42 Facts About Spencer Bachus

Spencer Bachus is a former US Representative for the state of Alabama, serving from 1993 to 2015.

On September 30,2013, Bachus announced his retirement from Congress.

Spencer Bachus served in the Alabama National Guard before being elected to the Alabama State School Board in 1986 and holding the position of Alabama Republican Party Chairman in 1991.

Spencer Bachus was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1992, and was re-elected by wide margins.

From 2006 to 2012, Spencer Bachus was the leading Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, serving as committee chairman when his party held a House majority during the 112th Congress.

Spencer Bachus was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Edith and Jim Spencer Bachus Jr.

Spencer Bachus graduated from Auburn University in 1969 where he became a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.

Spencer Bachus served in the Alabama National Guard from 1969 to 1971, during the Vietnam War, while attending law school; Bachus earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama Law School in 1972.

From 2006 to 2012, Spencer Bachus was the leading Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, serving as committee chairman when his party held a House majority during the 112th Congress.

On September 30,2013, Spencer Bachus announced his retirement from Congress.

Spencer Bachus got a major assist from redistricting, which drew most of Birmingham's black neighborhoods into the majority-black 7th district, replacing them with suburban and Republican territory around Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.

Spencer Bachus sought reelection in 2012 after the 6th was redrawn to cut out its share of Tuscaloosa.

Spencer Bachus won every county in the district except for Blount County.

However, the new 6th was as heavily Republican as its predecessor, and Spencer Bachus turned back this challenge fairly easily, defeating Bailey with 71 percent of the vote.

Spencer Bachus had a conservative voting record, with a lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union.

Spencer Bachus was a signer of Americans for Tax Reform's Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

Spencer Bachus was an active legislator, engaged in many important issues over the course of his congressional career.

Spencer Bachus helped amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to curtail identity theft and ease consumer access to their credit reports.

Spencer Bachus criticized the Bush administration over negotiations with the genocidal regime in Sudan, and urged Bush to stop payment of oil revenues to the Sudanese government.

Spencer Bachus was credited when the Bush Administration decided, in 2007, to place sanctions on Sudan.

In 1995, Spencer Bachus pushed for the creation of the Alabama National Cemetery, a United States National Cemetery located in Montevallo, Alabama.

On November 4,1999, Spencer Bachus voted in favor of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

In 2006, as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Spencer Bachus worked on bipartisan draft subprime mortgage reform legislation to address abuses in the lending market.

In 2008, Spencer Bachus proposed the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing, an addition to the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 that required licensing for mortgage brokers.

In 2010, Spencer Bachus stated that "ending the bailout of Fannie [Mae] and Freddie [Mac]" was his top priority as Chairman of the Financial Services Committee.

In 2012, Spencer Bachus called on Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to speed up veterans claims processing.

Spencer Bachus demanded that the Department outline the specific steps being taken to reduce the backlog.

In 2013, Spencer Bachus was the only member of Alabama's congressional delegation to vote in favor of defunding the National Security Agency's collection of phone records.

Spencer Bachus has been an outspoken critic of the NSA program since news of it was leaked by Edward Snowden.

Spencer Bachus was a lead House sponsor of legislation offering federal protection to the American flag, prohibiting its desecration.

Spencer Bachus was active in advancing the search for Natalee Holloway, who went missing while on a senior trip to Aruba.

The Congressional Ethics inquiry stemmed from an allegation by Peter Schweizer and later reported by 60 Minutes that Spencer Bachus made trades with a number of short-term stock options, betting that stocks would fall, after receiving sensitive non-public information on the state of the economy.

Schweizer claimed that from July through November 2008, Spencer Bachus traded in options at least forty times.

Spencer Bachus said that he "never trades on non public information, or financial services stocks".

Spencer Bachus was cleared by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which on April 30,2012, the announced that they had found no evidence of violations of insider-trading rules and recommended that the case against him be closed.

The allegations in the book, vis-a-vis Mr Spencer Bachus, are inaccurate; far worse is that these allegations are laughable to serious students of insider trading law.

Hewitt and Muny further demanded that Spencer Bachus not be awarded chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee.

Spencer Bachus has been called a "champion for cancer patients"; he and Mrs Spencer Bachus were awarded the National Distinguished Advocacy Award for Excellence in Cancer-Fighting Public Policy by The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the group's highest legislative honor.

Spencer Bachus was a member of the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease.

In October 2014, Mr and Mrs Spencer Bachus were honored at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's Ambassadors Ball for their efforts on behalf of the organization's Alabama-Mississippi chapter.

In September 2014, Linda Spencer Bachus was awarded Congressional Families Leadership Award for her role as the first executive director of the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program.

Spencer Bachus has three children and two step-children with his wife, Linda.