Rep. Steny H. Hoyer

As House Democratic Whip since 2011, Congressman Hoyer is the second-ranking member of the House Democratic Leadership. He is charged with mobilizing the party vote on important legislation, shaping House Democrats legislative priorities, and delivering the Democratic message. Congressman Hoyer previously served as House Majority Leader from 2007 to 2011, and as House Democratic Whip from 2003 to 2007.Congressman Hoyer has helped lead efforts in Congress to invest in job creation and make our economy more competitive. Since 2010, he has spearheaded the bipartisan Make It In America plan, which is focused on creating the conditions that encourage businesses to create jobs in the United States. In late 2015, he held a series of hearings called Make It In America: Whats Next? to solicit feedback and ideas from Members of Congress, manufacturers, innovators, workers, and economists as to how the plan can be updated to meet new economic challenges and take advantage of new opportunities for 2016 and beyond.Congressman Hoyer believes that fiscal responsibility is critical to ensuring that we have the resources to invest in our future and restore certainty to businesses and workers. To that end, he helped lead the restoration of the pay-as-you-go law, ensuring that our country pays for what it buys, and has been an advocate for a big and balanced approach to putting our nation on a sound fiscal path.In addition, Congressman Hoyer made crucial contributions to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded access to quality, affordable health care to all Americans, as well as new common-sense rules to rein in Wall Street excesses and protect consumers while upholding the free market. He has been a longtime proponent of full-service community schools, whose range of services have been shown to improve academic performance and parental involvement in at-risk communities.As an advocate of equal opportunity, Congressman Hoyer guided the historic Americans with Disabilities Act to passage in 1990, as well as the ADA Amendments Act in 2008 that strengthened the law. He was a lead sponsor of the Help America Vote Act in 2002, which was hailed as the most important voting rights legislation since the 1960s. Over the past few years, as several state legislatures have imposed new and discriminatory barriers to ballot access, Congressman Hoyer has helped lead an effort to protect every Americans right to vote and have those votes counted accurately. Furthermore, in 2010, he was a leader in successfully ending the outdated and discriminatory policy of Dont Ask, Dont Tell, which weakened our military by depriving it of the service of thousands of brave Americans willing to risk their lives for their country.One of Congresss leading champions of human rights, Congressman Hoyer served as Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, fighting for political and religious freedom during the last years of the Soviet Union. He led a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Darfur in 2007 to call greater attention to the recent genocide and has continued to support a strong American role in defense of human rights.Congressman Hoyer and his wife, the late Judith Pickett Hoyer, have three daughters: Susan, Stefany, and Anne; son-in-law Loren Taylor; grandchildren Judy, James Cleveland, and Alexa; and great-grandchildren Ava, Braedon, and Brooklyn.