Congresswoman
Lois Capps - Bio
6.100942 October 15,
2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-lois-capps/#blogger_bio
Congresswoman Lois Capps was sworn in as a Freshman Member of
the 105th Congress on March 17, 1998, succeeding her late husband, Congressman
Walter Capps. She was the Representative of California’s 22nd District from
1998 to 2002.
Since January, 2003, Capps has served as the Representative of the 23rd
District. Her district includes portions of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and
Ventura Counties.
Lois Capps is committed to helping people improve their daily lives through
better schools, quality health care, and a cleaner environment. Capps is a
respected leader in Congress on issues of public health, passing legislation to
address the national nursing shortage, detect and prevent domestic violence
against women, curb underage drinking, improve mental health services, provide
emergency defibrillators to local communities, bring CPR instruction to
schools, and provide immediate Medicare coverage to patients suffering from Lou
Gehrig’s disease.
Capps has also been at the forefront of efforts to protect the environment. She
led efforts to stop new oil and gas drilling off our coasts, reduce the amount
of new oil drilling in Los Padres National Park, and protect consumers from
shouldering the financial burden of cleaning up MTBE contamination in their
water supplies.
Capps serves on the powerful Committee on Energy and Commerce and its
Subcommittees on Telecommunications and the Internet; Health; and Environment
and Hazardous Materials. From these posts, Capps continues to focus on Medicare
reform, the nursing shortage, cancer, mental health, energy policy, the environment and telecommunications issues. Capps also
serves on the influential Natural Resources Committee and its Subcommittees on
Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans and National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.
Serving on this committee will provide Capps with an opportunity to help
guarantee the long term protection of our nation’s public lands and coastal
waters. On this Committee she will work to ensure that we serve as faithful
stewards and manage our precious natural resources in a responsible manner.
During her 20-year tenure as a nurse and health advocate for the Santa Barbara
School District, thousands of Santa Barbara’s children and families benefited
from Capps’ personal care and leadership. As director of Santa Barbara County’s
Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting Project and the Parent and Child Enrichment
Center, Capps gave countless young parents the support and encouragement to
stay in school while providing them with critical child development skills to
ensure their children grow up in healthy, loving environments. Capps also
taught for 10 years as a part-time instructor of Early Childhood Education at
Santa Barbara City College.
Capps now draws on this extensive healthcare background as founder and co-chair
of the House Nursing Caucus. She is the Democratic Chair of the Congressional
Caucus for Women’s Issues. She also serves as co-chair of the Congressional
Heart and Stroke Coalition, the House Cancer Caucus, the Congressional
Biomedical Research Caucus, the Congressional School Health and Safety Caucus, the
Congressional Hearing Health Caucus, and the House Democratic Task Force on
Health.
Capps was born in Ladysmith, Wisconsin on January 10, 1938. After graduating
with honors from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington with a
Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing, she worked as a nursing instructor in
Portland, Oregon. Capps earned a Master of Arts degree in Religion from Yale
University while working as Head Nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital. In addition,
she earned a Master of Arts degree in Education from the University of
California, Santa Barbara and received honorary doctorates from Pacific
Lutheran University and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. The daughter of
a Lutheran minister, Capps has been an active member of Grace Lutheran Church
since 1964.
Capps was married to Walter Capps for 37 years. Their immediate family
includes: daughter Laura; son Todd, his wife Julie and their son Aden; daughter
Lisa, who passed away February of 2000; Lisa's husband, Nathan, their sons
David and Walter, and Nathan’s wife Caitlin.