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Bob Filner (D-Calif.)

U.S. Representative (since January 1993)

(Congress Bio Directory)

Why He Matters

Filner has represented California's 51st district since 1993, is not afraid to fight authority. From the civil-rights era to the present, as a community activist, a school board official, and member of Congress, he has proven his willingness to take on the powers-that-be when he believes that justice is not being met.

Sometimes Filner has let his enthusiasm for challenging authority get the better of him. He once incurred misdemeanor charges for pushing aside an airport baggage attendant and entering a restricted area to retrieve his luggage and he once attempted to force his way into an El Centro, Calif., immigration detention facility to "see my constituent," a Pakistani Shiite Muslim.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: San Diego city council member (1987-1992); San Diego School Board member (1979-1983) (president of the school board 1982-1983); Professor, San Diego State University (1973-1992)
Birthday: Sept. 4, 1942
Hometown: San Diego, Calif.
Alma Mater: B.S. (Chemistry), Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1963; M.A. (History) University of Delaware, Newark, Del., 1969; Ph.D. (History of Science), Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1973.
Spouse: Jane Merrill
Religion: Jewish
Committees: Ranking member, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman (since January 2011);Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

DC Office: 2428 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515202-225-8045
State/District Office: Chula Vista, Calif., 619-422-5963; Imperial, Calif., 760-355-8800
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Path to Power

Filner was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in New York City. He enrolled in Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1959 and pursued a B.S. in chemistry. The emerging battles for racial integration and the public campaigns of Martin Luther King Jr. drew him to political and social activism, and in the summer following his sophomore year he joined the Freedom Riders-white and African-American passengers who rode together on buses and other public transit in the South to challenge racial segregation laws. For this nonviolent protest, he was jailed in Mississippi for two months of 1961.

Equality is a personal issue for Filner because of his Jewish heritage. In his youth, his family shared with him stories of pogroms and other violence perpetuated against Jewish communities throughout history. His father provided firsthand testimony from his service in World War II, where he had participated in liberating concentration camps.

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"My family had taught me early on that racism is the number-one evil in the world, and that, as Jews, we had to combat racism and discrimination wherever we found it... that

Political Start

He also dabbled in national politics, serving as a legislative assistant to Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.) in 1975 and to Rep. Don Fraser (D-Minn.) in 1976.

He was incensed by the closure of his children's elementary school and ran for the San Diego School Board in 1979. He won and became the only Democrat on the board. He promoted mandatory homework policies and bureaucratic efficiency. His fellow board members elected him president in 1982; he served for a one-year term and then retired.

In 1984, he served on the staff of Rep. Jim Bates (D-Calif.). Then he returned to local politics and won an election to the San Diego City Council. As council member from 1987 until 1992, he led revitalizations of his city's economic base, including founding the city's Economic Conversion Committee and writing a city Economic Conversion Plan, and he developed new strategies for fighting crime, including Police Walking Patrols and a Citizen Graffiti Patrol with a 24-hour graffiti hotline. The city council elected him deputy mayor in 1990.

The 1990 census resulted in seven new California congressional districts, including the 51st. Filner ran for it and won a four-candidate Democratic primary with 26 percent of the vote; he won the general election with 57 percent. He has easily won reelections with only weak Republican rivals or no rival at all.

Filner took interim duties as ranking Democrat on the on the Veterans Affairs Committee in May 2006 because of the lengthy illness of now-former Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.). When Democrats gained control of the House in the 2006 elections, Filner went head-to-head against Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) for the committee chairmanship. With support from major veterans' organizations and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), he won the caucus vote, 112 to 69.

El Centro Incident

Ahmad Imran, a Pakistani cardiothoracic surgeon and Shiite Muslim, entered the U.S. legally in August 2000 to seek safety from Sunni Muslim extremists in Pakistan who were targeting Shiite physicians for assassination. His visa expired in April 2001, and he was it wouldn't be extended. He stayed anyway. U.S. Border Patrol detained him in April 2002 and filed for his deportation to Pakistan. While Imran sought asylum or, alternatively, voluntary departure to Canada to live with his Canadian wife, Heather McRae, he remained confined in an El Centro, Calif., immigration detention facility.

El Centro is in Filner's district, and Filner decided to intervene on Imran's behalf. One night in February 2003, accompanied by McRae and two reporters, Filner appeared at the facility's entrance and demanded to speak with Imran. Juan Ramirez, an Immigration and Naturalization Services officer at the door, told him that only McRae could enter. Filner grew indignant and asked the officer: "When was the last time you read the Constitution?" The officer called his supervisor, who instructed to him to bar Filner from admission and call the police if Filner became difficult. After ten minutes of further argument, during which Filner challenged accompanying INS officers Ruben Garcia and Jorge Bribiesca with - "Are you going to stop me, big man Are you going to shoot me? Are you going to arrest me?" - Filner forced his way in.

