1. Barbara Sue Boxer is a retired American politician, lobbyist, and former reporter who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017.
59 Facts About Barbara Boxer
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Barbara Boxer worked as a stockbroker for several years before moving to California with her husband.
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Barbara Boxer served on the Marin County Board of Supervisors for six years and became the board's first female president.
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Barbara Boxer was the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and the vice chair of the Select Committee on Ethics.
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In January 2021, it was reported that Barbara Boxer was working as registered foreign agent for Hikvision, a Chinese state-sponsored surveillance company implicated in human rights abuses.
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Barbara Boxer Sue Levy was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Sophie and Ira Levy, a Jewish couple.
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Barbara Boxer attended public schools, graduating from George W Wingate High School in 1958.
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In 1962, she married Stewart Barbara Boxer and graduated from Brooklyn College with a bachelor's degree in economics.
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Barbara Boxer worked as a stockbroker in the early 1960s while her husband went to law school.
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Barbara Boxer first ran for political office in 1972, when she challenged incumbent Republican Peter Arrigoni, a member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, but lost a close election.
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From 1972 to 1974, Barbara Boxer worked as a reporter and editor for the Pacific Sun.
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Barbara Boxer then managed the Marin campaign of John Burton, the brother of Phillip Burton, who then was the congressman representing southern San Francisco, California.
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Burton narrowly won both crowded races and was sworn into office in 1974, and Barbara Boxer became his staff aide.
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In 1976, Barbara Boxer was elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors, serving for six years.
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Barbara Boxer narrowly won her first election with 52 percent of the vote, but easily won re-election in her subsequent races.
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Barbara Boxer was a member of the original Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families that was established in 1983.
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Barbara Boxer sat on the Armed Services committee throughout her tenure in the House.
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In 1992, Barbara Boxer was implicated in the House banking scandal, which revealed that more than 450 congressional representatives and aides, herself included, wrote overdraft checks covered by the House Bank's overdraft protection.
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Barbara Boxer wrote a $15 check to the Deficit Reduction Fund for each of her 87 overdrafts.
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In what was billed as the "Year of the Woman", Barbara Boxer beat fellow Rep.
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On January 6,2005, Barbara Boxer joined Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones in filing a US congressional objection to the certification of Ohio's Electoral College votes in the 2004 US presidential election.
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Barbara Boxer called the objection her "opening shot to be able to focus the light of truth on these terrible problems in the electoral system".
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Barbara Boxer has worked as a paid consultant on behalf of Poseidon Water as part of that company's effort to install a desalination plant in Huntington Beach, California, and for CityLift Parking, a company in Oakland, California, that designs automated parking lifts.
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Barbara Boxer has been accused of involvement in the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region.
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Barbara Boxer has been described as a "liberal lion", as well as a "progressive force".
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Barbara Boxer voted against John Bolton's nomination for US Ambassador to the United Nations in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and filibustered him on the Senate floor.
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Barbara Boxer voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice of the United States nominee John Roberts and against the confirmation of Associate Justice nominee Samuel Alito.
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On October 1,2008, Barbara Boxer voted for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.
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Barbara Boxer established the Excellence in Education award to recognize teachers, parents, businesses and organizations working to make positive changes in education.
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Barbara Boxer voted for the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which mandated the use of voting machines across the country, among other provisions.
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Barbara Boxer introduced a bill on November 15,2016, calling for a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College and to select future presidents by a simple national vote only.
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Barbara Boxer opposed the nuclear energy deal between the United States and India.
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Barbara Boxer believed that India should not receive aid from the US in the civilian nuclear energy sector until it broke its relationship with Iran.
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Barbara Boxer successfully led the 2003 Senate floor battle to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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In 2005, Barbara Boxer voted again to block oil drilling at ANWR.
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Barbara Boxer introduced the National Oceans Protection Act of 2005.
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Barbara Boxer was an original cosponsor of Senator Jim Jeffords' Clean Power Act.
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In 1997, the Senate passed a Barbara Boxer resolution calling on the United States not to recognize the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan because of its human rights abuses against women.
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Barbara Boxer voted against the first Gulf War while a member of the House in 1991.
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In October 2002, Barbara Boxer voted against the joint resolution passed by the US Congress to authorize the use of military force by the Bush administration against Iraq.
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Barbara Boxer was sharply critical of US Army General David Petraeus' testimony regarding the political and military situation of Iraq in 2007, charging him with reporting while wearing "rosy glasses".
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In January 2007, Barbara Boxer was in the news for comments she made when responding to Bush's plans to send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq.
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Senator Barbara Boxer joined colleagues to pass a federal ban on various semi-automatic firearms and established the COPS program.
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Barbara Boxer was part of a coalition to increase medical research to find cures for diseases.
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Barbara Boxer has written a bill to make health insurance tax-deductible and a bill to allow any American buy into the same health insurance program that members of Congress have.
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Barbara Boxer supported comprehensive prescription drug coverage through Medicare and the right of all consumers to purchase lower-cost prescription drugs re-imported from Canada.
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In October 2002, Barbara Boxer urged the Bush administration to take specific steps to address the causes of the steep increase in autism cases in California.
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Barbara Boxer advocated for embryonic stem-cell research, asserting that it has the potential to help those with diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injuries, and other diseases.
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In 1996, Barbara Boxer was one of 14 senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act.
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Barbara Boxer voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006, although when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued a directive to the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, she stated that she supported California's domestic partnership law but believed that marriage was between a man and a woman.
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Barbara Boxer opposed Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that prohibited same-sex marriage in California, and supported the Uniting American Families Act.
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Barbara Boxer opposed reforming marijuana policy and opposed a California ballot measure to legalize and tax marijuana for those 21 and older in the state.
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Barbara Boxer authored the Freedom of Choice Act of 2004 and participated in the floor fight for passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
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In June 2008, Barbara Boxer spoke in the Senate in opposition to the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, a pending bill in the United States Congress to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and later broke with her counterpart Dianne Feinstein and voted against it.
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Barbara Boxer has made cameo appearances as herself in several television shows, including Murphy Brown, Gilmore Girls and Curb Your Enthusiasm, as well as a cameo in the 2000 film Traffic.
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In November 2016, Barbara Boxer appeared in an episode of Chelsea, presented by Chelsea Handler, entitled "Do Not Despair About Our Country", filmed shortly after the result of the 2016 US presidential election was known, during which Handler wept about the result.
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Barbara and Stewart Boxer had two children, Doug and Nicole.
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On May 28,1994, Nicole Barbara Boxer married Tony Rodham, the younger brother of Hillary Clinton, in a ceremony at the White House attended by 250 guests.
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On July 26,2021, Barbara Boxer was assaulted and robbed of her mobile phone in the Jack London Square section of Oakland, California.