Peter Hoekstra

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U.S. Representative

Peter Hoekstra (R)

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MI-02

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Positions
Leadership: No leadership position
Committees: House Committee on Education and Labor, and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
(subcommittees and past assignments)

2010 candidates for MI-02
(Next election: November 2, 2010)

Confirmed: Bill Huizenga, Fred Johnson, Jay Riemersma
Considering: Wayne Kuipers, Bill Cooper
Rumored: None so far
Potential: None so far
Dropped-out: Peter Hoekstra
(more info & editing for MI-02)
On the Web
Official website
Twitter:

YouTube Channel
Peter Hoekstra doesn't have a YouTube channel.
Here's the House Republican channel instead.


Peter Hoekstra has been a Republican member of the U. S. House of Representatives, representing Michigan's 2nd District, since 1993. The district is based in Muskegon and stretches for 5,500 square miles along Lake Michigan.


Contents

Record and controversies

Congressional scorecards

Click through the score to see the records of other members of Congress and full descriptions of the individual votes.

Want to see someone else's scorecard added to the list? You can do it!

Organization 2007 Scorecard
Score - Agree ratio
American Conservative Union 92 - 23/25
AFSCME -
Americans for Democratic Action 5 - 1/20
U.S. Chamber of Commerce -






Iraq War

For more information see the chart of U.S. House of Representatives votes on the Iraq War.

Hoekstra voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 that started the Iraq War.[1]

Environmental record

For more information on environmental legislation, see the Energy and Environment Policy Portal

2007 SCHIP Vote

In 2007, Congress took up the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides health care for about 6 million children and 670,000 adults from families who earn too much money qualify for Medicare but not enough to afford health insurance. Congressional Democrats and many Republicans tried to use the opportunity to dramatically expand the program but were opposed by President George W. Bush and other Republicans. In 2006, 5.4 million children were eligible but not enrolled in SCHIP or Medicaid and 9.4 million total children were uninsured.

Hoekstra voted against the first House bill, which passed along party lines. It would have added $47 billion over five years to the $25 billion cost of the program and added about 5 million people to the program, including children, some legal immigrants, pregnant women and adults aged 18 and 19. The bill was financed mainly by an increase in cigarette taxes.

House Democrats, with 45 Republicans, later compromised and passed a bill which expanded the plan by $35 billion and would have insured about 3.5 million more children from families generally making between 250% and 300% of the federal poverty line (about $51,000 to $62,000 for a family of four). Most non-pregnant, childless adults were excluded, as were most legal immigrants and all illegal immigrants. Hoekstra voted against the bill.

After President Bush vetoed the bill, Democratic leaders attempted to override the veto with the same bill but failed. Hoekstra voted against the bill.

House Democrats then attempted to override it with another bill, which gave into Republican demands for increased checks for citizenship, the quick phasing-out of adult coverage, a hard limit of 300% of the federal poverty level and funding for families that covered their children through private insurance instead. Republicans, angry that the vote was scheduled during massive fires in California, blocked the veto override. Hoekstra voted against the bill. For details on the bills and the debate, see the main State Children's Health Insurance Program page.

Chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee

In 2006, while Hoekstra was chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the committee investigated the actions of former Rep. Duke Cunningham during the time when he had been a member. Cunningham had already been convicted of bribery and was imprisoned for his actions benefitting a defense contractor while on another committee. The Republicans believed that the committee report would be released in a non-partisan manner, which to them signified waiting until after the November elections to make the findings public. On October 17, however, the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), released the committee's full-report detailing Cunningham's systematic abuse of his position. This infuriated committee Republicans, who claimed it was a politically-timed stunt. In September, a summary of the National Intelligence Estimate had leaked to the New York Times, angering Republicans, particularly Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), who wrote to Hoekstra asking for an investigation into the matter.[1] Later, in response to Harman, LaHood released to the media his earlier letter accusing Democratic staffers of impropriety. [2]

