About
Congressman Wolf, the most senior of the 11 members of the House of Representatives from Virginia, is serving in his 17th term in Congress. He represents the 10th District, which stretches from McLean to Winchester.
Congressman Wolf sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, where he is the chairman of the Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee. He also serves on the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development and State and Foreign Operations subcommittees. In addition, he is the co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan organization which works to raise awareness about international human rights issues.
His committee assignments provide him with an ideal position to address the varying needs of the 10th District, which is home to some of the world’s leading defense, aerospace, cybersecurity and high-tech companies, thousands of federal employees and other professionals. Agriculture and manufacturing also are an important part of the 10th District’s economy. Up to half of the Commonwealth’s apples, peaches and grapes are grown in the 10th District; Kraft Foods and Hood Milk have large manufacturing plants in the district. Tourism is important, too. Winchester played an important role in George Washington's early adult life; his military and political career began there. Oak Hill plantation in Loudoun County was the residence of President James Monroe. The country home of Richard Bland, Northern Virginia's first Representative to Congress is in Fairfax County. Civil War battlefields, including Manassas National Battlefield Park, dot the 10th District. The Journey Through Hallowed Ground, which follows Route 15 from Charlottesville to Gettysburg also runs through the 10th District.
Chairing the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee:
From 2001- 2006 and again since 2011, Congressman Wolf has served as the chairman of the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee, which funds the Commerce Department, Justice Department – including FBI, DEA, ATF and U.S. Marshals Service – NASA, National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). From 2001-2006, the subcommittee also had jurisdiction over the State Department, until the new State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee was created in 2007. Congressman Wolf served as ranking member of that new subcommittee from 2007-2009.
Advancing Job Creation Legislation:
Congressman Wolf has used his position as chairman to advance job creation legislation. His bipartisan Bring Jobs Back to America Act was designed to return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. from countries like China. Congressman Wolf included language in the FY 2012, FY 2013 and FY 2014 spending bills to encourage American companies to “re-shore” some of their manufacturing facilities back in the U.S. The legislation also required the Commerce Department to immediately set up a task force to examine what needs to be done to encourage U.S. companies to bring their manufacturing and research and development activities back to America’s shores and directed the development of a new online tool called “Assessing Costs Everywhere” (ACE) to help American companies better understand the hidden costs of offshoring, among other provisions.
Keeping America Competitive:
Congressman Wolf has also focused the subcommittee on ensuring that America remains competitive in the 21st century marketplace. Recognizing that America’s position as the world’s leader in technology and innovation is facing unprecedented challenges from countries like China, he called for -- and succeeded in -- devoting more federal dollars toward basic science research. He also proposed legislation to provide interest-free loans to math, engineering and physical science majors as a way to entice more students into the sciences. The Science Coalition, an alliance of more than 400 organizations, institutions and individuals dedicated to promoting U.S. leadership in the sciences, awarded Congressman Wolf with its prestigious “Champion of Science” award for his efforts.
Addressing Cybersecurity:
Over the last decade, Congressman Wolf has worked to raise awareness of the growing threat from cyberattacks from countries like China, which steal critical information from both the government and the private sector. He has been particularly concerned about cyberattacks on the private sector, which result in the theft of technologies that keep America competitive and create jobs.
Congressman Wolf’s office experienced this threat firsthand: in 2006, his office computers were targeted in a cyberattack from China, which resulted in the theft of information from several office computers. Since that time, Congressman Wolf has worked to raise awareness of this threat within Congress, and with the Executive Branch and private sector.
As subcommittee chairman, Congressman Wolf has provided funding and policy direction to bolster civilian federal agency cybersecurity and support the FBI’s role in addressing cyberattacks. Additionally, he has been leading efforts to raise awareness of the threat of cyberespionage and cyberattacks from state-owned and state-directed Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers.
Fighting Violent Gangs:
During his first tenure as CJS chairman, Congressman Wolf pushed several initiatives, including the formation of the two anti-gang task forces operating in the region. Both the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force and the Northwest Virginia Regional Gang Task Force have made great strides in cracking down on gang-related crimes in the region. The task forces have taken a three-pronged approach to the problem: suppression, prevention and education, knowing that there is more to addressing the situation than just cracking down on violent gang members. Congressman Wolf also pushed for the creation of the National Gang Intelligence Center in the FBI, which allows law enforcement across the country to share information about gangs and gang violence, similar to the way data on organized crime is shared.
