Legislative Policy Conference
Speakers
U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer
As House Majority Leader, Congressman Hoyer is the second-ranking member of the House Democratic Leadership. He is charged with mobilizing the party vote on important legislation, shaping House Democrats’ legislative priorities, and delivering the Democratic message. He previously served as House Majority Leader from 2007 to 2011, and House Democratic Whip from 2003 to 2007, and from 2011 to 2019.
Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Congressman Hoyer was elected to the Maryland State Senate in 1966. He cast one of his first votes to end the ban on interracial marriage still on Maryland’s lawbooks, and he focused his work in the Senate on making housing more affordable and equitable and expanding transit options for commuters as the county grew.
Elected to the House of Representatives in 1981, Congressman Hoyer has spent every day since fighting for the people of Maryland’s Fifth District to have strong communities and schools, economic opportunities to get ahead, and the best constituent services of any district in the country. He was lead sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, which broke down barriers and secured equal rights for people with disabilities. Later, he was an original co-sponsor of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which has helped reduce domestic violence and bring abusers to justice. Congressman Hoyer has worked to expand federal funding for Fifth District fire and public safety departments, for local NASA and NOAA facilities, public schools, and community development programs that fight poverty and expand opportunities like skills training for workers. He has been a champion of full-service, community schools, helping to launch and grow Maryland’s nationally recognized network of early childhood centers, named for his late wife Judy, who was an early childhood education administrator in Prince George’s County.
As Majority Leader in the 116th Congress, he’s worked across the Democratic Caucus and across the aisle to secure House passage of legislation to raise the minimum wage, secure the rights of workers and labor unions, prevent Dreamers from being deported, defend the Affordable Care Act and protect women’s health care choices, ensure equal pay for women, affirm the Paris Climate Agreement, and restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people who paid their debt to society.
Congressman Hoyer and his wife, the late Judith Pickett Hoyer, have three daughters: Susan, Stefany, and Anne; son-in-law Loren Taylor; grandchildren Judy, James Cleveland, and Alexa; and great-grandchildren Ava, Braedon, Brooklyn, and Savannah.