Bob Goodlatte

Bob Goodlatte
File:Bob Goodlatte Official.jpg
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 6th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1993
Preceded by	Jim Olin
Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Lamar Smith
Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture
In office May 31, 2003 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Larry Combest
Succeeded by	Collin Peterson
Personal details
Born	(1952-09-22) September 22, 1952 Holyoke, Massachusetts
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Maryellen Flaherty
Residence	Roanoke, Virginia
Alma mater	Bates College Washington and Lee University School of Law
Occupation	Attorney

Robert William "Bob" Goodlatte (/ˈɡʊdlæt/; born September 22, 1952) is an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Virginia's 6th congressional district, serving since 1993. A member of the Republican Party, Goodlatte's district represents Roanoke and also includes Lynchburg, Harrisonburg and Staunton.

Early life, education, and early career

Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Goodlatte received a B.A. in political science from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1974. He also holds a Juris Doctor from Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia, which he earned in 1977. Goodlatte was an attorney in private practice in his early professional career before becoming a staff aide for 6th District U.S. Congressman M. Caldwell Butler from 1977 to 1979.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

Bob Goodlatte received the Republican nomination at the Republican District convention after Democrat Jim Olin, opted not to run for reelection in 1992. In the 1992 November general election, Goodlatte defeated Democrat Stephen Musselwhite, who had defeated Olin's preferred choice at the district Democratic convention, with 60% of the vote. Goodlatte has been reelected ten times, often running unopposed by Democratic challengers. He has never faced a Republican primary challenge. His most substantive opposition was in 1996, with Democrat Jeff Grey, and again in 1998, with Democratic Roanoke mayor David Bowers who challenged him. In an overwhelmingly conservative district, Goodlatte turned back these challenges, with 67% and 69% of the vote, respectively. In 2008, he was challenged by Democrat Sam Rasoul of Roanoke. This time, Goodlatte garnered 62% of the vote.

2012

Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia, 2012 § District 6

In 2011, Republican and constitutional conservative Karen Kwiatkowski of Mount Jackson, Virginia, announced that she would challenge Goodlatte in the Republican primary set for June 12, 2012. This was Bob Goodlatte's first contested Republican primary. Kwiatkowski earned 34% of the Republican primary vote, with Goodlatte winning 66%. He faced Democratic nominee Andy Schmookler in the general election, and defeated Schmookler with 66%.

Tenure

Support of Federal National Animal ID System

Goodlatte supported and advocated for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) that would have required all farmers all over the country to register their farms with the federal government, and participate in mandatory RFID tagging and 24 hour near real time reporting to the federal government. According to the Angus Journal, Goodlatte, as chairman of the House Agricultural Committee, said, "he wants an animal ID system in place as soon as possible" and "favors an industry plan to form an animal ID database that would control the information until USDA needs it."

Agriculture

Congressman Bob Goodlatte (left) honoring a Korean War veteran in 2009.

Before his appointment as Ranking Republican of the House Agriculture Committee at the start of the 110th Congress, Goodlatte served as Chairman of the full Committee. He was elected to serve as Chairman of the full House Agriculture Committee in January 2003 at the start of the 108th Congress. He served as Chairman of the Committee throughout the 108th and 109th Congresses, convening 132 Full and Subcommittee hearings and guiding 38 bills under the Committee’s jurisdiction to the President’s desk to be signed into law. He has served on the House Agriculture Committee since first being elected to Congress in November 1992. Before becoming Chairman of the full Committee, Goodlatte served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Department, Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry. An active subcommittee chairman, he held fourteen hearings in the 107th Congress alone. The hearings covered a wide range of issues including implementation of the national fire plan, domestic nutrition programs, invasive species, and civil rights programs at the USDA. He served as a conferee on the 2002 Farm Bill. He took a leadership role on issues such as welfare reform and forestry policy, working with his colleagues on the Agriculture and Resources Committees to introduce George W. Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative.

Federal budget

Bob Goodlatte has voted seven times to increase the U.S. debt ceiling and has voted to pass budgets from Democrat as well as Republican administrations. He voted for Barack Obama's Budget Act of 2011 as well as Bill Clinton's Budget Act in July, 1997. His first vote to increase the debt ceiling was in March 1996, raising it from $4.9 trillion to $5.5 trillion and most recently in August 2011, raising it from $14.8 trillion to $16.4 trillion. One of Representative Goodlatte's top legislative initiatives was his Constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget so that Congress would be forced to control spending. However, conservative Republican Representatives Paul Ryan, Justin Amash, David Dreier and Louie Gohmert voted against the amendment because it failed to control government spending and raised taxes on Americans. Representative Ryan released a statement after the vote: "I’m concerned that this version will lead to a much bigger government fueled by more taxes. Spending is the problem, yet this version of the Balanced Budget Amendment makes it more likely taxes will be raised, government will grow, and economic freedom will be diminished. Without a limit on government spending, I cannot support this Amendment.”

Support of Tax Increases

One of Bob Goodlatte's solutions to balancing the budget is increasing taxes, which he offered in his "weak" or "clean" Balanced Budget Amendment. Americans for Tax Reform, Club for Growth and 30 other organizations representing millions of American taxpayers asked their members to oppose it. When asked if his Balanced Budget Amendment would break his pledge with Grover Norquist's, Americans for Tax Reform, Goodlatte responded that a small tax increase now might prevent a larger tax increase in January 2013.

