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U.S. Rep. John Tanner has represented Tennessee's 8th Congressional District since 1989. He has become a national leader on budget issues, particularly because of his fight to eliminate the national debt and his advocacy for fiscal responsibility. He also plays a prominent role on issues of agriculture, conservation, health care, national security, education, economic development and the protection of Social Security.
John Tanner was born at the Dyersburg Army Air Base in Halls, Tennessee, and grew up in Obion County. He earned a Bachelor's degree in business administration and a law degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he also played basketball. Rep. Tanner was honorably discharged from the Navy at the rank of Lieutenant. He later retired from the Tennessee Army National Guard at the rank of Colonel. Tanner was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1976 and served there until elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988. He is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Congressman Tanner led the formation of a group of solution-oriented moderate to conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dog Coalition. The Blue Dogs joke that they are "yellow-dog Democrats" who have been squeezed so tightly by those on the far left and the far right that they have turned blue. Tanner is Vice President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the civilian arm of the NATO Alliance.
John lives in Union City with his wife, the former Betty Ann Portis of Huntingdon, Tennessee. They have two children, Elizabeth Tanner Atkins and John Portis Tanner, and two grandchildren, Abby Frances Atkins and Tanner Lantrip Atkins.
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