Addressing Debt and Deficit through Bipartian Reforms:
Congressman Wolf has long recognized the need to get our nation’s spending under control. Our nation is going broke, and living on borrowed dollars and borrowed time. Recognizing that there is never a convenient time to make hard decisions and that "regular order" in Washington was broken, in 2006 Congressman Wolf started to push for Congress to create a bipartisan blue ribbon panel that would examine all spending, from mandatory entitlement policy (including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending) to discretionary accounts (including defense, transportation, environment and health care spending) to tax policy (including tax earmarks and loopholes). His bipartisan legislation, the Securing America’s Future Economy (SAFE) Commission Act, called for commission members to hold public hearings across the country to hear from the American people and then make a series of recommendations to improve our nation’s fiscal health that Congress would be required to vote on. There would be no avoiding the hard choices. More information regarding Congressman Wolf’s legislation can be found here.
Congressman Wolf’s legislation ultimately became the model for the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, commonly referred to as the Simpson-Bowles Commission. While the commission members produced a credible report that put all spending on the table, it regretfully did not receive the two-thirds of votes necessary to advance it to the Congress for consideration. Congressman Wolf continues to push for a forthright, realistic conversation about our nation’s finances that puts everything on the table – entitlements, tax policy and all other spending programs – for discussion. In 2012, he was one 38 bipartisan members of the House to vote for the bipartisan Cooper-LaTourette substitute amendment to the budget, which was based on the recommendations of the Simpson- Bowles Commission, for which the Concord Coalition and USA Today recognized his efforts.
Improving Transportation:
From 1995-2000, Congressman Wolf served as chairman of the Transportation Appropriations subcommittee. Congressman Wolf has long been recognized for his efforts to improve transportation in northern Virginia. He worked to obtain full funding for the 103-mile Metro rail system. He led the way in obtaining nearly $1 billion in federal funding to extend Metrorail through Tysons and out to Dulles airport and Loudoun County. He pushed to lower car pool restrictions on I-66 inside the Beltway. He secured federal funding help widening I-66 inside and outside the Beltway. He convinced the District of Columbia to set up the reversible lane on the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge during rush hours. He led the effort to improve safety and driving conditions on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, including the additional lane from Spout Run to the Roosevelt Bridge and guardrails on the Potomac River side of the Parkway.
Congressman Wolf also led the effort to place Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International airports under a regional authority, providing the capital to build a new terminal at Reagan National and vastly expand Dulles. The expansion of both airports has helped spur the region's economy over the last decade. In recent years, Congressman Wolf has worked to increase oversight of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, including an extensive audit by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inspector General (IG). He also authored legislation creating a permanent IG for MWAA.
On the national level, he made the issue of truck safety a priority as chairman of the Transportation Appropriations subcommittee and was instrumental in the creation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to oversee the trucking industry. He also worked with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to enact .08 as the national blood alcohol limit for drunk driving.
Protecting Virginia’s Natural and Heritage Areas:
Congressman Wolf has worked to ensure that Virginia’s natural resources and hallowed grounds are protected and preserved, from challenging the placement of power lines to protecting natural resources that can be enjoyed by hikers, fishers, and hunters.
One of the nation’s new national parks is in the 10th District: Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historic Park, established in 2002 through Congressman Wolf’s efforts, serves as a model for future parks because private landowners and organizations will continue to live, work and operate within the park’s borders. Other major tourism draws are the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, Great Falls and the Appalachian Trail.
Congressman Wolf led the effort in Congress to establish the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area. This area ties together all the rich historical and cultural sites along U.S. Route 15 from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville north through Fauquier, Prince William and Loudoun counties to Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.
When cutbacks threatened to close Turkey Run Park in McLean, he worked to establish Claude Moore Colonial Farm at Turkey Run, the only in privately run park in the National Park Service system. Congressman Wolf has also been a strong supporter of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.
Fighting Lyme Disease:
Congressman Wolf has worked to make sure that both visitors to and residents of the 10th district enjoy our natural resources while also being aware that Lyme Disease, a devastating illness transmitted through the bite of a tick, is now endemic to our area.
Supporting Federal Employees:
A longtime advocate for federal employees, Congressman Wolf believes that our nation’s civil servants should be treated with dignity and respect. From pay parity to leave sharing to protecting the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to encouraging telework to allowing the presentation of the U.S. flag at their funeral if killed in the line of duty, Congressman Wolf is keenly aware of how hard federal employees work and the invaluable contributions they make to our country.
