AMERICANA / ADAM SCHIFF HOUSE BIOGRAPHY

Congressman Adam Schiff represents California's 28th Congressional District, and throughout his tenure in Congress, he has focused on growing the economy, bolstering national security, strengthening our communities, helping small businesses, and improving education, safety and health care for our children.

In his 10th term in the House of Representatives, Schiff currently serves as the Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence oversees the nation’s intelligence agencies including components of the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, State and Energy. Schiff is currently on a leave of absence from the House Appropriations Committee.

In addition to his committee work, Schiff’s top priority is to create jobs and help improve the economy. Schiff has always believed that small businesses have been the true engine of growth in challenging economic times and has been fighting to enact tax relief for small businesses, to assist them with access to capital and to remove burdensome regulations. Schiff also believes that reestablishing America as a manufacturing powerhouse is crucial.

Through these efforts, American businesses can begin growing and adding jobs again so that all Americans can enjoy a brighter, more prosperous future.

Schiff has also been a leader on national security and foreign policy efforts in Congress, and has pushed for a broader strategy that emphasizes diplomacy, intelligence reform, and efforts to stabilize countries that are at risk of becoming future failed states and havens for terrorists. He has advanced efforts to ensure the safety of all Americans by addressing nuclear proliferation, and is the author of the Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act, which President Obama signed into law on February 16, 2010.

Schiff has also been a leader on human rights, and a forceful advocate for recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23, introducing resolutions and giving numerous floor speeches on the matter, including one delivered in Armenian and another addressed directly to the Turkish people. Schiff has also been an outspoken leader in the effort to end or “sunset” the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force, which he believes no longer applies to the current struggle against ISIS and the diffuse franchises of al Qaeda scattered around the world. Schiff also co-founded the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press in May 2006, a bipartisan, bicameral caucus that is chaired by Schiff. The Freedom of the Press Caucus aims to advance press freedom around the world by creating a forum to combat and condemn media censorship and the persecution of journalists around the world.

Schiff is also the author of the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, signed into law by President Obama on May 17, 2010.

As a former federal prosecutor, Schiff has made improving public safety, with an emphasis on smart, cost-effective solutions, a major focus of his work in Congress. Among his successes are obtaining federal funding to create a Foothills Regional DNA Lab in Glendale to speed the processing of DNA evidence in Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, and other foothill cities and take violent offenders off the street. The lab began operations in April 2012. He also was able to obtain vital funding to assist the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department with eliminating a backlog of thousands of untested sexual assault evidence kits, resulting in numerous convictions in cases that would otherwise have gone unsolved.

Legislatively, he introduced the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Act of 2012 which encourages states to collect DNA upon arrest for certain felonies in order to solve open cases and prevent further crimes, legislation which was signed in to law on January 10th, 2013.

A long time champion of the environment and mass transit, Schiff is the author of the Rim of the Valley Corridor Study Act, which was signed into law by President Bush on May 08, 2008. As a State Senator, he wrote the legislation establishing the Gold Line Light Rail Authority and in Congress has led efforts to extend the light rail throughout the San Gabriel Valley. And because the Entertainment Industry is one of the largest job creators in the region and an economic powerhouse, Schiff is a leader on efforts to combat intellectual property theft and piracy. He is a founder and co-chair of the International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus, a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers dedicated to working with America’s international trade partners to secure the enactment of strong copyright laws and the vigilant enforcement of those laws.

Schiff is a strong proponent of science and believes that American leadership in space exploration is a key driver of American leadership in a host of high-tech and emerging industries. As a member of the Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, Schiff has fought hard to preserve and expand the robotic missions undertaken by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada-Flintridge, from missions to Mars to a future mission to Jupiter’s moon of Europa.

Prior to serving in the House of Representatives, Schiff completed a four-year term as State Senator for California's 21st State Senate District, chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Juvenile Justice and the Joint Committee on the Arts. During his time in Sacramento, he led legislative efforts to guarantee up-to-date textbooks in the classroom, overhaul child support, and pass a patient's bill of rights. Before serving in the Legislature, Schiff served with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles for six years, most notably prosecuting the first FBI agent ever to be indicted for espionage.

Born on June 22, 1960, Adam is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School. He and his wife Eve (yes, it's true – Adam and Eve) have two children, a daughter, Alexa, and a son, Elijah.