After 40 Years, Henry Waxman deserves some real accolades!

elected 20 times, served 40 years.

His longevity and his forcefulness made him a major Capitol Hill player who left a significant mark on public policy. He brought the tobacco lobby to heel, helped enact the healthcare overhaul and has kept climate and environmental issues on the front burner.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-waxman-elections-politics-gerrymandering-20140130,0,3471962.story#ixzz2s0KqysnJ

Thanks Henry!

Henry Waxman, Key Democrat and Force for Health Care Law, Is to Retire

"Mr. Waxman will leave behind a legacy of entrenched accomplishments, including the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which extends coverage to millions of low-income children; anti-tobacco, food safety and food-labeling laws; and the Ryan White Care Act, which allocates billions of dollars in federal money for the treatment of H.I.V. and AIDS.

He is also credited with laying the foundation for many of the executive actions that Mr. Obama, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, pledged to pursue.

One involves the Clean Air Act, which Mr. Waxman helped write and which gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority it is now exercising to regulate power plant emissions of greenhouse gases. Mr. Waxman saw to it that the bill would allow the president, on his own, to order improvements in automobile fuel efficiency and other energy saving efforts.

Mr. Waxman — whose 33rd Congressional District hugs the Southern California coast and includes Malibu, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica — has long been a House leader."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/us/politics/henry-a-waxman-a-house-democratic-fixture-will-retire.html?_r=0