About Congressman Everett
A biography of Congressman Terry Everett


Congressman Terry Everett, R-Alabama, is becoming a frequently-requested speaker and contributor to a number of national publications on the topics of national missile defense and military and civilian space programs, and the dependence upon America's increasingly vital space assets.

In July 2005, he was invited to speak on the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile to an elite group of technical experts and policy makers at the Nuclear Strategy Forum in Arlington, Virginia.

In April 2005, Everett spoke on the status of America's anti-missile systems to some 2,000 military and space industry officials at a missile defense conference in Washington, DC. He also addressed an E-Parliament Conference on Space Security in Washington in September.

As Ranking Member of the House Armed Services subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Congressman Everett is tasked with leading the first national debate on space control and the protection of valuable space assets. The United States depends greatly on activities conducted hundreds and thousands of miles in orbit through constellations of satellites and their ground stations back on earth. Yet, for all their sophistication, these cutting-edge systems which make our lives much easier and our country safer are also vulnerable to enemy attack.

Congressman Everett recognizes this threat and seeks to take action to prevent chaos at home and on the high-tech battlefield. Our military, especially our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, depend on space every moment of the day. Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites guide munitions, aircraft and vehicles through the theater of battle. Other satellite systems enable our war fighters with real-time communications, intelligence, and weather monitoring capabilities. Our space assets provide national policy makers critical intelligence necessary for ensuring compliance with arms control treaties, tracking weapons proliferation activities, and monitoring disaster relief operations.

America is not only dependant upon satellite technology for national defense, but it also underpins our economy. Like never before, communication technology is essential to business and our society as a whole. From the global Internet, to cell phones and pagers for business and personal communication, to mass media delivery, to agriculture crop monitoring, satellite technology is essential. If our satellites were made inoperative, economic chaos would ensue.

Steadily gaining in seniority, Everett currently holds a seat on three key House committees giving Southeast Alabama a strong voice in matters which directly affect our region: Armed Services, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Agriculture.

As Ranking Member of the Strategic Forces subcommittee on Armed Services, Everett oversees an approximate $60 billion annual budget that includes our nation's military space programs, missile defense, and defense-related energy research. The nation's growing missile defense system and military satellites fall under his oversight. Our military's Space-Based Radar and Global Positioning Systems, as well as military communications and weather satellites are under the jurisdiction of Congressman Everett's subcommittee. Research and development of the country's missile defense program, including the Airborne Laser, Kinetic Energy Interceptor, and the current ground-based anti-missile systems in California and Alaska are under Chairman Everett's oversight.

On the House Armed Services Committee, Everett is able to watch over the operations and infrastructure needs at Montgomery's Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, home of Air University, and the Wiregrass area's Fort Rucker, home of the Army's Aviation Warfighting Center. On Armed Services, he is Ranking Member of Strategic Forces Subcommittee and is a member of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces.

After the September 11 attacks by terrorists on the World Trade Center, President Bush announced the war against terrorism would be largely based on our abilities to gather, process, and understand intelligence. In January 2002, after careful consideration, House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert appointed Terry Everett to fill a vacancy on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Agriculture is Alabama's largest industry. Accordingly, Everett a member of the Subcommittee on Specialty Crops, Rural Development and Foreign Agriculture programs, and a member of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research. He also serves as a co-chair of the House Congressional Peanut Caucus.

The son of an Alabama sharecropper and railroad foreman, Terry Everett has known hard work almost from the time of his birth on February 15, 1937, in Dothan, Alabama. He, his two brothers, and sister lost their parents at an early age.

On leaving the Air Force in 1959 where he served as an intelligence specialist in Europe, Terry Everett began his career at The Dothan Eagle as a farm and police beat reporter. For three decades he steadily climbed the ladder of the newspaper business serving as an editor, publisher, and finally the owner of a chain of newspapers in the Southeast. In 1988, he sold most of his newspaper holdings.

He has served as president and chairman of the board of the Alabama Press Association, he is a past chairman of the board of directors of the former Dothan Federal Savings Bank and he owns 400 acres of working farmland. He has also owned his own home-building firm. Terry knows what it means to make a payroll and to run a small business.

He began his 1992 race for Congress as a virtual unknown and ended it by defeating a man with the most famous name in Alabama politics, then State Treasurer George Wallace, Jr., son of the former governor and presidential candidate. He is currently serving his eighth term in the US House.

He and his wife, Barbara, make their home near Dothan, in Rehobeth, Alabama. They are members of the First Baptist Church of Enterprise.