Ed Whitfield
Wayne Edward Whitfield is an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative of from January 1995, until his resignation in September 2016. He is a member of the Republican Party, and the first to represent the district. His district covered much of the western part of the state, including Hopkinsville, Paducah, Henderson and Kentucky's share of Fort Campbell.
Early life, education and career
Whitfield was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky; his family later moved to Madisonville, Kentucky, where he graduated from Madisonville High School. He attended the University of Kentucky for both undergraduate and law school, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He also attended the Wesley Theological Seminary. He served in the United States Army Reserve and reached the rank of First Lieutenant. He served as legal counsel to executives at Seaboard System Railroad of Washington. He served as a Vice President for the later CSX Corporation in two different capacities and was the Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1991 to 1993. this was a time when the Commission was deregulating the railroad and trucking industries. He was elected to the United States Congress in November 1994 and began his term in January, 1995, as a member of the 104th Congress. During his 21 plus years in the congress, Whitfield served on the Energy and Commerce Committee and served as Chairman of the Oversight and Investigation, Energy and Power Subcommittees.Kentucky House of Representatives
Whitfield first became interested in politics as a high school student and attended his first political event at a rally for former United States Senator Dee Huddleston. As a student at the University of Kentucky, Whitfield was elected President of the University Young Democrat's Club and in 1962 became involved in Edward T. Breathitt's successful campaign for Governor of Kentucky. As a student, Whitfield worked in the State Treasurer's office and after graduating from U.K. Law School he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1973. He represented Hopkinsville and parts of Trigg County and was a member of the Democratic Party. After serving one term he decided not to seek re-election in 1975 or challenge freshman U.S. representative Carroll Hubbard in the 1976 primary. He focused on his family's oil distributorship until he went to work with Seaboard System Railroad as legal counsel in 1979.U.S. Representative
Committee assignments
- Committee on Energy and Commerce
- * Subcommittee on Energy and Power
- * Subcommittee on Environment and Economy
- * Subcommittee on Health
He was one of three Republicans who voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.
When chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations within the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Whitfield held hearings on child pornography and during his tenure as Chairman of Energy and Power has chaired over 40 hearings on energy issues. He has focused significant time and resources to inform the American people about President Obama's Clean Power Plan which was initiated by regulation through the EPA. President Obama and EPA did not consult or make any effort to work with Congress before issuing the Clean Power Plan to dictate the way electricity would be generated in the future. Chairman Whitfield referred to the Clean Power Plan as "extreme" and an "unprecedented power grab". At one of his hearings, Professor Lawrence Tribe, who teaches constitutional law at Harvard University, said the Clean Power Plan if implemented would be like tearing up the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court, in considering a petition filed by 27 states opposed to the Clean Power Plan, issued an injunction to stop implementation of the plan. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals is currently preparing to hear oral arguments on the Clean Power Plan.
Legislation sponsored
Whitfield introduced the Electricity Security and Affordability Act (H.R. 3826; 113th Congress) into the House on January 9, 2014. The bill would repeal a pending rule published by the Environmental Protection Agency on January 8, 2014. The proposed rule would establish uniform national limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new electricity-generating facilities that use coal or natural gas. The rule also sets new standards of performance for those power plants, including the requirement to install carbon capture and sequestration technology. Whitfield said that, if finalized, the EPA's rule would "make it impossible to build a new coal-powered plant in American... That is hard to believe that that will can be the situation in our great country, particularly since 40 percent of our electricity comes from coal." Whitfield argued that the legislation was needed because the EPA refused to respond to criticism or complaints about their proposed rule. He also introduced and managed the floor debate on two Congressional Review Acts that had passed the United States Senate to stop the Clean Energy Plan Regulations adopted by EPA. He was successful in passing both measures on the House floor.Whitfield's major legislative accomplishments are creating the 170,000 acre of National Recreation Area at the Land between the Lakes. He also introduced and helped pass a health compensation program at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which paid over $315,000,000 to the 3,139 employees and victims of toxic contamination. He also helped create the first Medicare Prescription Drug benefit plan for seniors.
Whitfield has introduced, sponsored and helped pass several bills to strengthen and insure the humane treatment of animals in the United States. He is a recognized leader regarding the humane treatment of animals. His major national accomplishment may have been the banning of U.S. horse slaughter for human consumption, with an amendment that barred the U.S. Department of Agriculture from spending money on inspections of horse slaughterhouses, which fed demand for horsemeat in some European and Asian countries. The ban is no longer in place, but it had the effect of killing the horse-slaughter industry in the U.S.
Whitfield's legislation to prohibit the soring of Tennessee Walking Horses garnered the support of 311 House members and 57 Members of the United States Senate but was not brought to the floor of the House of Representatives because of an ethics complaint filed by individuals who sored horses. The individuals who filed the complaint had a total of 52 violations of the 1970 Horse Protection Act. In July 2016, the House Ethics Committee reproved him for failing to prohibit lobbying contacts between his staff and Connie Harriman Whitfield, a lobbyist for the Humane Society of the United States. The bill was introduced by Congressman Whitfield and had been a concern of his for many years; the Humane Society of the United States supported the legislation and was a part of a coalition of over 75 entities working to adopt it. The Ethics Committee issued a report stating that Whitfield's breach was unintentional. Whitfield said the individuals who filed the complaint had accomplished their goal of stopping his legislation.
Whitfield was ranked as the 43rd most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship.