Rohrabacher's district includes numerous aerospace and technology companies and he has worked to champion their interests throughout his tenure. He formerly chaired the Science Committee panel on Space and Aeronautics, where he introduced bills intended to foster human space flight; in 2004, Goerge W. Bush signed into law his bill to promote development of the commercial human space flight industry.

Foreign Policy

Rohrabacher regularly makes his emphatic views known during Foreign Relations Committee debates. He is ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations' International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight panel.

He has long sought to be more hawkish on China and sharply criticized the 2000 law permanently permitting Chinese goods to enter the United States under the same low tariffs afforded most other countries. With California Democrat Maxine Waters, he sought to have the United States boycott the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

He joined with Democrats in 2009 to threaten the Obama administration to disclose, in open session, whether a Chinese delegation was allowed to question detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who are members of a Muslim minority in China called the Uighurs.

In September 2008, Rohrabacher publicly sided with Russia when it invaded Georgia, putting himself at odds with George W. Bush's administration. Earlier that year, he joined Democrats in blasting the Bush White House for being unwilling to obtain Congress' approval for an agreement on Iraq.

Immigration

Rohrabacher has been in line with the majority of his party in his unwillingness to allow illegal immigrants a path to U.S. citizenship.

He joined conservatives in taking up the cause of a pair of U.S. Border Patrol agents who were sentenced to prison in 2006 for the non-fatal shooting of a man who turned out to be a drug smuggler seeking to flee across the Texas border. When President Bush commuted the agents' sentences in January 2009 shortly before leaving office, Rohrabacher was jubilant. "This is not just a day of celebration for the families but it is a victory for all Americans, while acknowledging our system is flawed, to see that if they are involved, if they speak up and utilize their freedom, injustices can be corrected," he said.

Health-Care Reform

Rohrabacher also is staunchly opposed to Democratic efforts to enact what he dismissively calls "government-mandated" health care.

After Obama gave a September 2009 speech on the subject to a joint session of Congress, Rohrabacher criticized the president for paying lip service to listening to Republicans: "Republicans are used to hearing the president talk about cooperation followed by a total lack of cooperation by his administration. It's no different than Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football."

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