Reply #5: MAXINE WATERS..PROGRESSIVE BIO: [View All]

[KoKo]

Background

One of thirteen children, Waters was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Remus and Velma Lee Carr Moore. She graduated from Vashon High School in St. Louis, and moved with her family to Los Angeles, California, in 1961. She worked in a garment factory and as a telephone operator before being hired as an assistant teacher with the Head Start program at Watts in 1966.

She later enrolled at Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles), and graduated with a sociology degree in 1970. In 1973, she went to work as chief deputy to newly-elected City Councilman David S. Cunningham, Jr..

Her husband, Sidney Williams, played professional football in the NFL<4> and is a former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas.
Political career

Waters entered the California State Assembly in 1976. While in the assembly she worked for divestment of state pension funds from any businesses active in South Africa, a country then operating under the policy of apartheid and helped pass legislation within the guidelines of the divestment campaign's Sullivan Principles.<5> She ascended to the position of Democratic Caucus Chair for the Assembly.<6>

Upon the retirement of Augustus F. Hawkins in 1990, Waters was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for California's 29th congressional district with over 79% of the popular vote. She has been re-elected consistently with at least 70% of the popular vote in the California's 35th congressional district after significant parts of the pre-1990 29th California Congressional District were folded into the newly defined 35th California Congressional District when California gained seven additional seats in the House following the 1990 United States Census.)

Waters represented a large part of south-central Los Angeles in Congress and gained national attention in 1992 "when she helped deliver relief supplies in Watts and demanded the resumption of vital services"<7> as the area "caught the nation's attention" with the Rodney King verdict, and the Los Angeles riots of 1992 that followed.<8> Waters described the riots as a rebellion, saying "If you call it a riot it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason. I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable."<9>

She was chair of the Congressional Black Caucus from 1997-98.

In 2006 Waters was involved in the debate over King Drew Medical Center. After the Los Angeles Times published allegations of nepotism against her in an exposé of the hospital, Waters asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny a waiver of the crossownership ban, and hence license renewal for KTLA-TV, a station the newspaper owned. She said that "The Los Angeles Times has had an inordinate effect on public opinion and has used it to harm the local community in specific instances." She requested that the FCC force the paper to either sell its station or risk losing that station's broadcast rights.<10> According to Broadcasting & Cable, the challenges raised "the specter of costly legal battles to defend station holdings.... At a minimum, defending against one would cost tens of thousands of dollars in lawyers' fees and probably delay license renewal about three months."<11> Waters' petition was ultimately unsuccessful; the station's license next expires in 2014.<12>

As a Democratic representative in Congress, Waters was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She endorsed Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination in late January 2008, granting the New York Senator nationally-recognized support that some suggested would "make big waves."<13><14> Waters later switched her endorsement to Sen. Barack Obama when his lead in the pledged delegate count became insurmountable on the final day of primary voting.<15><16>

Waters had a confrontation over an earmark in the United States House Committee on Appropriations with fellow Democratic congressman Dave Obey in 2009. The funding request was for a public school employment training center in Los Angeles that was named after her. <17>

In 2010 Waters came under investigation for ethics violations and was accused by a House panel of at least one ethics violation related to her efforts to help OneUnited Bank, where her husband had been a director and in which he had stock holdings, receive Federal aid. She said she planned to fight the charges in a trial.<18>
\Policy positions
Haiti

Waters opposed the 2004 coup d'etat in Haiti and criticized U.S. involvement.<19>
CIA and crack

Following a 1996 San Jose Mercury article alleging the complicity of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Los Angeles crack epidemic of the 1980s, Waters called for an investigation. Waters questioned whether "U.S.-government paid or organized operatives smuggled, transported and sold it to American citizens."<20> The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had failed to find any evidence to support the original story.<21> The Los Angeles Times also concluded after its own extensive investigation that the allegations were not supported by evidence.<22> The author of the original story was eventually transferred to a different beat and removed from investigative reporting.<23> Following these post-publication investigations, Waters read into the Congressional Record a memorandum of understanding in which former President Ronald Reagan's CIA director rejected any duty by the CIA to report illegal narcotics trafficking to the Department of Justice.<24><25>
Iraq War]

Waters voted against the Iraq War Resolution, the 2002 resolution that funded and granted Congressional approval to possible military action against the regime of Saddam Hussein.<26> She has remained a consistent critic of the subsequent war and has supported an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq. Waters asserted in 2007 that President George W. Bush was trying to "set up" by continually requesting funds for an "occupation" that is "draining" the country of capital, soldier's lives, and other resources. In particular, she argued that the very economic resources being "wasted" in Iraq were those that might provide universal health care or fully fund President Bush's own "No Child Left Behind" education bill. Additionally, Waters, representing a congressional district whose median income falls far below the national average, argued that patriotism alone had not been the sole driving force for those U.S. service personnel serving in Iraq. Rather, "many of them needed jobs, they needed resources, they needed money, so they're there."<27> In a subsequent floor speech, Waters told her colleagues that Congress, lacking the votes to override the "inevitable Bush veto on any Iraq-related legislation," needed to "better the administration's false rhetoric about the Iraq war" and "educate our constituents the connection between the problems in Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran with the problems we have created in Iraq."<28> A few months prior to these speeches Waters became a cosponsor of the House resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney for making allegedly "false statements" about the war.<29>
United States' petroleum industry

In May 2008, Waters told Shell Oil Company president John Hofmeister at the House Judiciary Committee's Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust law that if he did not guarantee reduced gasoline prices in exchange for reduction by Congress of oil drilling restrictions: "...And guess what this liberal will be all about?" Waters asked. "This liberal will be all about socializing, ... basically, taking over and the government running all of your companies."<30><31><32><33><34>
International lending

In August 2008, Waters introduced HR 6796, or the "Stop Very Unscrupulous Loan Transfers from Underprivileged countries from Rich Exploitive Funds Act," also known as the Stop VULTURE Funds Act. This would limit the ability of investors in sovereign debt to use U.S. courts to enforce those instruments against a defaulting country. The bill died in committee. <35>
Caucus memberships

* Chief Deputy Whip
* Founding member and Chair of the Out of Iraq Caucus
* Member of Congressional Progressive Caucus
* Member of Congressional Black Caucus (CBC); past chair of CBC (105th United States Congress)

Other achievements

* Maxine Waters Preparation Center in Watts, California – named after her while she was a member of the California Assembly
* Co-founder of Black Women’s Forum
* Founder of Project Build
* Received the Bruce F. Vento Award from the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty for her work on behalf of homeless persons.