Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott
Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott began serving his tenth term as a Member of Congress on January 5, 2011. Prior to serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Scott served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1978 to 1983 and in the Senate of Virginia from 1983 to 1993.
Rep. Scott currently serves on the Committee on the Judiciary, where he is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security and a member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution. Rep. Scott also serves on the Committee on Education and the Workforce where he is a member of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education and the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
As a former member of the House Budget Committee, Rep. Scott has developed a reputation as a deficit hawk. He was an ardent opponent of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that were skewed towards the wealthiest Americans and created huge deficits. He also opposed the 2008 taxpayer bailout of Wall Street and the 2010 extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. He is dedicated to restoring fiscal sanity to the federal budget process in order to balance the federal budget. In the 111th Congress, he advocated for the return of Statutory Pay-As-You-Go budget rules, which helped bring the federal budget from deficit to surplus in the 1990s.
From the beginning of his tenure in Congress, Rep. Scott has led efforts to pass comprehensive juvenile justice reform and crime prevention legislation and is doing so now by sponsoring the Youth PROMISE Act, which would provide resources to state and local governments for evidenced-based strategies and programs to prevent juvenile crime. He is also leading efforts to enact legislation designed to reduce high school dropout rates and increase access to a college education for all students with the Every Student Counts Act. And, as a part of developing universal health care for all, Rep. Scott sponsored the All Healthy Children Act to ensure that the 9 million uninsured children in the United States have access to quality health care.
Rep. Scott was born on April 30, 1947 in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Newport News, Virginia. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Boston College Law School. After graduating from law school, he returned to Newport News and practiced law from 1973 to 1991. He received an honorable discharge for his service in the Massachusetts National Guard and the United States Army Reserve.
Rep. Scott is a member of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Newport News and is a member of many professional, community and civic boards and organizations.