Louisiana Democratic Senator John Breaux

Senator John Breaux represented the 7th District of Louisiana for 14 years before being elected to the Senate in 1986.  In 1972, at the age of 28, he became the youngest member in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1998, Senator Breaux was re-elected to a third term in the U.S. Senate, maintaining his title as Louisiana's senior senator.  In 1993, his Democratic colleagues elected him to serve as Chief Deputy Whip, a position he has held for three congressional terms and continues to hold through the 107th Congress.

A senior member of the Finance Committee, Breaux serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy. He serves on two other Finance subcommittees: Health Care, and Taxation and IRS Oversight.

Breaux is also a member of the Senate Rules Committee.  The Rules Commitee is responsible for federal elections, including contested elections, presidential succession, and all of the operations of the Senate.

Breaux is chairman of the Special Committee on Aging. He has used this position to highlight the importance of protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare. In 1998, he was selected by the White House and House and Senate leaders to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. Also in 1998, Breaux co-chaired the National Commission on Retirement Policy, which produced legislation to help reform Social Security.

As a member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Breaux has worked on a variety of issues, including telecommunications, consumer protection, fisheries, shipping, tourism and aviation.  He is chairman of the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine.  The Senator also serves on four additional subcommittees: Aviation; Communication; Oceans and Fisheries; and Science, Technology and Space.

For the past several years, as the leader of the Centrist Coalition of Senate Democrats and Republicans, Breaux has sought bipartisan agreements in a number of areas, including the balanced budget, welfare reform and health care reform.

Breaux has been at the forefront of the effort to return the national Democratic Party to the center of American politics. He was a founder and past chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, succeeding Bill Clinton in 1991.

Braux was born in Crowley, Louisiana.  Breaux is a graduate of Southwestern Louisiana University in Lafayette and the Louisiana State University School of Law in Baton Rouge. He and his wife Lois have four children.