Dianne Feinstein

At 90 years old, Dianne Feinstein has this physical status:

Early political career

Feinstein served as a Fellow at the Coro Foundation in San Francisco from 1955 to 1956. In 1960, California Women's Parole Board Governor Pat Brown named her to the California Women's Parole Board. She served on the board until 1966.

In 1969, Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She served on the board for nine years.

She unsuccessfully ran for mayor of San Francisco twice, against Mayor Joseph Alioto in 1971, and then against Supervisor John Barbagelata in 1975, losing by a single percentage point to Supervisor John Barbagelata.

Feinstein was a victim of the New World Liberation Front, an anti-capitalist militant group that carried out bombings in California in the 1970s. The NWLF used a bomb on the windowsill of her house in 1976 that failed to explode. The group fired out the windows of a beach house she owned later.

Feinstein was elected president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 despite initial resistance from Quentin L. Kopp.

Former Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former boss Dan White on November 27, 1978. Feinstein became the acting mayor after being president of the Board of Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors approved Feinstein's appointment as mayor, according to the applicants John Molinari, Ella Hill Hutch, Ron Pelosi, Robert Gonzales, and Gordon Lau. Gonzales had intended to be elected by the Board of Supervisors as mayor but had to resign. Feinstein was voted mayor by the Board of Supervisors by six to two. Chief Justice Rose Bird of the Supreme Court of California ordained her on December 4, 1978, becoming San Francisco's first female mayor. By a vote of eight to two, Molinari was elected to replace Feinstein as the president of the Board of Supervisors.

The state of the San Francisco cable car system, which was closed down for emergency repairs in 1979, was one of Feinstein's first challenges as mayor; an engineering report revealed that it needed complete rebuilding at a cost of $60 million. Feinstein was one of the first employees to receive federal support for the majority of the research. In 1982, the system was not ready for rebuilding, and it was completed just in time for the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Feinstein oversaw San Francisco's efforts to rise the number of high-rise buildings.

Feinstein was regarded as a moderate Democrat in one of the country's most liberal cities. She was seen as a boss and as a member of the centrist bloc that included White and generally opposed Moscone. Feinstein, the city's huge gay population, was angered by the city's burgeoning domestic partner law in 1982. Feinstein endorsed Senator Ted Kennedy's primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential race, although a majority of Bay Area Democrats continued to support Senator Ted Kennedy's primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter even after it was clear that Kennedy could not win. On the first night of the August Democratic National Convention, she was invited to "open" the convention, thereby encouraging delegates to disregard their states' popular vote, a proposal that was largely rejected.

There was a lot of media and public rumors that Mondale might have selected Feinstein as his running mate in the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Geraldine Ferraro was he preferring Geraldine Ferraro over the others. Feinstein proposed banning handguns in San Francisco in 1984, but the White Panther Party initiated a recall drive. On January 8, 1988, she won the recall election and finished her second term as mayor.

At a 1985 press conference, Feinstein discussed critical information about serial killer Richard Ramirez's hunt, antagonizing detectives by disclosing the truth of his crimes that are otherwise unheardent, potentially jeopardizing their probe.

Feinstein was named "Most Effective Mayor" by the city and state magazine in 1987. She served on the Trilateral Commission in the 1980s.

In 1990, Feinstein lost his bid for governor of California. She earned the Democratic Party's nomination but lost the general election to Republican Senator Pete Wilson, who resigned from the Senate to assume governorship. Feinstein was fined $190,000 in 1992 for failing to properly report campaign contributions and expenditures in the campaign.

Senator Paul Ryan's career in the United States Senate.

Feinstein won the special election on November 3, 1992, filling the Senate seat that had been vacated a year earlier as Wilson resigned to serve as governor. She had defeated California State Controller Gray Davis in the primary.

The special election took place at the same time as the general election for president Trump and other departments. Barbara Boxer was elected at the same time as Alan Cranston's resignation from the Senate seat. Feinstein became California's first senator as soon as the election was announced in November, despite the fact that both Boxer and Boxer had previously served in both positions. Feinstein is also the first female senator in the United States, although Boxer is also Jewish. Feinstein and Boxer were the first female senators to represent any state at the same time. Feinstein was reelected in 1994, 2000, 2006, 2012, and 2018. With 7.75 million, she set the most popular votes in any US Senate election in history, making her the first Senate candidate to receive 7 million votes in a referendum. Boxer, who received 6.96 million votes in her 2004 reelection, was preceded by Feinstein in 2000 and 1992, when she became the first Democrat to receive more than 5 million votes in a Senate election.

