Waxman, Henry Arnold, 1939–, U.S. congressman, b. Los Angeles, grad. Univ. of California, Los Angeles. (B.A., 1961; J.D., 1964). After serving (1969–74) in the California state assembly, he won (1975) the first of his 20 consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. A liberal Democrat, he chaired the oversight and government reform (2007–8) and energy and commerce (2009–10) committees as well as energy and commerce's subcommittee on health and the environment (1979–94). Particularly concerned with environmental and health issues, Waxman crafted and helped pass laws to improve food safety and labeling, to expand Medicare and Medicaid, to provide health insurance to low-income children, to reform nursing homes, and to modernize the Postal Service. He also was instrumental in the adoption of the 1990 amendments to Clean Air Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010).
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