Diana DeGette
Chief Deputy Whip Diana DeGette is serving her seventh term in Congress as representative for the 1st District of Colorado. As vice chair of the powerful Committee on Energy and Commerce, an exclusive congressional committee with vast jurisdiction over health care, trade, business, technology, food safety, and consumer protection, she is one of the leading voices in the health care debate in this country. As lead whip, she played a vital role in the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program, has fought for tough food safety legislation, and was a key player in crafting a comprehensive consumer product safety bill.
Rep. DeGette is also the chief architect of legislation to expand stem cell research, which has been passed twice with broad, bipartisan support in Congress. The measure was vetoed twice by President George W. Bush—including his very first presidential veto. A lifelong Coloradoan, Rep. DeGette is guided by traditional Western values. She's also the author of the landmark Colorado Wilderness Act, which would protect and preserve 1.6 million acres of pristine land across Colorado for generations to come. She has fought to enhance her constituents' access to affordable quality health care, expand mass transit, improve transportation in the Denver area, clean up environmental waste sites, and improve opportunities for small business.
In 2005, Rep. DeGette was promoted to the House Democratic leadership as chief deputy whip. Now in the majority, she works to ensure passage of key pieces of legislation. Steadily rising in the Democratic whip organization since her first term in Congress, Rep. DeGette previously served six years as regional whip and two years as the Democratic floor whip.
Appointed in January 2007 as the vice chair of the powerful Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rep. DeGette serves as the acting chair of the committee in the chairman’s absence, spearheads projects, and assists the chairman in promoting the committee's legislative agenda.
A member of the committee since her first term in Congress, she has used her position to improve health care, expand medical research, reform corporate business and accounting practices, ensure that our homeland is adequately protected, take on global climate change, and move America toward energy independence. She is as a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health; the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations; the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection; and the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.
In January 2009, Rep. DeGette was appointed to the House Natural Resources Committee because of her work on public lands issues. She will use her position on this important committee to preserve wilderness and reverse the Bush administration’s misguided public lands policies. She serves on the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, and the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans, and Wildlife.
Rep. DeGette has become one of Congress’s leading experts on cutting-edge scientific research and is the author of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. This important legislation would overturn former President Bush's draconian restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and reassert the role of the United States as the worldwide leader in medical innovation. It passed the House and Senate in both the 109th and 110th Congresses with broad bipartisan support, but was vetoed by President Bush both times.
In March of 2009, President Barack Obama signed an executive order reversing former President Bush’s restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. Standing next to the president as he signed the order, Rep. DeGette is working with the Obama administration on codifying the order into law.
Rep. DeGette has taken a leading role in advocating for the protection of our nation’s food supply. In light of the daunting food contamination outbreaks, Rep. DeGette believes that the protection of our nation’s food supply should be recognized as a critical component of our national security. She is the author of two key pieces of legislation that go a long way toward securing our nation's food supply.
Rep. DeGette was also a key player in the creation and passage of groundbreaking consumer product safety legislation that was signed into law in 2008. As a member of the conference committee, she fought for a tough lead standard and negotiated the ban on phthalates in the final bill—the Consumer Product Modernization Act of 2008. While speaking on the House floor, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the ranking Republican member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said that Congresswoman DeGette deserved the Henry Kissinger Award for brokering the ban on the dangerous chemical.
As the co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, Rep. DeGette has fought for common-sense family planning and reproductive rights. She is a lead sponsor of the Prevention First agenda, which is a comprehensive, bipartisan approach to reducing unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion.
Rep. DeGette has been featured on a wide spectrum of news outlets, including ABC's "World News with Charlie Gibson" and "Good Morning America," NBC's "Nightly News," CBS's "Evening News," Fox News Channel, MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show", CNBC, and CNN's "Lou Dobbs Reports." Rep. DeGette is also regularly quoted in major newspapers across the nation, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, as well as magazines including Newsweek and Time.
A fourth-generation Coloradoan, Rep. DeGette graduated from Denver’s South High School, received her B.A. magna cum laude from Colorado College in 1979, and her J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1982. She served two terms in the Colorado House of Representatives serving as assistant minority leader from 1993 to 1995.
Rep. DeGette is married to attorney Lino Lipinsky. They have two daughters and a dog named Charlie.