Feinstein declared in October 2017 that she would run for reelection in 2018. She lost the support of the California Democratic Party's executive board, which opted to endorse State Senator Kevin de León, but was reelected in the state's "jungle primary" on November 6 and was reelected in the general election.

Feinstein, the 89-year senator from the United States, is the oldest sitting senator in Congress. Feinstein became California's longest-serving senator on March 28, 2021, defeating Hiram Johnson. Feinstein was the longest-serving female senator after Barbara Mikulski's resignation in January 2017. Feinstein could be the longest-serving woman in the United States Senate history if she serves until November 5, 2022.

Feinstein requested reelection in 2021, but she will be 91 years old in January 2021.

Feinstein is the first and only woman to chaired the Senate Rules Committee (2007-09) and the Select Committee on Intelligence (2009–15).

Feinstein emphasized centrism when she first ran for statewide offices in the 1990s, at a time when California was more conservative. She has migrated left of center as California became one of the country's most progressive states, although she has never joined the ranks of Democrats and has served as a member of the Senate's moderate, now-defunct Senate New Democrat Coalition.

Feinstein said he was in charge of delivering the commencement address at Stanford Stadium on June 13, 1994:

Under the Trump administration, she protested the prohibition of transgender enlistments in the military.

Feinstein voted for Trump's $675 billion defense budget bill for FY 2019.

Feinstein voted in favour of extending the Patriot Act and FISA provisions in 2012.

Feinstein has favored the Affordable Care Act and has consistently voted against bills that oppose it. She has voted to regulate nicotine as a drug; expand the Children's Health Insurance Program; and allow patients to sue HMOs and receive punitive damages; and means-test Medicare. She has voted against Paul Ryan's Medicare choice, tax reform, and cutting off federal health care for tribal Indians. The American Public Health Association (APHA) rated Feinstein's Congressional record as 88%, indicating the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position at the time.

"I"f single-payer health care will result in complete takeover by the government of all health services, I am not there" at a San Francisco town hall meeting in April 2017. During a news conference at the University of California, San Diego in July 2017, she expected that the Democratic opposition would be strong enough to defy Republican attempts to repeal the ACA. In an August 2017 op-ed, Feinstein said that if Trump compromised with Democrats, he may have gotten health-care reform: "We now know that such a closed process on a critical topic such as health care doesn't work." The only way forward is through a transparent process that encourages every senator to bring their ideas to the table.

Feinstein said that it was a "dark day for our country" and that the decision "is an outrage for the women of this country and will have tragic consequences for generations."

When Feinstein first ran for statewide office in 1990, she favoured capital punishment. In 2004, she petitioned for the death penalty in the case of San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza, who was killed while on duty. She had opposed capital punishment by 2018 and was opposed to capital punishment.

In 2017, Feinstein received a score of 100 percent from the League of Conservation Voters. Her lifetime average is 90%.

Feinstein cosponsored (with Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn) an amendment to the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011 that deleted the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit from the bill. On June 16, 2011, the Senate accepted the bill. The subsidy, which was introduced in 2004, offered a 45-cent-per-gallon credit on pure ethanol and a 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. The subsidies resulted in a $6 billion annual expenditure.

When youth with the Sunrise Movement confronted Feinstein about why she does not endorse the Green New Deal, she told them "there is no way to pay for it" and that it would not be able to pass a Republican-controlled Senate. Feinstein said in a tweet following the clash that Feinstein said she remains committed to introduce real, meaningful climate change legislation."

Feinstein was one of five Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2005, saying that Roberts had "failed to state his views on such social topics as abortion and the right to die."

Feinstein declared that she would vote against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito in January 2006, although she denied a filibuster appointment: "You have to have something out there, whether it's gross moral turpitude or something that appears to be on the ground." This is a man I might disagree with [but] that doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the court."

Feinstein expressed her surprise on July 12, 2009, saying that the Senate will nominate Supreme Court candidate Sonia Sotomayor, lauding her for her work and for overcoming "adversity and poverty."

Feinstein was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Obama on March 6, 2016 and later told Republicans that "this institution owes you for sitting down and speaking with him."

Feinstein requested that Supreme Court candidate Neil Gorsuch inform cases in which he was involved in decision making regarding either litigation or craft policy in February 2017. She wrote Gorsuch a letter in mid-March stating that her request had not been acknowledged. On April 3, Feinstein expressed her opposition to his nomination, citing Gorsuch's "record at the Department of Justice, his time as a judge, his appearance before the Senate, and his written questions for the record."