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

Goodlatte is an original sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, H.R. 3261, introduced in the House's, Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet Subcommittee, which he Chairs. He is also a coauthor of the bill, as referenced by Chairman Lamar Smith, Congresswoman Waters, and Goodlatte himself during Markup hearings for SOPA. The bill enables the Justice Department to shutdown websites that it determines are dedicated to copyright infringement. The DoJ would be able to commence legal action against any site it believes to have "limited purpose or use other than infringement," and the DoJ would be authorized to prevent search engines, social networking sites and domain name services block access to the targeted site.

SOPA's critics charge that copyright owners are able to seek immediate recourse for copyrights violations through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as well as Title 17 of the United States Code. Technology engineers, website owners and venture capitalists charge that the bill will hurt Internet architecture, decrease tech industry job growth and unnecessarily burden and increase the costs of doing business for domestic website owners and operators. Free Speech advocates and conservatives charge that the bill centralizes authority at the executive branch, which might use it to prevent search engines and Internet Services Providers from delivering dissenting websites to customers; violates the First Amendment; establishes Internet firewalls; and hinders online users from sharing information. Conservatives criticize the bill for increasing government regulation, increasing the cost of doing business and intervening in free markets.

Vote to Ban Online gaming

Goodlatte is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online gaming. In 2006, he sponsored H.R. 4777, the Internet gaming Prohibition Act. In September 2006, working with then Iowa Congressman Jim Leach, Goodlatte was a major House supporter of the Unlawful Internet gaming Enforcement Act of 2006. The Act was passed at midnight the day Congress adjourned before the 2006 elections. Prior to it being added to the bill, the gaming provisions had not been debated by any Congressional committee. The bill was made sure to exclude online gaming. They claimed moral reasons for pushing for a ban on Internet gaming, but critics charge that it was due to campaign contributions from Microsoft and steam .

Goodlatte sat on the 105th United States Congress and introduced NET Act on July 25, 1997, which removed the requirement of financial gain for criminal prosecution of copyright infringement. NET Act was passed only after the House suspended the rules.

Technology

Goodlatte is the Co-Chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Internet Caucus, Chairman of the House Republican High-Technology Working Group, and Co-Chairman of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus.

Goodlatte has been a leader in Congress on a number of Internet and high-tech issues including encryption, piracy prevention, anti-counterfeiting, online service provider copyright liability, high speed data access, privacy, digital signatures, Internet tax moratorium, copyright term extension, H-1B visas, patent reform, cyber-squatting, Y2K litigation, class action reform, spam and spyware prevention and providing local television networks to rural areas on satellite systems.

Presidential proof of citizenship

On May 5, 2009, Goodlatte signed on as a co-sponsor of H.R. 1503, a bill to require future presidential candidates to provide proof of citizenship by submitting copies of their birth certificate. The bill has been described as a response to the theories which claim that U.S. President Barack Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Agriculture (Vice Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Caucus on Adoption
• Congressional Fire Services Caucus
• Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus
• Congressional Internet Caucus (Co-Chair)
• International Conservation Caucus

Electoral history

Virginia's 6th congressional district: Results 1992–2010

Year		Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct		Republican Primary	Votes	Pct		Independent	Votes	Pct		Third Party	Party	Votes	Pct
1992		Stephen A. Musselwhite	84,618	40%		Bob Goodlatte	127,309	60%	**	(no candidate)			*
1994		(no candidate)				Bob Goodlatte	126,455	100%		(no candidate)			*
1996		Jeffrey W. Grey	61,485	31%		Bob Goodlatte	133,576	67%		(no candidate)				Jay P. Rutledge	4,229	2%	*
1998		David A. Bowers	39,487	31%		Bob Goodlatte	89,177	69%		(no candidate)			*
2000		(no candidate)				Bob Goodlatte	153,338	99%		(no candidate)				Write-ins	1,145	1%
2002		(no candidate)				Bob Goodlatte	105,530	97%		(no candidate)				Write-ins	3,202	3%
2004		(no candidate)				Bob Goodlatte	206,560	97%		(no candidate)				Write-ins	7,088	3%
2006		(no candidate)				Bob Goodlatte	153,187	75%		(no candidate)				Barbara Jean Pryor	25,129	12%		Andre D. Peery	Independent	24,731	12%	*
2008		Sam Rasoul	114,367	37%		Bob Goodlatte	192,350	62%		(no candidate)				Janice Lee Allen	5,413	2%	*
2010		(no candidate)				Bob Goodlatte	126,710	76.15%		(no candidate)				Jeffrey Vanke	21,648	13.01%		Stuart Bain	Libertarian	15,309	9.20%	*
2012		Andy Schmookler	109,929	34%		Bob Goodlatte	209,701	66%		Karen Kwiatkowski

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1992, write-ins received 160 votes. In 1994, write-ins received 189 votes. In 1996, write-ins received 71 votes. In 1998, write-ins received 66 votes. In 2006, write-ins received 948 votes. In 2008, write-ins received 262 votes. In 2010, write-ins relieved 2,709 votes. **In 1992, Bob Goodlatte received the Republican nomination at the Republican District Convention. Prior to 2012, Goodlatte had never faced a primary challenge throughout his 20-years in Congress.

External links

• Congressman Bob Goodlatte official U.S. House site
• Bob Goodlatte for Congress official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Point/Counterpoint: Meet your congressional candidates: 6th district, Roanoke Times, September 23, 2012