Addressing Hunger in the U.S.:
Congressman Wolf has also been a leader on fighting hunger in the U.S. and abroad. He meets regularly with local food banks and food pantries in the 10th District. He sponsored legislation – the School Food Recovery Act – to allow schools to donate unused food to local food pantries under the federal Good Samaritan Act. He helped create the Feds Feed Families food drive, which has generated more than 15 million pounds of donated food from federal employees since it was launched in 2009. Most recently, he successfully had language included in the FY 2014 omnibus spending bill to create the National Commission on Hunger to develop recommendations to encourage public-private partnerships and greater involvement from community and faith-based groups to reduce the need for government nutrition programs while still providing a safety net for the poor. The idea was endorsed by the Alliance to End Hunger, Bread for the World, RESULTS and Feeding America.
Speaking out for the Voiceless:
Congressman Wolf is one of the House's leading advocates for human rights. He believes members of Congress have an obligation to speak out for those who are persecuted around the world. He has traveled to Ethiopia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and other countries in Africa to see firsthand the tremendous suffering due to corrupt governments, war, AIDS and famine. He led the first congressional delegation to Darfur in western Sudan to bring attention to the crisis there, which the U.S. later declared as genocide. He also has worked to call attention to the human rights abuses and religious persecution in the People's Republic of China, Tibet, Romania, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, and the Middle East.
Congressman Wolf serves as co-chair of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus. Over successive administrations, long before the “Arab Spring,” he has sounded the alarm about the worsening plight of religious minorities--notably the ancient Christian communities in both Iraq and Egypt. In 1998, Congressman Wolf authored the International Religious Freedom Act, which created the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and established the International Religious Freedom Office at the State Department headed by an ambassador-at-large. He also was the lead sponsor of legislation which successfully reauthorized the Commission last Congress.
Congressman Wolf's international travels have allowed him to see the destruction caused by terrorists. He has visited Lebanon, where in 1983 car bombs were used to destroy a U.S. Marine barracks, killing 241 Marines. He has been to Algeria, where more than 70,000 people have been killed by terrorists, and has traveled to Sudan - which gave safe haven to Osama bin Laden for several years in the early 1990s - six times, most recently in February 2012. He also has traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Israel.
Protecting U.S. National Security:
In 1998, he authored the bill creating the National Commission on Terrorism. Chaired by L. Paul Bremer, President Ronald Reagan's counterterrorism czar, the commission closely examined the problem of terrorism, studying its origins and its key players. The commission also developed a policy response and made a number of wide-ranging recommendations when it released its report in June 2000.
Following his September 2005 trip to Iraq, Congressman Wolf called for the creation of an independent, bipartisan panel to bring what he called “fresh eyes” to U.S. efforts in Iraq. The result was the establishment of the Iraq Study Group headed by James Baker and Lee Hamilton. The 10-member panel spent eight months developing a series of recommendations that were released in December 2006. In 2011, Congressman Wolf succeeded in providing the resources for the Afghanistan/Pakistan Study Group, a similar bipartisan commission to review and provide recommendations for U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Domestically, Congressman Wolf has been a leader in warning of the dangers of domestic radicalization and terrorist attacks inside the United States. He offered a successful amendment to the 2012 Intelligence authorization bill creating a “Team B” of outside experts to examine domestic radicalization and to ensure that the government was doing everything possible to anticipate and prevent terror attacks. In his capacity as chairman of the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee, Congressman Wolf has fully funded the FBI’s counterterrorism programs and has done exhaustive oversight to ensure the government remains prepared to prevent potential attacks against Americans.
Preventing the Spread of Gambling:
Congressman Wolf also is one of Congress's leading opponents of gambling, citing its destructive force on society and on children in particular. In 1997, he pushed for the creation of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which uncovered myriad destructive effects caused by gambling. The commission showed that as gambling has spread quickly throughout the country, it has had negative social and economic impacts on communities. When he saw the explosion of casino gambling on tribal lands and how the vast majority of Native Americans continue to suffer in abject poverty, he proposed legislation to examine U.S. policy toward Native Americans and develop policy recommendations to improve the welfare of tribes in the areas of health, economic development, housing and transportation infrastructure. He also called for a moratorium on the opening of any new tribal casinos and a halt to the federal recognition process of tribes until Congress can review the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 and consider a reform package. Congressman Wolf also has worked to support laws to stop the proliferation of gambling on the Internet and on high school and college athletics. In addition, he also has worked to educate elected officials who potentially see legalized gambling as a quick fix to economic problems.
Family:
Congressman Wolf was born in 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. degree from Penn State University in 1961 and his law degree from Georgetown University in 1965. He lives in Vienna with his wife, Carolyn. They have five adult children and 16 grandchildren.
