Tenure
- Bridge
In 2002, the newly constructed 17th Street Causeway bridge reopened to Fort Lauderdale traffic. As a result of federal funding secured by the Congressman Shaw, the Florida Legislature approved a resolution naming the 17th Street bridge the E. Clay Shaw, Jr. bridge.
- Missing Children's Act
Swept into office as part of the Reagan Revolution, Shaw quickly found himself at the center of a national tragedy following the tragic death of 7-year-old constituent Adam Walsh. As a result of this tragedy, Shaw introduced the Missing Children's Act of 1982. The legislation allowed parents access to a central computer file designed to trace missing children. President Reagan signed the legislation on October 12, 1982. Shaw was honored for his efforts and continued support for Missing and Exploited Children in 2004, with other members of Congress, by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and its founder John Walsh.
- Posse Comitatus
As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Shaw aggressively supported legislation to fight the War on Drugs. In the Fall of 1986, Shaw lamented that illegal drugs were "the biggest threat we have ever had to our national security." To combat the rise of illegal drug trafficking and its impact on Americans, in May 1988 the House of Representatives, voted 385 to 23 authorizing 45 days for President Reagan to mobilize U.S. armed forces in the fight against illegal drug trafficking. The legislation required the U.S. military to halt illegal drug trafficking into the southern portions of the United States while requiring the Pentagon to begin aerial radar coverage of the U.S. southern border. The legislation amended the Civil War-era Posse Comitatus Act which prohibited the military from enforcing civilian laws. Calling the overwhelming bipartisan vote the end of a defeatist "Vietnam type mentality toward the war on drugs", Shaw solidified his standing as a leader in the War on Drugs.
- Welfare reform
Shaw said in 1994, "The inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty was written before welfare. People come to this country to work. Now the question becomes, Are these handouts a magnet that is bringing people into this country? To some degree, they are." As a result of the Republican takeover of the United States Congress following the 1994 mid-term elections, Shaw was awarded with his first chairmanship of his Congressional career. As a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, Shaw was tapped to chair the Human Resources Subcommittee. This move was significant, for included in the Republican Contract with America was a commitment to reform of the nation's welfare system. Shaw began work on reforming welfare in 1995 by holding numerous committee hearings and public sessions to identify problems within the welfare system. Working with state governors such as Florida Governor Lawton Chiles, Michigan Governor John Engler, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson and Delaware Governor Tom Carper, Shaw began crafting legislation that shifted the federal focus of social welfare to an emphasis on personal responsibility. After two presidential vetoes by President Bill Clinton, Welfare Reform was finally signed into law on August 22, 1996.
Read more about this topic: E. Clay Shaw, Jr., U.S. House of Representatives
Famous quotes containing the word tenure:
“A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“It might be seen by what tenure men held the earth. The smallest stream is mediterranean sea, a smaller ocean creek within the land, where men may steer by their farm bounds and cottage lights. For my own part, but for the geographers, I should hardly have known how large a portion of our globe is water, my life has chiefly passed within so deep a cove. Yet I have sometimes ventured as far as to the mouth of my Snug Harbor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)