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| John Conyers, Jr. | |
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| In office January 3, 1965 – January 3, 1993 |
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| Preceded by | Lucien N. Nedzi |
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| Succeeded by | Bart Stupak |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 1993 |
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| Preceded by | Dennis M. Hertel |
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Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 4, 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Jim Sensenbrenner |
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Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
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| In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 1995 |
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| Preceded by | Jack Brooks |
| Succeeded by | Bill Clinger |
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| Born | May 16, 1929 Highland Park, Michigan |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Monica Conyers |
| Residence | Detroit, Michigan |
| Alma mater | Wayne State University |
| Occupation | attorney |
| Religion | Baptist |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Army National Guard United States Army |
| Years of service | 1948–1950 1950–1957 |
John Conyers, Jr. (born May 16, 1929) is a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Michigan's 14th congressional district, which includes most of northwestern Detroit, as well as Highland Park, Hamtramck and part of Dearborn. A Democrat, he has served since 1965 (the district was numbered as the 1st District until 1993). In January 2007, Conyers became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in the 110th United States Congress; he had been the committee's ranking Democrat since 1997.
Conyers is currently the second-longest serving incumbent member of the House (just after fellow Democrat from Michigan, John Dingell) and the fourth-longest incumbent member of the entire Congress by length of service (after Robert Byrd, John Dingell, and Daniel Inouye). He is married to Monica Conyers.
After graduating from Northwestern High School in Detroit, Conyers served in the Michigan National Guard 1948–50; US Army 1950–54; and the US Army Reserves 1954–57. Conyers served for a year in Korea as an officer in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and was awarded combat and merit citations.[1]
Conyers grew up in Detroit, and received both his B.A. and his J.D. from Wayne State University. He served as an assistant to Congressman John Dingell prior to his election to Congress.
Conyers was present in Selma, Alabama on October 7, 1963, for the civil rights movement voter registration drive known as Freedom Day.[2]
He appeared in Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 discussing the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks, stating that members of Congress "don't read most of the bills".
Conyers frequently posts at Daily Kos and Democratic Underground. Since May 2005, he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post and his own blog.
Conyers has been reelected 22 times, never facing serious opposition. He is the second-longest serving current member of the House, as well as the second-longest serving member of either house of Congress in Michigan's history. Only Dingell outranks him on both lists. He is the last surviving member of the Democrats' large freshman class of 1965. By one measure, Conyers was found the sixth most liberal member of Congress after World War II.[3]
While serving in the House, Conyers made two unsuccessful runs for mayor of Detroit: one in 1989 against incumbent Coleman Young and again in 1993.[4]
Conyers is one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and is considered the Dean of that group. Formed in 1969, the CBC was founded to strengthen African-American lawmakers' ability to address the legislative concerns of Black and minority citizens. He has served longer in Congress than any other African-American. In 1971, he was one of the original members of Nixon's Enemies List.
According to the National Journal, Conyers has been considered, with Pete Stark, John Lewis, Jim McDermott, and Barbara Lee, to be one of the most liberal members of Congress for many years. Civil rights icon Rosa Parks served on Conyers' staff between 1965 and 1988.
Conyers is known as one of the supporters of the drive to regulate online gambling. He has likened the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, hidden within the SAFE Port Act, to Prohibition.
After Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Conyers introduced the first bill in Congress to make King's birthday a national holiday.
Conyers was critical of Richard Nixon during his tenure, and as a result was number 13 on President Richard Nixon's enemies list during Nixon's 1969–74 presidential tenure. The president's Chief Counsel described him as "coming on fast", and that he was "emerging" as a "black anti-Nixon spokesman" who also had a "weakness for white women."
Conyers voted on the Articles of Impeachment against Nixon in July 1974. He is the last remaining member of the House Judiciary Committee who did so, though one other fellow Committee member is still in Congress (Charles Rangel, Democrat of New York).
The U.S. National Health Care Act (Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act) (HR 676), is a bill submitted to the United States House of Representatives by Conyers which, as of September 29, 2008, has 93 cosponsors. It was first introduced, with 25 cosponsors, in 2003,[5] and reintroduced each session since then. The act calls for the creation of a universal single-payer health care system in the United States, in which the government would provide every resident health care free of charge. In order to eliminate disparate treatment between richer and poorer Americans, the Act would also prohibit private insurers from covering any treatment or procedure already covered by the Act. The bill is currently in the House Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Health.