Almost immediately, Hoekstra suspended a Democratic committee staffer. Hoekstra claimed that it was necessary to examine whether he had leaked the NIE. Democrats immediately declared it political retaliation for Harman releasing the Cunningham report. The staffer, Larry Hanauer, denied all responsibility for the leak and Democrats pointed out that thousands of people had access to the NIE. Harman wrote Hoekstra demanding that Hanauer be reinstated.[3]

Rather than acquiesce to these demands, however, Hoekstra proposed appointing a "a Republican investigator to interview every (Democratic) staff member, review telephone and email records of all staff, review other 'relevant' records, and obtain affidavits." [4] Committee Democrats responded negatively to the proposal calling it a partisian witch hunt.[5]

Bio

Hoekstra was born October 30, 1953 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Hoekstra emigrated to Holland, Michigan at the age of 3 with his family. Coincidentally, Hoekstra's district has the largest concentration of Dutch-Americans in the country. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Hope College in Holland, Michigan in 1975 and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1977.

Prior to running for Congress, Hoekstra worked for office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, eventually rising to vice president for marketing.

Congressional career

In 1992, he ran in the Republican primary for the 2nd District, which had been renumbered from the 9th after the 1990 census. The district had been held for 26 years by Guy Vander Jagt, longtime chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. However, Hoekstra rode his bicycle across the district, charging that Vander Jagt had been in Congress too long. He promised to serve only six terms (12 years) in the House. He scored a monumental upset, winning by almost six points. This primary win was tantamount to election in the 2nd, which is the most Republican district in Michigan (Republicans have held the district for all but four years since its creation in 1873). He has been reelected six times with virtually no Democratic opposition, never dropping below 65 percent of the vote.

In 2004, Hoekstra announced that he would run for another term after all, citing his membership on the House Select Committee on Intelligence. He faced no significant opposition in the Republican primary, all but clinching a 7th term. Shortly after the primary, he was named chairman of the committee, succeeding Porter Goss, who was named to head the CIA.

2006 elections

In 2006, the Democrats nominated Kimon Kotos to face Hoekstra in his November 2006 bid for reelection. (See U.S. congressional elections in 2006) [6] Hoekstra retained his seat.

2010 retirement

On Monday, December 15, 2008, Hoekstra announced he will not seek re-election in 2010. His announcement paves the way for a run at the governor's seat which will be vacated by Democrat Jennifer Granholm due to term limits. His exit will create a substantial opening in the House Select Committee on Intelligence were he is the ranking Republican at the moment. [1]

Money in politics

This section contains links to – and feeds from – money in politics databases. For specific controversies, see this article's record and controversies section.

Links to more campaign contribution information for Peter Hoekstra
from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.
Fundraising profile: 2008 election cycle Career totals
Top contributors by organization/corporation: 2008 election cycle Career totals
Top contributors by industry: 2008 election cycle Career totals


Committees and Affiliations

Committees

Committees in the 110th Congress (2007-2008)

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

More Background Data

Wikipedia also has an article on Peter Hoekstra. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

Contact

DC office
  • 2234 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
    Ph: 202-225-4401 Fax: 202-226-0779
    Webform email
District offices
  • 210 1/2 North Mitchell Street, Cadillac, MI 49601
    Ph: 231-775-0050 Fax: (none entered)
  • 184 South River Avenue, Holland, MI 49423
    Ph: 616-395-0030 Fax: (none entered)
  • 900 Third Street, Suite 203, Muskegon, MI 49440
    Ph: 231-722-8386 Fax: (none entered)
On the Web
  • This member of Congress does not have a YouTube channel.
Campaign office
  • No campaign website entered.
  • No campaign webform email entered.
  • No campaign office information entered.

Twitter

Articles and Resources

Sourcewatch Resources

External Resources

Articles & Commentary

Local blogs and discussion sites


Semantic data


Latitude: 44°15′5.841″N
Longitude: 85°24′1.864″W Latitude: 42°47′26.168″N
Longitude: 86°6′32.369″W Latitude: 43°14′9.836″N
Longitude: 86°15′14.592″W







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