Jerry Lewis on the importance of bipartisan action after Hurricane Katrina Recorded September 2, 2005
Charles Jeremy Lewis (October 21, 1934 – July 15, 2021) was an American politician who was a U.S. representative, last serving California's 41st congressional district.[1] He was first elected to Congress in 1978, and previously represented the 40th, 35th, and 37th districts. A Republican, he was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, serving in that role during the 109th Congress. In January 2012 he announced that he was not running for re-election and would end his congressional career in January 2013.
He was a member of the San Bernardino School Board from 1964 to 1968. He was on the staff of Congressman Jerry Pettis in 1966.
He was a member of the California State Assembly from 1969 to 1978. In January 1974, he ran in a special election for the California State Senate, losing to Democrat Ruben Ayala.[4] In the campaign, Ayala noted that two-thirds of the $130,000 that Lewis raised came from 43 donors — 22 of whom were Sacramento lobbyists.[5]
U.S. House of Representatives
Lewis with comedian Jerry LewisLewis speaking about wildfire prevention
Elections
In November 1978, Lewis was elected as a Republican to the 96th United States Congress, in what was then the 37th Congressional district, with 61% of the vote. He was subsequently re-elected 16 times. He never won re-election with less than 61% of the vote. In fact, he only dipped below 65% four times (1990, 1992, 2006, and 2008).[6]
In 2008, Lewis received his strongest challenge in decades from San Bernardino attorney Tim Prince, who won a 4-candidate Democratic primary. Lewis was forced to spend over a million dollars to retain his seat. He declined Prince's challenges for a debate. The incumbent defeated him with 62% of the vote.[7]
On January 12, 2012, Lewis announced his retirement.[8]
Tenure
Lewis employed his wife, Arlene Willis, as the chief of staff in his office. Before they were married, Willis was her husband's top aide when he came to Capitol Hill in 1979.[9]
In 1994, he was named chairman of the VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Subcommittee, where he worked until 1999 to improve oversight to uncover fraud and abuse in large housing programs and reduce spending on wasteful programs within a number of federal agencies.
He steered federal dollars to the state and to the region for projects such as the planning and construction of the Seven Oaks Dam near Highland, California. Among his proudest achievements came early in his career as a state assemblyman, pushing for the establishment of the first air quality committee in the state Legislature, which led to the formation of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in the mid-1970s.[10]
In 1998, he secured start-up funding for Loma Linda University's Proton Beam treatment center, which has led to the installation of similar cancer treatment centers across the U.S.[11]
Lewis placed special riders in a series of appropriations bills that freed up nearly $100 million to the U.S. Forest Service, the state and the county to remove more than a million trees in the San Bernardino National Forest killed by drought and bark beetle infestation. He worked with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein to secure an additional $500 million to reduce the fire danger in the San Bernardino Mountains and throughout Southern California.[11]
Lewis also secured $15 million for a pilot program to refurbish houses repossessed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and providing them to qualified low income families. The program, according to Lewis' office at the time was successful in Redlands, Highland, and San Bernardino.[11]
In its 2009 report, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) named Lewis one of the 15 most corrupt members of Congress, saying that his "ethics issues stem primarily from the misuse of his position as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee to steer hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks to family and friends in direct exchange for contributions to his campaign committee and political action committee."[14]
Lewis was also included in the group's report in 2006, 2007, and 2008.[14]
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice closed the case without filing charges. It was never submitted to federal prosecutors.[10]
Military lobbyist relationships
Lewis' aide in charge of tracking defense appropriations, Marine Lt. Col. Carl Kime, was "a military officer on The Pentagon's payroll, an apparent violation of House rules and a possible conflict of interest".[15]U.S. Department of Defense regulations state that military personnel can work on committee staffs but not on the personal staff of an individual member. Kime apparently worked for Lewis since 2001 while being on the Pentagon payroll. Congressional watchdogs call Kime's role a conflict of interest and defense experts state that his position may have given the United States Marine Corps greater leverage over contracts and earmarks on the Appropriations Committee.
On February 22, 2006, The Hill reported that the Pentagon was recalling Kime from Lewis's office. Kime's "service for Lewis appeared to violate the Members' Congressional Handbook issued by the Committee for House Administration, which defines a detailee as a 'non-congressional federal employee assigned to a committee for a period of up to one year.' The handbook also states that 'detailees may not be assigned to a member office' and cites the relevant section of U.S. law: 2 USC Section 72a(f)."[16]
Barracks Row earmarks
In July 2007, CBS News reported that since 2004, Lewis had earmarked $2.75 million for the "Barracks Row" area of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. "Neither I nor my spouse has any financial interest in this project," Lewis said of the improvements being funded by the earmarks. But the congressman's wife, who was also his chief of staff, owns a three-bedroom home valued at $943,000 that is four blocks from the work being paid for by the earmarks. CBS also reported that Tip Tipton, a property owner in the area and a member of the board of directors of the redevelopment project receiving the earmarks, is a top Washington lobbyist who is also a longtime Lewis friend and campaign donor.[17]
Loma Linda University
From 1998 to 2003, Loma Linda University received $167.2 million in congressional earmarks. That made it the number one academic recipient in the country, with its total nearly $60 million more than the runner up, the University of South Florida.[18] In 2000, Loma Linda University was the single largest recipient of higher education earmarks, at $36 million, largely brought in by Lewis. Several grants were from the U.S. Department of Defense, including $5 million from NASA for space radiation research.[citation needed]
In 2008, Loma Linda University received nearly $9.5 million, of which $5 million came from the Defense Department.[19]
Committee assignments
Lewis was chair of the House Republican Conference from 1989 to 1992. In January 1995, he became chairman of the Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies Appropriations subcommittee. He was the first representative from California to be chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. He also served as chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee from 1999 to 2005.[10]
As of this edit, this article uses content from SourceWatch, a source licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License which was imported into Wikipedia before November 2008 and is therefore validly licensed for use on Wikipedia. All relevant terms must be followed. The original article was at "Jerry Lewis".
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