On May 5, 2005, Conyers and 88 other members of Congress wrote an open letter to the White House inquiring about the Downing Street memo, a leaked memorandum that revealed an apparent secret agreement between the U.S. and the United Kingdom to attack Iraq in 2002. The Times reported that newly-discovered documents reveal British and U.S. intentions to invade Iraq and leaders of the two countries had "discussed creating pretextual justifications for doing so". The documents go on to say that Tony Blair decided the U.S. would need to "create" conditions to justify the war.
The memo story broke in the United Kingdom, but did not receive much coverage in the United States, prompting Conyers to lament: "This should not be allowed to fall down the memory hole during wall-to-wall coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and a runaway bride."
Conyers and others reportedly considered sending a congressional investigation delegation to London.[6]
In May, 2005, Conyers released What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report On The 2004 Presidential Election, which discusses the voting irregularities in the state of Ohio during the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election. The evidence offered consists of statistical abnormalities in the differences between exit poll results and actual votes registered at those locations. The book also discusses reports of faulty electronic voting machines and the lack of credibility of those machines used to tally votes.
He was one of 31 members of the House who voted not to count the electoral votes from Ohio in the United States presidential election, 2004.[7]
On August 4, 2006, Conyers released his report, The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retributions and Cover-ups in the Iraq War, an edited collection of information intended to serve as evidence that the Bush Administration altered intelligence to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The Constitution in Crisis examines much of the evidence presented by the Bush Administration prior to the invasion and questions the credibility of their sources of intelligence. In addition, the document investigates the conditions that led to the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, as well as further evidence of torture having been committed but not made known to the public. Finally, the document reports on a series of "smear tactics" purportedly used by the administration in dealing with its political adversaries.
The document calls for the censure of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Notably, however, Conyers refuses to back impeachment proceedings.
Conyers has proposed House Resolution 288, which condemns “religious intolerance” but emphasizes Islam as needing special protection from acts of violence and intolerance. It states that “it should never be official policy of the United States Government to disparage the Quran, Islam, or any religion in any way, shape, or form,” and “calls upon local, State, and Federal authorities to work to prevent bias-motivated crimes and acts against all individuals, including those of the Islamic faith.” The bill was referred to the House subcommittee on the Constitution in June 2005, but Conyers, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, could revive it.
See also Conyers v. Bush
In April 2006 Conyers, together with ten other senior congressmen, filed an action in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, challenging the constitutionality of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The complaint alleged the bill was not afforded due consideration by the United States Congress before being signed by the President.[8] The action was subsequently dismissed on grounds of lack of standing.[9]
In letters sent separately to the House Ethics Committee, the FBI, and the US Attorney's office by two former aides of Conyers, they alleged that Conyers used his staff to work on several local and state campaigns, and forced them to baby-sit and chauffeur his children.[10] In late December 2006, Conyers "accepted responsibility" for possibly violating House rules. A statement issued December 29, 2006, by the House Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) and Ranking Minority Member Howard Berman (D-Calif.), said that Conyers acknowledged what he characterized as a "lack of clarity" in his communications with staff members regarding their official duties and responsibilities, and accepted responsibility for his actions. In deciding to drop the matter, Hastings and Berman stated:
After reviewing the information gathered during the inquiry, and in light of Representative Conyers’ cooperation with the inquiry, we have concluded that this matter should be resolved through the issuance of this public statement and the agreement by Representative Conyers to take a number of additional, significant steps to ensure that his office complies with all rules and standards regarding campaign and personal work by congressional staff.[11]
Conyers has come under fire from scientific and taxpayers' advocacy groups[12] for repeatedly introducing a bill that would overturn NIH Public Access Policy, and forbid the government from mandating that federally funded research be made freely available to the public.[13] Critics assert that Conyers has been influenced by publishing houses who have contributed significant money to Conyers.[14]
