Chris Cox
| Chris Cox | |
 Chris Cox |
|
|
|
|
| In office 1989 – 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | John Campbell |
| Constituency | California's 48th congressional district |
|
|
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office August 4, 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | William H. Donaldson |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
| Constituency | United States |
|
|
|
| Born | October 16 1952 Saint Paul, Minnesota,  United States |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Rebecca Gernhardt Cox |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | SEC Biography |
Charles Christopher Cox (born October 16, 1952 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA) has served as Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since August 4, 2005. He had served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 1989 to August 2, 2005, representing a district in southern California. He resigned from Congress to become chairman.
Pre-congressional career
After graduating from St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, Minnesota in 1970, Cox earned his B.A. at the University of Southern California in 1973, following an accelerated three-year course. In 1977 he earned both an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. During the second term of Ronald Reagan from 1986 to 1988, he served in the White House as Senior Associate Counsel to the President.
From 1977 to 1986, Cox was first an associate and then partner with the international law firm of
In 1984, Cox co-founded Context Corporation, which produced daily English reproductions of the leading state-controlled newspaper in the Soviet Union, Pravda. The publication was used chiefly by U.S. universities and U.S. government agencies, and was eventually distributed to customers in 26 countries around the world. The company had no connection to the Soviet government.
In 1982–83, Cox took a leave of absence from Latham & Watkins to teach federal income tax at Harvard Business School.
Cox is married to the former Rebecca Gernhardt, a Continental Airlines executive and former Assistant US Secretary of Transportation. The two met in the Reagan White House, where she served as Director of the Office of Public Liaison. They have three children.
Congressional career
Cox was elected to Congress in 1988 from what was then the 40th District. He was reelected eight more times from this Orange County-based district, which was renumbered as the 47th District in 1993 and the 48th District in 2003.
For 10 of his 17 years in the Congress, from 1995 to 2005, Cox served in the House Majority Leadership as Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, the fifth-ranking elected leadership position (behind the Speaker, the Majority Leader, the Majority Whip, and the Chair of the House Republican Conference). He was Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and also Chairman of the Select Committee on U.S. National Security that produced the Cox report, an indictment of Chinese espionage and of security failures at several U.S. national laboratories.
When Congress established the Bipartisan Study Group on Enhancing Multilateral Export Controls through federal legislation in 1999, Cox was tapped as co-chairman. The group published a unanimous report in 2001 recommending wholesale modernization of U.S. export controls.[1] In 1994 he was appointed by President Clinton to the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, which in 1995 published a unanimous report warning that the nation cannot continue to allow entitlement programs to consume a rapidly increasing share of the federal budget.[2] Cox also served as Chairman of the Select Committee on Homeland Security (the predecessor to the permanent House Committee); Chairman of the Task Force on Capital Markets; and Chairman of the Task Force on Budget Process Reform.
Among Cox's notable legislative successes is the Internet Tax Freedom Act, a 1998 law prohibiting federal, state, and local government taxation of Internet access and banning Internet-only levies such as email taxes, bit taxes, and bandwidth taxes. With U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) as his chief co-sponsor, Cox authored legislation in 1997 to privatize the National Helium Reserve, which was then $1.4 billion in debt to taxpayers. As of 2004, this was the third-largest privatization in U.S. history, surpassing the value of the 1988 Conrail privatization. Cox also wrote the only law that was enacted over President Bill Clinton's veto, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, aimed at protecting investors from fraudulent and extortionate lawsuits.
In 1989, Polish President Lech Wałęsa joined Cox in a Washington ceremony marking the enactment of Cox's legislation establishing the Polish-American Enterprise Fund. Together with the Baltic-American Enterprise Fund, the Hungarian-American Enterprise Fund, and seven other enterprise funds in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the Cox legislation, incorporated in the Support Eastern European Democracy (SEED) Act, matched U.S. foreign aid with venture capital in the newly free countries of the former Warsaw Pact.
References
- ^ http://www.stimson.org/exportcontrol/pdf/finalreport.pdf
- ^ United States: Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. Final report; with reform proposals and additional views of commissioners, J. Robert Kerrey and John C. Danforth, co-chairs. Washington, DC : Supt. of Docs. (1995), Library of Congress Control Number 95143407.
External links
- Chris Cox at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
- Official Biography — SEC Website
- Christopher Cox Sworn in as SEC Chairman — SEC Press Release
- President Bush Nominates Congressman Cox as SEC Chairman — White House Press Release
- Speeches and Statements as SEC Chairman
- The changes I've seen — Farewell letter by Chris Cox in the Orange County Register
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Robert Badham |
Member of
the U.S. House of Representatives for California's 40th District 1989–1993 |
Succeeded by Jerry Lewis |
| Preceded by New District |
Member of
the U.S. House of Representatives for California's 47th District 1993–2003 |
Succeeded by Loretta Sanchez |
| Preceded by |
Member of
the U.S. House of Representatives for California's 48th District 2003–2005 |
Succeeded by John Campbell |
| Preceded by William H. Donaldson |
Securities and Exchange Commission Chair 2005–Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Chairmen of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission | |
|---|---|
| Kennedy • Landis • Douglas • Frank • Eicher • Purcell • Caffrey • Hanrahan • McDonald • D Cook • Demmler • Armstrong • Gadsby • Cary • Cohen • Budge • Casey • B Cook • Garrett • Hills • Williams • Shad • Ruder • Breeden • Levitt • Pitt • Donaldson • Cox |
 |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