Feinstein was sent by Christine Blasey Ford in July 30, 2018, which Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s. Ford has requested that her allegation be kept private. Feinstein did not refer the complaint to the FBI until September 14, 2018, after the Senate Judiciary Committee had concluded its hearings on Kavanaugh's nomination and that "after leaks to the media that [the Ford allegation] had reached a 'fever pitch,'" Feinstein was "sharp scrutiny" for her decision to keep quiet about the Ford allegation for several weeks; she later stated that she kept the letter and Ford's information private because Ford had ordered it. Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court on October 6, 2018 after an additional hearing and a new FBI probe.

After being chastised by progressives following her appearance at Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearings in October 2020, Feinstein announced that she would resign from her position on the Judiciary Committee. Unidentified Democratic senators and aides who expressed dissatisfaction with her increasing age and inability to lead the committee were quoted in The New York Times and The New York Times.

Feinstein endorsed the Obama administration's proposal to export more than $1.15 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia in September 2016.

PIPA was funded by Feinstein on May 12, 2011. In January 2012, she met with representatives of technology firms, including Google and Facebook. "I'm doing everything she can to make sure the bill is balanced and safeguards the content community's intellectual property rights," a Feinstein spokeswoman said, without unfairly burdening legitimate companies such as Internet search engines.

Feinstein proposed and approved measures to continue the information collection efforts following her 2012 vote to extend the Patriot Act and the FISA provisions, as well as the 2013 mass surveillance revelations involving the National Security Agency (NSA). Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss also defended the NSA's offer to Verizon for all the phone calls made within the United States and other nations. According to the researchers, the phone calls and messages obtained by intelligence on the phone calls were used to connect phone lines to terrorists and that they did not contain the phone calls or emails' contents. According to Foreign Policy, she had a "reputation as a ferocious supporter of NSA tactics" and "of" the White House's refusal to stand by collection operations against foreign leaders.

Feinstein chastised the NSA for monitoring phone calls of foreign leaders close to the United States in October 2013. She introduced the FISA Amendments Act in November 2013, which contained a "backdoor search provision" that allows intelligence agencies to continue certain warrantless searches as long as they are documented and "available for review" to various departments.

Edward Snowden was dubbed a "traitor" by Feinstein in June 2013 after his leaks went public. She said she stood by it in October 2013.

Feinstein had accused the CIA of snooping and delete files from Congress members' computers, saying, "[t]he did not ask the committee or the staff if the committee knew of the internal investigation or how we obtained it." Rather, the CIA went to search the committee's computer. "The CIA's hunt may have infringed on the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution," she said.

Feinstein and Richard Burr sponsored a bill that would likely to criminalize all forms of robust encryption in electronic communication between citizens following the 2016 FBI–Apple encryption controversy. The bill will require technology firms to code their encryption in order to provide law enforcement with user data in a "intelligible manner" when they are legally bound to do so by court order.

Feinstein cosponsored the EARN IT act in 2020, which intends to establish a 19-member commission to recommend a list of best practices websites must follow in order to be covered by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The EARN IT Act effectively outlaws end-to-end encryption, depriving the world of safe, private communications equipment.

Feinstein introduced the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which became statute in 1994 and then expired in 2004. She and Representative Carolyn McCarthy introduced a bill in January 2013 that would prohibit the selling, transfer, manufacturing, or importation of 150 particular firearms, including semiautomatic rifles or pistols, that can be used with a detachable or fixed ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and have specific military-style features, such as pistol grips, grenade launchers, or rocket launchers. The bill would have exempted 900 versions of rifles used for sport and hunting. "The gunman used a semi-automatic assault rifle or large-capacity ammunition magazines," Feinstein wrote of the bill. Military assault weapons have only served one purpose, and in my opinion, it's for the military." The bill failed on a Senate vote of 60 to 40.

Feinstein has sluggishly criticized a variety of amendments to cannabis laws on both federal and federal levels. She voted against Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, in 2016 to approve recreational marijuana use in California. In 1996, she opposed Proposition 215 to authorize the medical use of cannabis in California. She was the only Democrat at a Senate hearing in 2015 to oppose the Rohrabacher-Farr bill, which limits the application of federal law in states that have legalized medical cannabis. Feinstein cited her conviction that cannabis is a gateway drug in voting against the amendment.

Feinstein moderated her views on marijuana in 2018 and cosponsored the STATES Act, which would shield states from federal interference in both medical and recreational use. She also endorsed legislation in 2015 to encourage medical cannabis use to veterans in states where its use is legal.

