Causes/Issue Area(s): public service

Honors/Achievements: Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives

Judy Biggert’s pre-politics profile looks like that of a lot of other Junior Leaguers: married with four children, member and then President of the Junior League of Chicago, President of the Chicago Junior Board of the Traveler’s Aid Society; member and then president of her children’s school board.

Then she got into politics.

Judy served in the Illinois House from 1992 to 1998, including a stint as assistant Republican leader of the House. In 1998, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served until 2013.

Her interests can be tracked by her committee assignments in Congress:

• Committee on Education and the Workforce
  • Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
  • Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training

• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises
  • Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity

• Committee on Science, Space and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
  • Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation

In keeping with her claim of being “the mainstream Republican,” Judy has not been afraid to break with some in her party on controversial issues like the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act. The Washington Post once noted, “Biggert primarily focuses on education and labor, regularly working on largely non-controversial legislation in these areas, like a bill barring employers and health insurers from discrimination against people who have costly diseases revealed through genetic testing and another expanding funding for education for the homeless.”