Seven INS and security officers confronted Filner inside and ordered him to leave. He only grew more defiant and told them that he wanted to " see my constituent and I am not moving from here until I do so." As officers converged, he tried to push his way through and around them, but was eventually subdued. Local police arrived, but Filner had already ceased resisting and they declined to file charges. Filner did, however, get his wish-senior officers later contacted Filner that evening and granted him permission to speak with the detainee. Filner returned and spoke with Imran, then approached Ramirez and apologized for his earlier conduct.

2007 Arrest

In August 2007, Filner was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault-and-battery after entering an off-limits baggage area at Washington-Dulles International Airport. He was visibly upset that his luggage hadn't appeared in the carousels and pushed aside the arm of an employee who ordered him to leave. The charge was subsequently reduced to trespassing and the congressman was fined $100.

The Issues

Filner has voted with his Democratic colleagues 96.4 percent of the time in the current Congress and 89.9 percent of the time throughout his congressional career.

The Economy

Filner's 2009 votes include voting in favor of bills to reform mortgage practices and curb predatory lending, prohibit firms who receive bailout funds from paying excessive bonuses, authorize bankruptcy courts to modify the terms of mortgages made on homeowners' primary residences, and protect employees from unequal pay based on gender.

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He opposed the 2008 bailout of Wall Street firms.

In every session of Congress since 1993, Filner has cosponsored legislation to raise the minimum wage. He has also actively supported government-provided services for taxpayers. In 2005, when the IRS announced the closing of 68 Taxpayer Assistance Centers nationwide, including the El Centro location, he joined 30 other representatives in protest. Their combined pressure led the IRS to scuttle the closure plans.

Energy

Filner voted for the 2009 climate change bill, sponsored by Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), to establish a nationwide carbon emission cap-and-trade system and to require that electric companies reduce energy consumption through efficiencies and substitution of renewable energy for fossil fuels.

Also in 2009, he cosponsored a permanent prohibition on oil and gas leasing and drilling off the coast of California.

In 2007, he cosponsored a mandate-ultimately unsuccessful, as the bill never made it past the House Energy and Commerce Committee -that the Department of Energy grant states and local communities the final say in designation of corridors for massive transmission power lines, prohibit lines from encompassing protected land, assess the feasibility of any future project's lines being placed underground, and analyze all alternative measures, particularly ones that could address energy transmission constraints or congestion. He also signed a letter to then-Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, requesting that the department extend the comment period for designations by 30 days and hold meetings in every affected congressional district to discuss the potential impacts.

Veterans Affairs

Filner had only one major objection to the 2009 economic stimulus act: It didn't fund any services for veterans. While the act was under consideration, Filner urged Congress to allocate some stimulus funding toward modernizing the 153 existing Veterans Administration medical facilities, repairing veterans' cemeteries, constructing new VA hospitals, addressing the claims backlog and investing in vocational rehabilitation for returning combat veterans.

In the 110th Congress, the California Democrat sponsored a bill to require that all of the VA medical centers provide chiropractic care, and a separate bill to extend the period of combat veterans' eligibility for subsidized health care to five years (it had previously been two). In May 2007 , the House voted for both by overwhelming margins.

In January 2007, Filner announced plans for a major overhaul of the GI bill, first enacted in 1944. He said that revelations of disrepair at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center were "the tip of the iceberg."

In 2006, following reports of a major computer security lapse at the VA, Filner prevailed upon members of both parties to enact upgrades to data security.

In 2003, dismayed that many of the Filipino enlistees in the U.S. Army during World War II were deprived of promised benefits and veterans' status after the war, he pressed Congress to hold hearings and belatedly approve dues to the surviving veterans. On his lead, the House officially recognized the contributions of Filipino veterans during the war. The House then approved a bill, sponsored by Filner, to give Filipino World War II veterans full access to VA medical facilities, and to increase the compensation they receive to be on par with other U.S. veterans.

The Network

Filner didn't endorse a candidate for president in the 2008 Democratic primary until Hillary Rodham Clinton conceded in June 2008. As a superdelegate, he then officially pledged his support for Barack Obama, looking forward to a future Obama administration as an opportunity for "working for real gains for America's veterans."

His House reelection campaigns draw more than 43 percent of their funding from labor unions. Top contributors include the Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union, United Auto Workers, United Food & Commercial Workers Union, American Association for Justice, and Air Line Pilots Association. Health professionals associations and law firms provide, respectively, an additional 10 percent and 9 percent.

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