Meet Bart

(To download Bart's one page biography, click here.)

As the dean of the Tennessee delegation, Bart Gordon is currently serving his 12th term in Congress, representing the Sixth District, which includes 15 Middle Tennessee counties.

Philosophically, Bart has always believed in a bipartisan approach to governing. He believes reasonable people can work together to make the important choices necessary to bring opportunity to all Americans.

At the start of the 110th Congress, Bart became Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee. He previously served as the Ranking Member of the full committee (2003-2006), its Technology Subcommittee (1995-96) and its Space Subcommittee (1997-2002).

Bart has led efforts to foster U.S. economic competitiveness. His legislation to improve math and science education and reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign energy became law in August 2007. The COMPETES Act implements key recommendations for scientific research and education from the National Academy of Sciences report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm. The legislation addresses the problem of out-of-field teachers by attracting more math and science majors to the teaching profession and helps to provide summer academies for current teachers to improve content knowledge.

The COMPETES Act establishes the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the U.S. Department of Energy to focus on high-risk, high reward energy research that would help to reduce the nations’ dependence on foreign energy. ARPA-E would be modeled after the U.S. Department of Defense’s successful DARPA program, which gave rise to the Internet and stealth aircraft technology.

Bart has been at the forefront of encouraging energy efficiency and conservation. He has authored legislation to ensure that federal buildings are meeting energy efficiency goals and a bill to make it easier for consumers to access alternative fuels like E85 ethanol and biodiesel.

Bart authored legislation to establish methamphetamine health-based clean-up guidelines within the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Environmental Protection Agency. His work to stem the scourge of “meth” seeks to protect unsuspecting families from the dangers of illegal labs in their communities, and provide needed tools for local law enforcement to detect toxic hazards often hidden from plain sight. The legislation was signed into law by the president in December 2007.

Bart has been active on issues related to NASA, including leading the call for an independent investigation of the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. He has pushed the agency on its financial management and cost estimating practices, pressed NASA to address its workforce and infrastructure needs in a credible fashion, and worked to ensure that NASA maintains a robust and balanced set of programs in science, aeronautics and human space flight.

In addition to his position as Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, Congressman Gordon also serves on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. He serves on two subcommittees in Energy and Commerce – Health, and Telecommunications and the Internet.

In 2004, Bart’s teen suicide prevention measure, the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, became law. The legislation established a grant program designed to help states and local organizations bolster their intervention and prevention programs.

Bart’s Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act also was passed into law in 2004. It prohibits sports agents from bribing or misleading student-athletes into signing away their eligibility to play college sports.

In 1990, Bart initiated a wide-ranging investigation into the federal student aid system. He authored and helped pass a number of far-reaching reforms that saved taxpayers more than $6 billion and made financial aid more accessible to low- and middle-income students. Furthermore, Congress passed Bart’s proposal to ban awarding Pell Grants to prison inmates, which cost taxpayers between $70 million to $200 million a year and took money away from traditional students.

One of Bart’s highest priorities is making sure parents have the tools they need to control the information their children can access through TV, by telephone and on the Internet. Bart authored legislation protecting citizens from fraudulent 1-900 and 1-800 telephone numbers.

Bart was the first member of the Tennessee congressional delegation to oppose a temporary waste dump for the nation’s nuclear waste to be located in Tennessee. He has stood up to four presidents who wanted to place a nuclear waste storage site in Tennessee and continues to fight proposals to put nuclear waste in Tennessee.

Educated in Rutherford County public schools, Bart graduated with honors from Middle Tennessee State University in 1971. He served in the Army Reserves from 1971-1972 and received an honorable discharge in 1972. Bart went on to receive his law degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The Murfreesboro lawmaker is married to Leslie Peyton Gordon, and the two have a daughter, Peyton Margaret Gordon.