Silvestre Reyes

Infobox_Congressman
name = Silvestre Reyes


date of birth = birth date and age|1944|11|10
place of birth = Canutillo, Texas
state = Texas
district = 16th
term = 1997–present
preceded = Ron Coleman
succeeded = Incumbent
party = Democratic
spouse = Carolina Gaytan
religion = Roman Catholic
occupation= border patrol agent
residence= El Paso, Texas
alma_mater= El Paso Community College

Silvestre Reyes (born November 10, 1944 in Canutillo, Texas) represents Texas's 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Democratic Party

Reyes served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He later worked for the U.S. Border Patrol. In 1993, serving as the Chief Patrol Agent of the El Paso Border Patrol Sector, Reyes led the Border Patrol to position agents on the border to intercept illegal immigrants.

Reyes retired from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and ran for Congress against Ron Coleman in the Democratic primary, but Coleman retired. After winning a primary runoff, [ [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=222681 Our Campaigns - TX District 16 - D Runoff Race - Apr 09, 1996 ] ] Reyes was easily elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat in November 1996. [ [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=30069 Our Campaigns - TX District 16 Race - Nov 05, 1996 ] ] He was most recently re-elected by a wide margin in November 2006. [ [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=207718 Our Campaigns - TX - District 16 Race - Nov 07, 2006 ] ]

Reyes has served as chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In 2002, he considered running for the United States Senate, but decided against such a move. In 2005 he missed 94 votes in the House, the ninth most of any member.

Reyes was a key player in the 109th Congress because of his Immigration and Border Patrol experience. He was instrumental in leading the opposition to the House immigration proposal proposed by James Sensenbrenner, H.R. 4437. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi selected Reyes to present and lead the debate on a Democratic substitute to replace the Sensenbrenner legislation, which was voted down on a party line vote.

As a senior member of both the Armed Services and Select Intelligence Committees, Reyes is a key member of Congress on Defense and military issues. He is credited with the recent success of Fort Bliss and White Sands military bases in the most recent Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions by the Department of Defense. On December 1, 2006, Reyes was tapped by Pelosi, the prospective Speaker of the House, to be the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. [http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/01/reyes.intelligence.ap/index.html]

ASME honored Reyes with the ASME President's Award on April 3, 2008. ASME President Sam Zamrik presented the award in recognition of Reyes' "outstanding contributions in promoting diversity in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields" as the co-founder of the Congressional Diversity and Innovation Caucus.cite web |url=http://www.asmenews.org/features/0508pres.html |author=ASME |title=NEWS Online |month=May |year=2008]

Controversial statements

In a December 2006 interview with "Congressional Quarterly", Reyes said that al-Qaeda, a Sunni group, was "predominantly probably Shi'ite." He also avoided answering the question whether Hezbollah, a Shi'ite organization, was Sunni or Shi'ite, answering now famously ""Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah? ... Why do you ask me these questions at 5 o'clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?" Reyes, who has been a ranking member of the Select Intelligence Committee for a number of years, was criticized for the gaffe. [ [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236199,00.html FOXNews.com - New House Intelligence Committee Chair Short on Intelligence - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum ] ]

In the same interview, Reyes said he favors sending more troops to Iraq: "on a temporary basis, I’m willing to ramp them up by twenty or thirty thousand ... for, I don’t know, two months, four months, six months – but certainly that would be an exception." [Jeff Stein: [http://public.cq.com/public/20061211_homeland.html Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda] (Congressional Quarterly, 8 December 2006)] Yet, a month later, when President George W. Bush proposed sending approximately 21,500 more troops, Reyes said to the "El Paso Times", "we don't have the capability to escalate even to this minimal level." [ [http://www.elpasotimes.com/search/ci_4990009 El Paso Times - El Pasoans split on troop surge ] ]

Philippine Visit

On August 25, 2007, Reyes (who is Chairman of both the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Armed Services Committee) and four other US Congressmen visited American troops deployed in the southern Philippines to overview the US-Philippines relationship. Reyes headed the bipartisan delegation which included New Jersey Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, member of appropriations committee and the select intelligence oversight panel; New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson of the committee on energy and the intelligence committee; New York Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, a Democrat, of the financial services and international relations committees; and Maryland Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of the appropriations and intelligence committees. They drove to the base of the Joint Special Operation Task Force Philippines (JSOTFP), a US-led body, which trains Filipino soldiers against terrorism, in Barangay Upper Calarian. [ [http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=84644 Inquirer.net, US congressmen visit troops in Mindanao] ]

Telecom immunity

In his role as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Reyes was a deciding factor in whether legislation on the floor of the House extending provisions of the FISA would include retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies which participated in the NSA's warrantless wiretap program. Although he initially supported immunity for telecommunications companies, saying that immunity was necessary and the companies hadn't done anything illegal [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJKgeE0Z-SivATjok-utYBdh9wDwD8V5F5IO0 Reyes: Deal Soon on Eavesdropping Law] , eventually after being contacted by pressure groups, the version of the legislation he introduced did not contain provisions for telecom immunity, despite Republican threats to torpedo any bill that did not contain telecom immunity [http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/11/fisa.democrats/ House Democrats unveil new surveillance bill] .

References

External links

* [http://wwwc.house.gov/reyes/ U.S. Representative Silvestre Reyes] official U.S. House site
* [http://www.reyesforcongress.com/ Silvestre Reyes for U.S. Congress] official campaign site
*CongBio|r000170
* [http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/can_detail/H6TX00115 Federal Election Commission — Silvestre Reyes] campaign finance reports and data
* [http://www.ontheissues.org/TX/Silvestre_Reyes.htm On the Issues — Silvestre Reyes] issue positions and quotes
* [http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?CID=N00006067 OpenSecrets.org — Silvestre Reyes] campaign contributions
* [http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=BC031887 Project Vote Smart — Representative Silvestre Reyes (TX)] profile
* [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Silvestre_Reyes SourceWatch Congresspedia — Silvestre Reyes] profile
* [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/r000170/ Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Silvestre Reyes] voting record
* [http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2008/06/us-congressman%E2%80%99 — U.S. Congressman's Family Member Kidnapped in Juarez