On January 13, 2009, the House Committee on the Judiciary, led by Chairman Conyers, released "Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush", a 486-page report detailing alleged abuses of power that occurred during the Bush administration, and a comprehensive set of recommendations to prevent recurrence. Conyers has introduced a bill to set up a "truth commission" panel to investigate alleged policy abuses of the Bush administration.[15][16]
In late July 2009, Conyers, commenting on the healthcare debate in the House, stated that “I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill'... What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” His remark brought criticism from government transparency advocates such as the Sunlight Foundation, which referred to readthebill.org in response.[17] In the House, 93 representatives signed a pledge, started by Mike Pence of Indiana, to read a health care bill before voting on it.[18]
Conyers is married to Monica Conyers. She is a former President of the Detroit City Council, who in June 2009 pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bribery.[19] This is punishable by up to five years in prison, and in March 2010 she was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment, followed by 2 years supervised probation.[20]
On June 16, 2009, the United States Attorney's Office said that two Synagro Technologies representatives had named Monica Conyers as the recipient of bribes from the company totaling more than $6,000, paid to influence passage of a contract with the City of Detroit.[21][22] The information was gathered during an FBI investigation into political corruption in the city.[23] She was given a pre-indictment letter, and offered a plea bargain deal in the case.[24] On June 26, 2009, she was charged with conspiring to commit bribery. She pleaded guilty.[25] On March 10, 2010 she was sentenced to 37 months in prison, and also received 2 years of supervised probation. She is appealing the sentence.[20]
In October, Conyers responded to allegations from four Republican Congress Members, in the wake of the launch of the book Muslim Mafia, that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) sought to plant Muslim "spies" in Capitol Hill. He strongly opposed the accusations, saying:
It shouldn't need to be said in 2009, and after the historic election of our first African-American president, but let me remind all my colleagues that patriotic Americans of all races, religions, and beliefs have the right - and the responsibility - to participate in our political process, including by volunteering to work in Congressional offices. Numerous Muslim-American interns have served the House ably and they deserve our appreciation and respect, not attacks on their character or patriotism. [26]
Conyers was one of the first three U.S. Congress members to condemn the allegations, joining André Carson (D-IN) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA).
Articles
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lucien Nedzi |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 1st congressional district 1965–1993 |
Succeeded by Bart Stupak |
| Preceded by Dennis Hertel |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 14th congressional district 1993–Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Jack Brooks Texas |
Chairman of House Government Operations Committee 1989–1995 |
Succeeded by Bill Clinger Pennsylvania |
| Preceded by Jim Sensenbrenner Wisconsin |
Chairman of House Judiciary Committee 2007–Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| United States order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by John Dingell (Dean of the House) |
United States Representatives by seniority 2nd |
Succeeded by Dave Obey |
   | Congressional website - U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr. : Home |
| | CNN.com - CNN.com - Bush asked to explain UK war memo - May 12, 2005 |
| | JohnConyers.com - Single-Payer Health Care | John Conyers for Congress |
| | Salon.com - It's time for Karl Rove to go | Salon |
| | House.gov (pdf) - Judiciary Democrats Express Alarm over Wiretapping Abuse, Plan Additional Oversight |
| | BuzzFlash.com - Congressman John Conyers Talks About Bush Lying America Into War and His Campaign to Hold Bush Accountable |
| | TheNation.com - A Motion for Censure |
| | One of Michigans finest, John Conyers! - African American Registry -- Your Source for African American History |
| | Michigan Liberal's 14th Congressional District section - Michigan Liberal: Michigan Politics & Elections Blog |
| | House.gov - Judiciary Democrats Express Alarm over Wiretapping Abuse, Plan Additional Oversight |
| | Voting record maintained by the Washington Post - John Conyers | Congress votes database | washingtonpost.com |
| | Q & A with Conyers in Guernica Magazine (Guernicamag.com) - Guernica / Who is John Conyers? |
| | House Resolution 288 - John Conyers, Jr. -- ConyersBlog |
| | ''The DRA One Year Later: Dems Waiting for Outcome of Legal Challenges to Law That Stiffens Medicaid Transfer Penalties'' - The DRA One Year Later: Dems Waiting for Outcome of Legal Challenges to Law That Stiffens Medicaid Transfer Penalties - ElderLawAnswers Articles |
| | Judge Dismisses Budget Bill Lawsuit - ABC News - ABC News |
| | House.gov (pdf) - Judiciary Democrats Express Alarm over Wiretapping Abuse, Plan Additional Oversight |
| | Campaign blog - John Conyers, Jr. -- ConyersBlog |
| | revealed - Politics1 - American Politics, Elections, Candidates & Campaigns |
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