Houston Area Liberty Campaign

By: Joe Q. Citizen, edited by HALC staff
[Compiled from: http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=27100]

Raymond Eugene “Gene” Green, born October 17, 1947, is a Democratic politician and a representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.  He’s a congressman from the state of Texas, representing Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives’ Texas 29th congressional district. The district includes most of eastern Houston, along with large portions of Houston’s eastern suburbs.

==Biography and career==

Green graduated from the University of Houston, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1971.  He earned a law degree in 1977. He held positions as a business manager and a private attorney prior to his election to Congress.

Green was first elected to the  Texas House of Representatives in 1972. Green rose to the Texas State Senate in 1985 and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992. Although the 29th was then and now drawn as a majority-Hispanic district, Green finished second in the five-way Democratic primary, behind Houston City Councilman, Ben Reyes. Green defeated Reyes in the runoff by only 180 votes, all but assuring him of election in this heavily Democratic district. Green has been re-elected six times, never facing substantive Republican Party opposition. The Republicans didn’t even bother to file a candidate against him in 1998, 2002 or 2004??  Good boy, Gene-o.

In September 2004, he proposed the Every Vote Counts Amendment, which would have abolished the United States Electoral College in Presidential elections.  Green must have been the odd man out when drawing straws to oppose this one, eh?

In 2007, he became vice-chairman of the powerful U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He also serves as a deputy whip.[1]

Green was also on many of the energy and commerce committees during the Enron scandal.  He kept his trap shut. Oh yeah, and the hammering at the gas pumps.

Green has worked in Congress on issues relating to the working poor, seniors, and the many Hispanic immigrants that reside in his district. He has advocated an increase in the minimum wage, more funding for job training, better access for the poor to technology, and a reorganization of prescription programs to lessen the burden of cost on seniors. He hosts within his district each year events that help children receive vaccines and that assist permanent resident aliens to work toward citizenship. This fella is a straight up devil. I wonder how much the prescription drug lobbyists[2] paid him for his unfailing support of pills for the elderly?

He voted in favor of the Iraq Resolution in 2002, and gave a speech on the house floor linking Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks. Despite the Democratic leadership’s general disapproval of the war, Green has voted against measures aimed at placing a timetable on military withdrawal.

Green sacrificed his democrat integrity to support the Republicans and neo-cons in a bogus war on terror. (see: Ron Paul)

On September 18, 2003, six months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, President Bush “explicitly stated for the first time” that there was “no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved” in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Green is currently the only white Democrat representing a significant portion of Houston.

==Committee assignments==
United States House

1. Committee on Energy and Commerce

Energy Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection
Energy Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
Energy Subcommittee on Health

Energy Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

1. Committee on Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia

Sources:

http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=27100
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Green
http://www.historycentral.com/20th/1947.html
http://www.senate.state.tx.us/
http://www.house.gov/
http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/tx29_109.gif
http://www.houstontx.gov/council/index.html
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hj109-8
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_residence_(United_States)
http://www.c-span.org/resources/pdf/hjres114.pdf
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force_Against_Iraq_Resolution_of_2002

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[1] A member of a legislature appointed to facilitate party organization within the legislature.

[2] In this Bill Moyers interview, none other than her Highness, Nancy Pelosi, herself appears and states: “Our first order of business is passing the toughest congressional ethics reform in history.”