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United States Congressman

curt clawson

Congressman Curt Clawson has been coming to Southwest Florida since his family settled in Bonita Springs in 1993. After a successful career as a business leader and former college basketball player, Clawson moved to Southwest Florida in 2011. He soon became involved in local water issues.  

Urged by local leaders and motivated by his family’s generations of service to their country, Clawson decided in 2014 to run in a special election to fill the vacated seat in Florida’s 19th Congressional District.  Clawson won the election on messages of constitutional conservatism, growing the economy and unifying the Republican Party of Southwest Florida.  

Clawson was sworn into office by House Speaker John Boehner on June 25, 2014, one day after winning the special election by nearly forty percentage points. 

Born in Tacoma, Washington, Clawson attended Batesville High School in Batesville, Indiana – a hotbed of Indiana high school basketball. As a senior in high school, Clawson led the state of Indiana in scoring and was recruited by Purdue Head Basketball Coach Gene Keady, where he later helped his team win the 1984 Big Ten Championship. As a senior captain on that 1984 Team, Clawson is known for making the first 3-point basket in Purdue history and making two clutch free throws to clinch the Big Ten Championship.

After graduating from Purdue, Clawson served a year-long Ambassadorial Scholarship for Rotary International, enrolled in graduate MBA studies in Monterrey, Mexico, and took some time to play for the local university basketball team. Clawson began his working career in manufacturing in 1986, as a supervisor on a muffler production line in Columbus, Indiana for Arvin Industries – the world’s largest manufacturer of automotive exhaust systems.

In 1990, Clawson graduated from Harvard Business School with a Masters of Business Administration degree, sponsored by Arvin. He returned to Arvin and held a variety of senior management level positions. 

In 1995, Clawson joined AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) as President of the Filters and Spark Plugs Group, which manufactured Autolite® spark plugs and FRAM® filters.  In 1999, he became President and Chief Operating Officer of American National Can – the world's largest manufacturer of beverage cans.

In 2001, Clawson joined Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc., a global leader in wheel rim manufacturing.  He served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company from September 2001 until his retirement in February 2012.  During his time at Hayes, Clawson successfully led the company out of the financial distress he inherited – without taking one penny of taxpayer money – saving thousands of jobs.

While at Hayes, Clawson established, and still principally funds, a shelter for homeless teen mothers on the east side of Detroit. He also stays active advising and mentoring young athletes in Southwest Florida. 

Clawson’s parents, Jack and Cherie, are residents of Bonita Springs.  When not in Washington, Curt enjoys spending time with them during the autumn of their lives. Together, they enjoy walking the beach, swimming in the Gulf, and watching beautiful sunsets.    Read More

Meet Curt

Press Releases

Clawson Introduces Legislation to Improve DHS Engagement with Private Sector

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Washington, Nov 20 | David James (202-225-2536) | comments

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, U.S Rep. Curt Clawson, R-FL, a member of the Committee on Homeland Security, introduced H.R. 5712, the “DHS Private Sector Office Engagement Act,” to improve private sector engagement in protecting the homeland. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, joined in co-sponsoring the bill.

 

Rep. Clawson said: “Homeland Security promotes economic security and vice versa. With more than 85 percent of critical infrastructure owned by the private sector, DHS needs a robust mechanism to understand the needs of the private sector. H.R. 5712 is important legislation that will clearly focus the department on activities that will have a measurable impact on our security and our economy.  Having come to the Congress as a former CEO, this is the kind of partnership our marketplace needs to help our economy grow."

 

Chairman McCaul said: “Over the last several years, the quality, quantity and strategic engagement from DHS’s Private Sector Office has significantly decreased. While the Department has recently taken to steps to improve private sector input, such as assigning private sector loan executives to TSA and CBP to promote travel and tourism, more can and should be done. H.R. 5712 will streamline functions of the office and establishes accountability mechanisms to make sure the office is effective.”

 

H.R. 5712 improves private sector engagement by:

 

·         Requiring DHS to analyze and report on the economic impact of changes in homeland security policy including all new regulations;

·         Directing the department to determine what actions are needed to reduce associated burdens on the private sector including unnecessary barriers to private sector job creation;

·         Authorizing the Private Sector Office for four years with the streamlined functions of economic impact analysis and business liaison responsibilities;

·         Authorizing the Loaned Executive Program to provide top executive-level and subject matter experts from the private sector an opportunity to share their expertise with DHS;

·         Requiring the department to coordinate private sector efforts, with respect to functions of the department and throughout all department components, to identify private sector resources and capabilities that could be effective in augmenting Federal, State, and local government agency efforts to prevent or respond to an incident;

·         Requiring DHS to promote existing public-private partnerships and develop new public-private partnerships to address homeland security challenges;

·         Putting accountability mechanisms in place such as a strategic plan with objective outcome-based performance metrics to be validated by the GAO; and

·         Preventing the Private Sector Office from duplicating procurement liaison functions.

 

The full text of H.R. 5712 is available HERE.

 

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