William Lacy Clay was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 2000 and was chosen as President of the incoming Democratic freshman class.

He currently serves on the Committee on Government Reform and is the ranking minority member on the Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census. He also sits on the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources. On the Financial Services Committee, he serves on the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises and the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity.

Lacy Clay was born in St. Louis on July 27, 1956, but moved to Washington in 1969 when his father, William Clay, Sr., was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives where he served for 32 years. Wm. Lacy Clay graduated from Springbrook High School in Silver Spring, Maryland in 1974 and then worked as the Assistant Doorkeeper in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1976-1983. Also during that time, he attended night school at the University of Maryland and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in government and politics.

Congressman Clay won his first election to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1983. He attended Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and, eight years later, he successfully won a seat in the Missouri Senate where he remained for the following nine years.

During his 17 years in the Missouri House and Senate, Lacy Clay worked tirelessly on behalf of Missouri families, workers, the disabled and the elderly. He sponsored and passed legislation, which ranged from education to health care to civil rights. He passed a bill establishing the Rosa Parks Highway in St. Louis County and another requiring that history teachers include information about the history of the Civil Rights Movement in America in their curriculum.

Near the end of this tenure in the Missouri Senate, he played an instrumental role in bringing an equitable end to the 30-year-old, court-ordered desegregation case in the St. Louis Public Schools.

In 1999, he successfully passed measures that allowed welfare recipients to earn higher wages without losing benefits when making the transition from welfare to work, and he created the Family Development Accounts for low-income families to save money for education, job training, home ownership, home improvement or small business capitalization.

He also established Missouri's hate crime law covering crimes motivated by race or religion, which he eventually expanded to include crimes against individuals because of their sexual orientation, gender, or disability. Additionally, hundreds of young people are receiving job training through YouthBuild, a program enacted under his Youth Opportunities and Violence Prevention Act.

Congressman Clay is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Progressive Caucus and serves on the boards of his father's William L. Clay Scholarship and Research Fund and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.

Congressman Clay and his wife, Ivie Lewellen Clay, have two children; Carol and William III.

Rep. William Clay's Official Website

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