Tom Allen was born in Portland, Maine in 1945. His grandfather served on Portland's first City Council, from 1925 to 1926. Tom's father, Charles, held the same position from 1966 to 1967. Tom's mother, Genevieve, headed the Greater Portland Chapter of the League of Women Voters during the 1960s.

These early influences inspired Tom to pursue a lifetime of public service.

Tom grew up in the same middle class neighborhood of Portland where he now lives. He attended public schools in that city, graduating first in his class from Deering High School, In his senior year, he received the best boy athlete award and was chosen Class President and co-captain of the football team. On the track team, Tom won three state championships in the 440 dash. His relay team set a record for the senior relay and that still stands today.

After high school, Tom attended Bowdoin College, where he continued his commitment to scholarship and involvement in social issues. He graduated in 1967 with honors, including election to Phi Beta Kappa, and was elected president of his class. In his junior year, he attracted statewide attention when he led the Bowdoin chapter of his fraternity, Alpha Kappa Sigma, to resign from the national fraternity because of the national's "unwritten racial membership restrictions," as Tom stated then.

At Bowdoin, athletics continued to play an important part in Tom's life. As he remarked on receiving a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award, "Football taught me quite forcefully that good intentions are not enough in this world. We are judged not by our intentions but by our performance." Tom served as co-captain of the football team and captain of the indoor and outdoor track teams.

As a result of Tom's academic, athletic and leadership achievements at Bowdoin, he was named a Rhodes Scholar, allowing him to attend Oxford University in England, where he studied political science, economics and philosophy for three years. He wrote his thesis on politics in the West African nation of Sierra Leone. After graduation from Oxford in 1970, he and his wife Diana traveled extensively in East Africa.

In the 108th Congress, Tom is a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce and its subcommittees on Energy and Air Quality and Environment and Hazardous Materials. Tom also is a Democratic Whip at Large. In addition, he is co-chair of the Congressional Prescription Drug Task Force, and co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Oceans Caucus.

Since entering Congress in 1997, Tom has focused on issues of particular importance to Maine. These include reforming campaign financing; plugging the loopholes in the Clean Air Act that allow uncontrolled pollution from old, fossil-fueled power plants; ensuring full federal funding of special education; and improving our national defense. He has emerged as a national leader in developing legislation to reduce the price of prescription drugs for older Americans.

Rep. Thomas Allen's Official Website

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Over the past three years, seniors' total spending on prescription drugs has increased by almost 50 percent. (Families USA)