First elected to Congress: 2007 (110th Congress) The 111th Congress will be first term in the Senate
Voting record in 110th Congress (2007-2009) (as a Congresswoman) She voted with her party 93.8% of the time in this Congress (and cast 1765 votes) The average Democratic Representative voted with the party 92.3% of the time in this Congress The average Republican Representative voted with the party 86.0% of the time in this Congress Source: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/
Biography (from her Congressional web site)
Kirsten E. Gillibrand was sworn in as New York's Senator in January 2009, filling the seat of the current Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Prior to her appointment to the United States Senate, Gillibrand served in the United States House of Representatives, representing New York's 20th Congressional District, which spans across ten counties in upstate New York.
Throughout her time in Congress, Senator Gillibrand has been committed to open and honest government. When she was first elected, she pledged to bring unprecedented transparency and access to her post. And she did, becoming the first Member of Congress to post her official public schedule, personal financial disclosure, and federal earmark requests online. For more information, visit Senator Gillibrand's Sunlight Report at http://gillibrand.senate.gov/
As the mother of two young children, Senator Gillibrand knows exactly what working families are facing in this difficult economy. In the Senate, she has created an ambitious legislative agenda aimed at helping working parents and children thrive by making quality child care more affordable, improving education and health care for children, and keeping our neighborhoods safe. She has also unveiled legislation to address the country's nursing shortage, make quality autism treatment more affordable, improve asthma treatment for children, and ensure that drinking water and baby products are safe.
Job creation and economic development have always been Senator Gillibrand's top legislative priorities. Using her seat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Gillibrand has worked to increase investment in infrastructure, rural broadband, health care information technology, and renewable energy, and worked closely with the Obama Administration and Senator Charles Schumer to ensure that New York gets its fair share of federal dollars.
As the first New York Senator to sit on the Agriculture Committee in nearly 40 years, Senator Gillibrand is giving New York families the seat at the table they deserve as Congress debates food policy. She is taking a leading role to improve child nutrition and combat child obesity by giving children and families more access to fresh fruits and vegetables grown right here in New York. She is also fighting hard to protect New York's farmers, especially those who need help in the current economic crisis.
From her seat on the Aging Committee, Senator Gillibrand is committed to fighting on behalf of seniors, working to lower the cost of prescription drugs and make long term care more affordable so seniors can remain independent for as long as they are able. Senator Gillibrand is also working to lower property taxes, co-sponsoring legislation that would give New York residents a full federal tax deduction for their property taxes.
Senator Gillibrand also serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, where she is continuing her work on national security matters, focusing on cybersecurity, empowerment of women, and supporting the United States-Israel relationship.
After attending Albany's Academy of Holy Names, Senator Gillibrand graduated in 1984 from Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, the first all women's high school in the United States. A magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College in 1988, Gillibrand went on to receive her law degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1991 and served as a law clerk on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
During the Clinton Administration, Senator Gillibrand served as Special Counsel to the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Andrew Cuomo. She then worked as an attorney in New York City before becoming a Member of Congress.
Born and raised in upstate New York, Senator Gillibrand now lives on the banks of the Hudson River in Hudson, New York, with her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, and their two young sons, five year old Theodore and one year old Henry.
Her entry on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsten_Gillibrand
