Patricia Schroeder

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Patricia Schroeder
Patricia Schroeder
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Colorado's 1st district
In office
1973–1997
Preceded by James McKevitt
Succeeded by Diana DeGette
Born July 30, 1940 (1940-07-30) (age 67)
Portland, Oregon
Political party Democratic
Profession CEO of Association of American Publishers

Patricia Nell Scott Schroeder, popularly known as Pat Schroeder (born July 30, 1940), American politician, was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Colorado, serving from 1973 to 1997. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Colorado.

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[edit] Early years

Born in Portland, Oregon, she moved to Des Moines, Iowa with her family as a child. After graduating from Roosevelt High School in 1958 she left Des Moines and attended the University of Minnesota. She later earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1964. Moving to Denver, Colorado, she worked for the National Labor Relations Board from 1964 to 1966. She later worked for Planned Parenthood and taught in Denver's public schools.

[edit] U.S. Government service

In 1972, she won election for Congress in Colorado's first district, based in Denver, over freshman Republican incumbent James McKevitt. McKevitt, previously the Denver district attorney, had been the first Republican to represent the district, regarded as the most Democratic in the Rockies, since Dean M. Gillespie in 1947. Schroeder won by just over 8,000 votes, but was re-elected eleven times without a contest nearly as close.

While in Congress, she became the first woman to serve on the House Armed Services Committee, and was a prime mover behind the Family and Medical Leave Act. She ran for President of the United States in 1988, before announcing her withdrawal in an emotional press conference on September 28, 1987. She was lampooned on Saturday Night Live by Nora Dunn, acting as Schroeder, repeatedly bursting into tears while moderating a Democratic primary debate. [1]

She is perhaps best known, however, for saying, of Ronald Reagan, "He's just like a Teflon frying pan: Nothing sticks to him." The characterization "Teflon President" has entered the American political lexicon.[citation needed] She did not seek a thirteenth term in 1996, and was succeeded by state house minority whip Diana DeGette, a fellow Democrat.

[edit] Publishing industry service

Schroeder was named president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers in 1997. She has been a vocal proponent of stronger copyright law, opposing attempts like Eldred v. Ashcroft to put limits on copyright length and Google's plan to digitize books and post limited content online. She has publicly criticized libraries for distributing electronic content without compensation to publishers, writers and others in the publishing industry, telling the Washington Post "They aren't rich...they have mortgages."[1] At the same time, she has tried to make the publishing industry more socially responsible, cooperating with organizations for the blind and others with reading difficulties to help make materials more accessible to them, particularly by encouraging publishers to release books so that nonprofit groups can transfer them to electronic formats. She has also sat on the panel of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own Award, a $25,000 award designed to recognize the protection of free speech as it applies to the written word.

Schroeder recently stirred some controversy when she referred to liberals as those reading more books than conservatives. Her statement was relatively unflattering about conservative readers in her explanation: "The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes,'" she said in a recent interview. "It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes' on every page." Schroeder was commenting on an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that found people who consider themselves liberals are more prodigious book readers than conservatives.

She said liberals tend to be policy wonks who "can't say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion."

[edit] References

  1. ^ "The Former Congresswoman Is Battling For America's Publishers", Washington Post, February 7, 2001

[edit] External links

Political offices
Preceded by
James McKevitt		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Colorado's 1st congressional district
1973–1997		 Succeeded by
Diana DeGette