Anthony C. Beilenson

U.S. Congressman Anthony C. Beilenson (Democrat - San Fernando Valley, West Los Angeles) completed 34 years of public service when he retired from Congress at the end of 1996. He was elected to the California State Assembly in 1962, to the California State Senate in 1966, and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976.

Beilenson was a senior member of the strategic and powerful Rules Committee, which controls consideration of all significant legislation in the House of Representatives. He was appointed to the committee in 1979, after serving on the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees during his first term in Congress. He chaired the committee's Subcommittee on Rules of the House, which has jurisdiction over procedures that govern the way the House operates.

Congressman Beilenson also served on the House Budget Committee, where he chaired the Task Force (the equivalent of a subcommittee) on the Budget Process, Reconciliation, and Enforcement. He was regarded as one of the experts in the House of Congressional budget procedures, and he chaired a special task force on the budget process from 1982 to 1984. Many of his recommendations for improving the process are now law.

In 1989 and 1990, Mr. Beilenson served as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The committee authorizes the budget and oversees the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the intelligence-related activities of all other departments of the federal government and is one of the primary foreign policy committees in Congress.

One of Congressman Beilenson's leading concerns has been the protection of natural resources and the environment. In 1978 he authored the legislation creating the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and he was responsible for securing $140 million for land acquisition for the park through the Congressional appropriations process. He was also responsible for obtaining federal funding for the creation of a 160-acre park and a 60-acre wildlife refuge in the San Fernando Valley's Sepulveda Flood Control Basin.

Long a leading advocate for the protection of endangered species, Beilenson authored the African Elephant Conservation Act of 1988, which restricted U.S. imports of elephant ivory. As the first action taken by an ivory-importing nation to protect the species, his legislation was the catalyst for the international campaign to save the elephant, which resulted in the 1989 decision by the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species to ban worldwide trade in elephant ivory. He was a principal co-sponsor of the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act, enacted in 1994, an effort to save these endangered species from extinction.

During his 14 years in the California State Legislature, Beilenson was chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare (1968-1974) and of the Senate Finance Committee (1975-1976). He authored over 200 state laws, many of which have served as models to other states and for legislative action on the federal level. Some of these California laws include: the first reform of the state's abortion laws in over a century (1967); the Auto Repair Fraud Act of 1971; the Funeral Reform Act of 1971; the most comprehensive family planning program in the nation; and the first state law to tax church-owned businesses.

While in the State Senate, Beilenson was named "Best All Around Senator" by the Capitol Press Corps and "Most Effective Senator" in a poll of his Senate colleagues of both parties. In 1974, in a poll of legislative aides, he was the one legislator of the 120 in the State Legislature to rank in the top three of each of the named categories: "Most Intelligent," "Most Honest," and "Most Effective." More recently Beilenson was named in a 1990 survey by Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, as one of the "20 Smartest Members" of the U.S. Congress.

A leading advocate of campaign finance reform, Beilenson was one of the few members of Congress who refused to accept PAC contributions, and until the House of Representatives banned honoraria in 1991, he was one of an even smaller number of members who rejected both PAC money and honoraria. In 1989 he was named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the House of Representatives' "Straightest Arrows"-a group of 12 representatives "whose integrity is beyond question."

Beilenson was born in New Rochelle, New York, and attended public schools in Mount Vernon, New York. He was graduated from Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, in 1950; from Harvard College in 1954 with an A.B. in American Government; and from Harvard Law School in 1957.

His wife Dolores, a former school teacher, was a founder and co-chairwoman of Congressional Wives for Soviet Jewry and a founding executive board member of the Congressional Spouses Forum on Global Human Rights. She was also an active board member of Congressional Families for Drug-Free Youth and of several other groups involved with women's issues, education, and mental health. The Beilensons have three children and eight grandchildren.