Biography
William L. "Bill" Jenkins (R-TN) was sworn in as a new member of the United States House of Representatives from the First District of Tennessee on January 7, 1997. He has now represented the First Congressional District of Tennessee in the 105th through the 109th Congresses. Jenkins, a seventh-generation Tennessean, previously worked as a family farmer and attorney in his hometown of Rogersville prior to his
service, beginning in 1990, as a Circuit Court Judge for Tennessee's Third Judicial District. He resigned his judicial position on May 10, 1996, to enter the First District Congressional race to replace the retired 17-term Congressman, James H. Quillen.
Beginning his career at age 25 as a member of the Tennessee General Assembly, Jenkins served as State Representative for Hawkins, Hancock, and Grainger counties. In 1969, Jenkins
served as Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives. To this day, he holds the distinction of being the only Republican to hold that office in this century.
Jenkins owns and operates a family farm with beef cattle and burley tobacco. A strong advocate for economic development and protection of our natural resources, Jenkins is a former Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Conservation and served as a policy advisor on energy and legislative issues to former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander. In 1971, Jenkins was appointed by President Richard Nixon to serve as one of the three members of the Tennessee Valley Authority's board of directors. He also formerly served as a director of Home Federal Savings and Loan of Upper East Tennessee.
Jenkins is married to the former Kathryn Myers, who taught at Cherokee Comprehensive High School in Hawkins County. They have four children and
eleven grandchildren. Educated in the Rogersville and Hawkins County public school systems, Bill Jenkins earned degrees from Tennessee Tech University and the University of Tennessee College of Law before serving on active duty as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Military Police Corps.
Jenkins is a member of the First Baptist Church of Rogersville, the Hawkins County Farm Bureau, the American Legion, Overton Masonic Lodge #5, the Tennessee Conservation League, and the Tennessee Bar Association. He is past chairman of the Tennessee Heart Association, past district chairman of the Cancer Crusade, and past chairman of the Hawkins County Community Chest. His favorite hobbies are hunting and fishing.
Jenkins now serves his fifth term in Congress as a member of the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Agriculture. He serves on the Subcommittee on the Constitution and the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property of the Judiciary Committee, as well as the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management; and the Subcommittee on Specialty Crops and Foreign Agriculture Programs of the Agriculture Committee. In 2003, Jenkins was named Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Specialty Crops and Foreign Agriculture Programs.
