Barney Frank

Barney Frank

Barney Frank (born March 31, 1940 in Bayonne , New Jersey ) is an American politician ( Democratic Party ). From 1981 to 2013 he represented the fourth congressional constituency of the state of Massachusetts in the US House of Representatives . He was chairman of the finance committee there until 2011 .

Early years

After finishing school, Frank studied at Harvard University , where he received his bachelor's degree in 1962. During his doctoral studies he worked as an assistant and gave lessons in this context. Before attaining the Ph.D. however, he left Harvard to become Chief Assistant to Mayor Kevin White in Boston. After three years, he moved to MP Michael J. Harrington as Administrative Assistant .

In 1972, Frank was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he served eight years. During this time he attended Harvard Law School and graduated in 1977.

During these years he also taught at times at the University of Massachusetts Boston , at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Boston University . Frank published several political articles. In 1992 he published an essay entitled Speaking Frankly on the role the Democratic Party would play in the 1990s.

Congressman

1980 Frank was elected to the US Congress . He took over the seat from Robert Drinan , who had given up his mandate. In 1982 Frank was re-elected and defeated the Republican opponent Margaret Heckler . In the following years, most recently on November 2, 2010 , Frank was regularly re-elected.

In 1987 Frank made his homosexuality public at his own request. In 1998 he founded the Stonewall Democrats organization , which campaigns for the rights of homosexuals.

In 2003, Frank, as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, opposed efforts by the Bush administration and Republican Congressmen to regulate the home finance industry more in order to avert an impending financial crisis in one of the largest government interventions since the savings-and-loan crisis would have mattered. To that end, an agency was to be created within the Treasury Department to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , two government-funded companies that were among the largest in the US mortgage industry. Frank said during a debate, “These two companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not heading for any kind of financial crisis.” He added, “The more people aggravate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the fewer results we will see with regard to affordable house building. ” For these reasons, among other things, he was repeatedly accused of active complicity in the 2007 financial crisis .

On November 28, 2011, it was announced that Frank would not run again in 2012.

On July 7, 2012, Frank married his longtime partner in Newton, Massachusetts, and thus entered into the first same-sex marriage of a congressman. Only after his time at Congress did he admit to being an atheist on the Bill Maher Show .

Awards

• In 2014 he was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association .

literature

• Stuart E. Weisberg: Barney Frank: the story of America's only left-handed, gay, Jewish congressman , University of Massachusetts Press, 2009, ISBN 1-55849-721-8

Web links

Commons : Barney Frank  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Barney Frank in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Web presence at the congress
• Federal Election Commission - Barney Frank campaigns financial report and material
• On the Issues - Barney Frank Positions and Opinions

Individual evidence

1. ^ NY Times, Sept. 11, 2003: New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
2. ↑ New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ FoxNews.com, Sept. 19, 2008
4. ↑ WBZTV, October 1, 2008 ( Memento of the original from October 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Boston Herald, Sept. 23, 2008 ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ Barney Frank Will Not Seek Reelection In 2012
7. ^ The Boston Globe, July 8, 2012.
8. ↑ Barney Frank Comes Out As Pot-Smoking Atheist , youtube, from 04/07 August 2013