November 18, 2005 12:00 PM
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
D-California
Reservation
Barbara Boxer, a United States Senator since 1993, will talk about her debut novel "A Time to Run," the story of a liberal California Senator who deals with friendship and betrayal, idealism and pragmatism, and in-fighting and public spin surrounding the nomination of an ultraconservative Hispanic female Supreme Court justice.
Senator Boxer, who served 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming a senator, is known as a forceful advocate for families, children, consumers, the environment, and her State of California.
In 1995, Boxer wrote the law creating the first authorization for federal funding for local afterschool programs, and in 1997, authored a Patients’ Bill of Rights. She also authored the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the Violence Against Children Act and Freedom of Choice Act of 2004. In addition, Senator Boxer has won numerous awards for her efforts to create a cleaner, healthier environment, fighting to remove arsenic from drinking water, block oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and revitalize the Superfund by making polluters pay to clean up their toxic waste.
Senator Boxer serves on the Senate Committees on Commerce, Foreign Relations, and Environment and Public Works, is the Democratic Chief Deputy Whip, and on the Democratic Policy Committee's Committee on Oversight and Investigations.