Rep Henry Waxman to retire from Congress

Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA), whose legislative record has made him one of the country’s most influential liberal lawmakers for four decades, announced that he will retire from his seat, the latest in a wave of departures that is remaking the state’s long-stable congressional delegation.

During a congressional career that began when Gerald Ford was president, Rep Waxman became one of the Democratic Party’s most prolific and savvy legislators, focusing on issues related to healthcare and the environment. He played a central role -- sometimes over opposition within his own party -- in passing laws that dramatically cut air pollution, helped reduce smoking, expanded Medicaid coverage for the poor, reduced pesticides in food, made generic drugs more widely available, helped AIDS patients, promoted the development of drugs for rare diseases and improved federal regulation of nursing homes. In 2008, with a Democrat in the White House and a long-sought national health insurance law within reach, Rep Waxman took the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee away from veteran Rep John D. Dingell (D-MI), the chamber’s longest serving Democrat. Among his legislative victories was the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which he helped write and push through the House. Passage of the law fulfilled “one of my lifelong dreams” by guaranteeing access to healthcare coverage for Americans, he said.