, $13 billion more for veterans' services. In response to the large number of returning veterans with mental health concerns, he led a recent committee hearing to focus on stopping suicide, ending homelessness, and other mental health challenges within the Department of Veterans' Affairs." His advocacy was critical to the opening of a 400-bed California veterans home in Chula Vista.
Through his committee work, Bob introduced legislation seeking to restore promised benefits to Filipino veterans of World War II, which were rescinded by the 1946 Congress. As a result, more Filipino veterans are receiving benefits, including access to the VA healthcare system for Filipino veterans who reside in the United States. But Bob will not rest until all the Filipino veterans get full equity and the benefits to which they are entitled, and his bill to do that has been passed by both the Senate and the House VA committees.
At the beginning of the 110th Congress, Bob, a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was appointed to serve on three transportation subcommittees: Aviation, Highways and Transit, and Water Resources and Environment, and played an integral role in the passage of Federal Aviation Administration and water resources legislation.
Bob has been successful in meeting many needs of his 51st District, including passing legislation that restored funds to construct an international sewage treatment plant to treat raw sewage flowing into the United States from Mexico, securing funding for State Route 905, and winning funding and public and private support for the re-opening of the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railroad (the "Jobs Train"). With his identity theft legislation, Bob led the charge to change the IRS practice of printing taxpayers Social Security Numbers on the mailing labels of tax booklets, an invitation to identity theft. He also fought to prohibit insurance companies from dropping their policies with churches and other houses of worship due to fear of arson, and availing more mobile home owners of federal housing assistance. He is working to bring a secondary waste water treatment plant to fruition in Mexico. He also fought for passage of legislation to clean up and move a huge uranium tailings pile in Moab, Utah that was polluting the Colorado River, San Diego County's main water source.
The San Diego-Imperial Valley region is uniquely positioned in relation to the merging markets of Mexico and the Pacific. As a member of Congress, Bob Filner has worked hard to enhance those advantages and to open the doors to new opportunities for area residents. In addition to funding for State Route 905, Bob has worked to get millions of dollars for border infrastructure investments. His work on U.S.-Mexico relations led President Bill Clinton to ask Bob to join him on an international mission to meet with former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. More recently, he has worked with former President Vicente Fox and current President Felipe Calderon to stimulate increased cooperation and collaboration between our two nations.
Concerned about long waits at border crossings and the impact they were having on local economies, Bob fought to get 1,000 additional inspectors for the INS. He's working now to ensure that California border crossings get their fair share of those new inspectors. As part of that effort, he's also pushing for better pay and improved working conditions for inspectors and for the adoption of new technologies that will improve both operating efficiency and security.
Bob is also mindful of the needs of the local population at the border and is working with the General Services Administration to develop port of entry reconfiguration plans at the San Ysidro port to and from Mexico.
Looking ahead, Bob Filner continues to focus on the critical junctures where governmental action can make a difference in the lives of the people and the health of the communities in the 51st District. Strengthening the transportation and communications infrastructure of the area continues to be a priority, as does building better international ties. These are both areas in which current investment can have a significant long-term payoff.
Energy production and use is a main issue for the future. Bob responded to the San Diego crisis caused by skyrocketing electricity costs in California with legislation that would have established cost-based wholesale energy rates and would have forced suppliers who charged excessive rates to pay back their ill-gotten profits. He was among the first leaders in San Diego to call for a countywide municipal utility district when the crisis hit in the summer of 2000. He continues to look for ways to create new sources of electrical production in the area, and is a national leader for encouraging the use of renewable energy sources.
In the wake if the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the threat posed by world terrorism, Bob continues to focus on ways in which our communities can become safer and stronger without creating new barriers to economic growth and well-being, and without infringement of our civil liberties.
Long years of service have taught Congressman Filner that there are no easy solutions to the problems facing us. Nor does any one person or any one group have a monopoly on the truth. True progress comes when people work together behind a common agenda to make things better. That's what Bob Filner believes and that’s what Bob Filner does.
