Solomon P. Ortiz

Solomon P. Ortiz

Solomon Porfirio Ortiz (born June 3, 1937 in Robstown , Nueces County , Texas ) is an American Democratic Party politician who represented the state of Texas in the US House of Representatives for 28 years from 1983 to 2011 .

Life

Ortiz left without graduating Robstown High School and put 1960 a university entrance exam ( General Equivalency Diploma ) from before it from 1960 to 1962 his military service in the US Army ableistete. After retiring from the military, he initially worked as an insurance agent before joining the Nueces County Police Department in 1965 , where he was the first Hispanic to be elected as a constable until 1968 . During this time he studied between 1965 and 1967 at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi and was then County Commissioner from 1969 to 1976 , before he was subsequently Sheriff of Nueces County from 1976 to 1982 .

In the 1982 congressional elections , Ortiz was elected for the first time as a member of the US House of Representatives and represented in this after thirteen re-elections for 28 years from January 3, 1983 to January 3, 2011, the 23rd congressional electoral  district of Texas. Most recently, he was chairman of the US House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness from January 2009 to January 2011 .

Ortiz, who advocated abortion , gay rights and internet freedom, and free gun ownership , supported the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 and the Gulf War Second Resolution in 1993 during his longstanding tenure in the US Congress the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 1997 the Kyoto Protocol to shape the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , 2001 the USA PATRIOT Act , 2005 the free trade agreement between the USA, Costa Rica , the Dominican Republic , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras and Nicaragua ( DR -CAFTA ), the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) and the Financial Aid Act of General Motors and Chrysler in 2008, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 to reform the health care system. On the other hand, he abstained from voting in the resolution on the Iraq war in 2002 and was an opponent of the impeachment proceedings against US President Bill Clinton in 1999 and the 2006 Secure Fence Act of 2006.

In the US congressional elections in November 2010, he was surprisingly defeated by his Republican challenger Blake Farenthold , who won the seat for the 23rd district by just 799 votes.

Web links

• Solomon P. Ortiz in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Solomon P. Ortiz in the nndb (English)