Jane Harman

Jane Harman is also a pseudonym of the British author Terry Harknett.

Jane Harman
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 36th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 5, 1993 – January 3, 1999 January 3, 2001 – present
Preceded by	George Brown, Jr. (1993) Steve Kuykendall (2001)
Succeeded by	Steve Kuykendall (1999) Incumbent
Born	June 28 1945 (1945--) (age 62) New York, New York
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Sidney Harman
Religion	Jewish

Jane Lakes Harman (born June 28 1945), is a seven-term Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 36th District of California (map). She attended Los Angeles public schools, Smith College, and Harvard Law School. On November 7, 2006, she was reelected to the 110th Congress, defeating Republican challenger Brian Gibson. Harman is both a Blue Dog Democrat and a member of the New Democrat Coalition. She previously represented the district from 1993 to 1999 before leaving Congress to enter the 1998 California gubernatorial race. After losing to future Governor Gray Davis, she briefly taught public policy and international relations at UCLA before reclaiming her congressional seat in the 2000 election.

Harman is married to Harman International Industries Executive Chairman and founder Sidney Harman.

Career

Jane Harman has four children (two by a previous marriage) and resides in Venice, California. Harman began her career in Washington by serving as chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. She has also served as special counsel to the Department of Defense, deputy cabinet secretary under President Jimmy Carter, and Regent's Professor at UCLA.

Intelligence Committee controversy

Harman was the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 109th Congress. However, in October 2006 reports surfaced that Harman was under investigation by the FBI for "allegedly (with the help of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC) enlisting wealthy donors to lobby then-House Minority Leader (and current House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi to retain her position as the head Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee."^{[citation needed]} Speaker of the House Pelosi then chose Silvestre Reyes to be the Chair of the Intelligence Committee in the 110th Congress.

Supporters of Harman are critical of the decision. They note that term limits on the committee do not apply to the chair or the ranking member; furthermore, a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission was for longer tenures on intelligence panels in any case to foster continuity and institutional memory.[1] Newsweek suggests that:

reports of a FBI probe into Harman would presumably give Pelosi cover to deny the chairmanship to Harman—a moderate Democrat whom (sic) Pelosi feels has not been aggressive enough in challenging the Bush administration.[2]

On CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Harman responded to Pelosi's decision:

I am not angry. It was her choice. Obviously, I had hoped to stay. I thought I'd earned it and that it had been promised. But I think Silvestre Reyes is an excellent choice. He has my support. I'm going to stay in the game on these issues. Here I am, Wolf. But I also think that her majority is created by moderates and conservatives who won in Republican seats who talk tough and smart on security issues. And I will help them stay in Congress and help keep our majority in 2008.[3]

Armenian Genocide controversy

Harman, who hails from the heavily Armenian-American populated city of Los Angeles, was one of the first co-sponsors of the 2007 Armenian Genocide resolution. This bill is introduced to the House of Representatives annually and on numerous occasions has been pulled from consideration or been allowed to die due to pressure from Turkey despite wide support in Congress. In 2007, new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi breathed new life into the bill as she had often expressed her support for it. Questions swirled around whether she would actually bring it to a vote, until the end of September when it was announced the bill would be marked-up (and likely passed) at an October 10 Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. Signs from the leadership indicate that it would be brought to the floor for a full House vote shortly after. As more than half of the 435 members in the House of Representative are co-sponsors of the resolution, the bill was expected to pass easily.

In the wake of these announcements, Harman wrote a letter to Foreign Affairs committee chairman Tom Lantos and ranking member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, imploring them to kill the bill:

[F]ollowing a visit to Turkey earlier this year that included meetings with Prime Minister Erdogan, the Armenian Orthodox Patriarch and colleagues of murdered journalist Hrant Dink, I have great concern that this is the wrong time for Congress to consider this measure.

In response, a peaceful protest was staged on October 6, 2007 by Armenian activists at an event in Los Angeles in which Jane Harman was to give a speech.[4]

References

• Exclusive: Feds Probe a Top Democrat's Relationship with AIPAC
• What’s for Dinner? On the House Intelligence Committee, it’s a heaping plate of controversy.
• Probe of Harman's AIPAC Ties Confirmed
• FBI Investigating Whether Harman Made Improper Promises to Pro-Israel Group

External links

• U.S. Congresswoman Jane Harman, House site
• Jane Harman for U.S. Congress, Campaign site
• Jane Harman at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Federal Election Commission — Jane Harman campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — Jane Harman issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Jane Harman campaign contributions
• Biography, Voting record, and Interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart

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