Feinstein said in September 2017, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, citing this as a reason for why a statute should be passed. Based on remarks made by Trump in her opening remarks at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January 2018, she expressed worry that the Trump administration's decision to suspend provisional protected status might be racially motivated.

Feinstein expressed her support for the Iran nuclear agreement framework in July 2015, tweeting that the agreement would usher in "unprecedented and costly inspections to verify cooperation" on the Iranian border.

Feinstein and Senator Bernie Sanders issued two statements on June 7, 2017, urging the Senate not to seek sanctions against Iran in reaction to the Tehran attacks earlier this day.

Feinstein voted for the Countering America's Adversaries Act in July 2017, which brought together bans against Iran, Russia, and North Korea.

Feinstein wrote an AIPAC-sponsored letter in September 2016, urging Israel to reject "one-sided" resolutions against Israel ahead of UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Feinstein resisted Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, or moving our embassy to Jerusalem, would ignite conflict and embolden extremists from both directions of the conflict.

Feinstein said during a second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile conducted by North Korea, the country had demonstrated herself as a threat to the United States, and she expressed her dissatisfaction with China's lack of responses during her appearance on Face the Country in July 2017.

Feinstein issued a statement on August 8, 2017, saying that North Korea's isolation had been ineffective, and Trump's rhetoric was not helping resolve a potential conflict. She also requested that the United States "quickly engage North Korea in a high-level dialogue without any preconditions."

Feinstein released a statement in September 2017 condemning Trump's bombastic threat to North Korea and his refusal to provide any concrete solutions forward on the many global challenges we face are utter disappointments."

During her first term as senator, Feinstein favors a conciliatory approach between China and Taiwan, and has boosted dialogue between high-level Chinese officials and US senators. Feinstein was asked about her Beijing connections. "I often think I was Chinese in my last life."

Feinstein has sluggishly condemned Beijing's missile launches near Taiwan and has called for the destruction of missiles directed at the island. She emphasized stronger corporate relations between China and Taiwan as a result of conflict and friendship building, and she suggested that the United States patiently "use two-way trade across Taiwan Strait as a platform for greater political discourse and closer links."

She believes that greater cross-strait economic integration "will lead to political integration and will ultimately provide the solution" to the Taiwan issue.

According to China's Ministry of State Security, a Chinese employee who served as Feinstein's personal driver, gofer, and liaison to the Asian-American community for 20 years was caught reporting to China's Ministry of State Security on July 27, 2018. According to the documents, the FBI contacted Feinstein five years earlier, alerting her of the employee. Feinstein fired the employee after being questioned by authorities and coerced to leave. There were no criminal charges against them.

Feinstein has served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence since 9/11, and her time on the committee has coincided with the Senate's Report on Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq and the discussion on torture/enhanced interrogation" of terrorists and suspected terrorists. Feinstein called the government's detention and interrogation program a "stain on our values and our history" on the Senate floor on December 9, 2014, the day parts of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA torture were announced to the public.

Feinstein caused a stir on January 9, 2018 when she revealed a transcript of her Senate Judiciary Committee co-founder Glenn Simpson's interview about Trump's campaign and the Russian government. Chuck Grassley, the committee's chairman, refused to reveal the transcript, so she did this unilaterally.

Feinstein served on President Jimmy Carter's steering committee in California and as a Carter delegate to the Democratic National Convention during the 1980 presidential election. She was chosen to serve as one of the 1980 Democratic National Convention's four chairs.

During the 1984 presidential election, Feinstein endorsed former Vice President Walter Mondale. In 1983, she and Democratic National Committee Chairman Charles Manatt signed a deal, making San Francisco the host of the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

Feinstein, a superdelegate in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, has said she would vote for Clinton. However, she overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama's campaign as the presumptive nominee. Feinstein lent her Washington, D.C., home to Clinton and Obama for a private one-on-one meeting just days after Obama assembled enough delegates to win the nomination. She did not attend the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver because she had fallen and broken her ankle earlier in the month.

Feinstein chaired the United States Congress Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and performed as a mistress of ceremonies, welcoming each participant at the 2009 presidential inauguration. She is the first woman to preside at a presidential inauguration in the United States.

Feinstein was one of 16 female senators to sign a letter supporting Hillary Clinton for president in October 20, 2013.

Feinstein expressed her admiration for former Vice President Joe Biden as the 2020 presidential election came close. Many pundits were taken aback by the prospect of fellow California senator Kamala Harris' candidacy, of whom Feinstein said, "I'm a huge fan of Sen. Harris and I work with her." But she's brand new here, so getting to know someone takes a little while."

Source