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COMMITTEES Photo Album ----- Official Photo BIOGRAPHY Born in Rutland, Vermont, on May 11, 1934, James Merrill Jeffords is the son of the late Marion H. Jeffords and the late Olin M. Jeffords, former Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. His father's family settled in northwestern Vermont in 1794. After attending public schools in Rutland, Senator Jeffords received his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1956 and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1962. He served active duty with the U.S. Navy from 1956 to 1959, and retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve as a Captain in 1990. He is married to Elizabeth Daley and has two children, Leonard and Laura. The Jeffords' residence is in Shrewsbury, Vermont. Senator Jeffords has spent 32 years in Congress. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974, he is now serving his third term as a U.S. Senator. Before arriving in Washington, he served as a Vermont State Senator from Rutland in 1967 and 1968, and held his first statewide office as Vermont Attorney General from 1969 to 1973. Throughout his tenure in Congress, Senator Jeffords has championed legislation to strengthen our nation's education system and increase the opportunities for individuals with disabilities. He has left his fingerprints on every piece of education, job training, and disability legislation over the past quarter-century. In 1975, Senator Jeffords, as the ranking member on the subcommittee on select education, co-authored what would later be known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which has provided equal access to education for millions of students with disabilities. Since IDEA's enactment, Senator Jeffords has continued to fight for full federal funding for the law. Senator Jeffords has also been a leading advocate in Congress for environmental protection. He has fought to reduce industrial pollution and acid rain, and as a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee he ensured the passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act. More recently, Senator Jeffords has introduced legislation that would clean up dirty power plants and create incentives for investments in clean, renewable power. Through his leadership on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Jeffords has also worked to improve Vermont's ground transportation system. Last summer, Congress passed a five-year, $286.5 billion highway bill, which Senator Jeffords co-authored. This legislation will increase Vermont's share of total highway dollars by 40 percent. In all, Vermont will receive more than $1 billion over the five-year period, with specific projects included. In addition to creating thousands of jobs throughout Vermont, the highway bill will dramatically improve our state's roads, bridges and rail lines. Senator Jeffords, who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1988, chaired the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee from 2001 to 2002 and currently serves as the Committee’s Ranking Member. He also currently serves as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Special Committee on Aging, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which he chaired from 1997 to 2001. He was one of six founders of the Congressional Solar Coalition, and he served as Chairman of the House Environmental Study Conference from 1978 to 1979. In 1980, then-Congressman Jeffords co-founded the Congressional Arts Caucus and throughout his career he has consistently fought for financial support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services. In addition to his legislative work in the arts, Senator Jeffords has sponsored the Congressional High School Art Competition in Vermont for 25 years. In recognition of his achievements, Senator Jeffords has received many prestigious awards, including being named Legislator of the Year by Parenting magazine in 1999, and in 2002 he received the Sierra Club’s top honor. In 2001, Senator Jeffords left the Republican Party and became an independent. He has been profiled on "60 Minutes" and Dateline NBC, and in The New York Times and The Washington Post. He is the author of My Declaration of Independence (Simon and Schuster, 2001) and An Independent Man: Adventures of a Public Servant (Simon and Schuster, 2003). Jeffords is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Photo Album -----
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