Candidate for
United States Senator

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer is serving her second term in the Senate representing California. Boxer started her career in public life when she was elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors in 1976. In 1980, she was chosen as the first woman to chair the Board of Supervisors and was re-elected to a second term. In 1982, she was elected to represent the northern San Francisco Bay Area in the House of Representatives. After ten years in the House, Boxer decided to run for the Senate seat.

Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein made history in 1992 as the first time two women were elected to represent the same state in the U.S. Senate. Tens of thousands of Californians volunteered on Boxer's campaign, which helped propel her to victory.

Since she has been in the Senate, Barbara Boxer has worked hard to make life better for the people of California.

Revitalizing the California economy is one of her top priorities. Senator Boxer has fought for federal funds to meet California's urgent needs. Over the past 10 years, more than $100 billion in federal funds have come to California to improve schools, repair highways, build more transit, and help the state recover from natural disasters.

Recognizing that strong public schools are crucial to our future, Senator Boxer wrote the first federal afterschool bill, which will serve 3.5 children by 2007. She also strongly supports making college tuition tax deductible and fully funding the No Child Left Behind Act.

Senator Boxer is one of the Senate's leaders in protecting the environment. She passed a law to strengthen safe drinking water standards and fought for funding to remove toxic chemicals from our water supply. Her Superfund bill would make the polluters -- not taxpayers -- pay to clean up the toxic waste they leave behind in our communities.

Senator Boxer is a strong advocate for quality, affordable health care for all Americans. She introduced one of the first bills to crack down on HMOs and make sure that doctors, not insurance company bureaucrats, make medical decisions. She wrote a bill to make health insurance tax deductible and another bill to allow all Americans buy into the same health care insurance plan that members of Congress have. She supports increasing federal funding for medical research to find cures for diseases.

After September 11th, Senator Boxer focused on protecting our people from the threat of terrorism. She wrote the law that put more air marshals on high-risk flights, and has introduced legislation requiring anti-missile counter measures on all commercial aircraft. To make our ports safer, Boxer wrote the High-Tech Port Security Act to employ state-of-the-art technology to enhance security at America's ports, and sponsored the Chemical Security Act to provide the federal government with the tools it needs to address terrorist threats against chemical plants. Senator Boxer also cosponsored comprehensive rail security legislation to help better protect America's rail system.

Senator Boxer serves on the Commerce, Environment and Public Works, and Foreign Relations Committees.