Silvestre Reyes

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Silvestre Reyes
Silvestre Reyes
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 16th district
In office
1997-present
Preceded by Ron Coleman
Succeeded by Incumbent
Born November 10, 1944 (age 62)
Canutillo, Texas
Political party Democratic
Spouse Carolina Gaytan
Religion Roman Catholic

Silvestre Reyes (born 10 November 1944 in Canutillo, Texas) represents the Texas's 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.

Reyes served in the United States Army and he later worked for the U.S. Border Patrol. In 1993, serving as the Chief Patrol Agent of the El Paso Border Patrol Sector, Reyes led the Border Patrol to position agents on the border to intercept illegal immigrants. He is a Vietnam War veteran.

Reyes resigned from the INS and began to run for Congress against Congressman Ron Coleman in the Democratic primary, but Coleman retired. After winning a primary runoff,[1] Reyes was easily elected to the House of Represenatives as a Democrat in November 1996.[2] He was most recently re-elected by a wide margin in November 2006.[3]

Reyes has served as chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and in 2002, he considered running for the United States Senate, but decided against such a move. In 2005 he missed 94 votes in the House, the ninth most of any member.

Reyes was a key player in the 109th Congress because of his Immigration and Border Patrol experience. He was instrumental in leading the opposition to the House immigration proposal proposed by James Sensenbrenner, H.R. 4437. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi selected Reyes to present and lead the debate on a Democratic substitute to replace the Sensenbrenner legislation, which was voted down on a party line vote.

As a senior member of both the Armed Services and Select Intelligence Committees Congressman Reyes is a key member of Congress on Defense and military issues. His leadership is credited with the recent success of Fort Bliss and White Sands military bases in the most recent Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions by the Department of Defense. On December 1st, 2006, Reyes was tapped by soon to be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.[4]

[edit] Controversial statements

In a December 2006 interview with the Congressional Quarterly, Reyes incorrectly said that al-Qaeda, a Sunni group, was "predominantly probably Shi'ite." He also avoided answering the question whether Hizbullah, a Shi'ite organization, was Sunni or Shi'ite, answering now famously ""Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah? ... Why do you ask me these questions at 5 o'clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?" Congressman Reyes, who has been a ranking member of the Select Intelligence Committees for a number of years, has been criticized for his lack of knowledge of the most basic of facts consequential to the war on terror. [5]

In the same interview, Reyes said he favors sending more troops to Iraq: "on a temporary basis, I’m willing to ramp them up by twenty or thirty thousand ... for, I don’t know, two months, four months, six months – but certainly that would be an exception."[6] Yet, a month later when President Bush proposed sending approximately 21,500 more troops, Reyes said to the El Paso Times, "we don't have the capability to escalate even to this minimal level."[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=222681
  2. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=30069
  3. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=207718
  4. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/01/reyes.intelligence.ap/index.html
  5. ^ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236199,00.html
  6. ^ Jeff Stein: Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda (Congressional Quarterly, 8 December 2006)
  7. ^ http://www.elpasotimes.com/search/ci_4990009

[edit] External links


Preceded by
Ronald D. Coleman		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 16th congressional district
1997–		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by
Pete Hoekstra		 Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee
2007 -		 Succeeded by
Incumbent



Texas's current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators: Kay Bailey Hutchison (R), John Cornyn (R)

Representative(s): Louie Gohmert (R), Ted Poe (R), Sam Johnson (R), Ralph Hall (R), Jeb Hensarling (R), Joe Barton (R), John Culberson (R), Kevin Brady (R), Al Green (D), Michael McCaul (R), Mike Conaway (R), Kay Granger (R), Mac Thornberry (R), Ron Paul (R), Rubén Hinojosa (D), Silvestre Reyes (D), Chet Edwards (D), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D), Randy Neugebauer (R), Charlie Gonzalez (D), Lamar Smith (R), Nick Lampson (D), Ciro D. Rodriguez (D), Kenny Marchant (R), Lloyd Doggett (D), Michael Burgess (R), Solomon Ortiz (D), Henry Cuellar (D), Gene Green (D), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D), John Carter (R), Pete Sessions (R)

All delegations: Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming — American Samoa • District of Columbia • Guam • Puerto Rico • U.S. Virgin Islands


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