Frank Horton (New York Politician)

For the Representative from Wyoming, see Frank O. Horton.

Frank Jefferson Horton (December 12, 1919 – August 30, 2004) was a United States Representative from New York State.

Horton was born in Cuero, Texas and was a graduate of Louisiana State University (B.A., 1941) where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity (Gamma chapter). He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941 and served until the end of World War II. He then attended Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York and received a Bachelor of Laws in 1947, the same year that he was admitted to the New York Bar. Horton was a member of the Rochester City Council from 1955 to 1961. From 1956 to 1962 he was the President of Rochester Community Baseball, Inc. From 1959 to 1961, Horton served as the Executive Vice President of the International Baseball League, as well as the League's attorney. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1962 as a Republican, Horton was re-elected to 14 additional terms.

Horton was known as a moderate, a Rockefeller Republican and "the least partisan of Representatives." He rose to the position of Ranking Minority Member of the Government Operations Committee (now known as the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.)

Horton retired from Congress in 1992 when redistricting placed him in the same district as his friend Rep. Louise Slaughter.

While in Congress, Horton proposed making the United States Environmental Protection Agency a cabinet level agency and helped introduce the Whistleblower Protection Act in 1987.