Norm Dicks, a native of Bremerton, Washington, was
first elected to Congress in November 1976. Educated in Bremerton-area elementary and
secondary schools, Rep. Dicks was graduated from the
University
of Washington in 1963. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of
Washington School of Law in 1968 and later that year joined the staff of Senator Warren G.
Magnuson. He served as Legislative Assistant until 1973, when he became the Senator's
Administrative Assistant. He resigned from that post in early 1976 to begin what was a
successful campaign for Congress in Washington State's 6th Congressional District, and he
has been re-elected in every election since that time.
In Congress
Having received a rare first-term appointment to the
House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Dicks currently serves as
the third-ranking member of that Committee. He is a member of three key Appropriations Subcommittees
Defense, Interior and Environment, and Military Construction/Veterans
Affairs, which are all related to the interests of Washington State. At the outset of the 110th Congress he was elected Chairman
of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee which places him in
a leadership position on federal environmental and natural resource policies as well as
Indian Affairs. He also serves as a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security,
and on two of its
Subcommittees: Intelligence, Information Sharing & Terrorism Risk
Assessment and Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response
Career Highlights
Rep. Dicks has been an influential, moderate Member of Congress on defense and national
security issues. During the 1980's he was involved in all of the major arms control
debates in Congress, and was appointed to serve as an official observer to the US-Soviet
arms reduction talks because of his expertise. His familiarity with highly classified
defense programs led to his appointment in 1990 to the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, on which he served for eight years. From 1995 through 1998, he served as the
ranking Democratic Member of the House Intelligence Committee, and in 1998 was named the
Ranking Democrat on a special Select Committee investigating technology transfer to China.
Rep. Dicks was awarded the
CIA Directors Medal, among other honors, upon completion of his service on the
Intelligence Committee in late 1998.
The environment has always been a high priority for
Rep. Dicks, who has served on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee during his entire
tenure in Congress. In 1984 he was responsible for a key addition the Clearwater
area to the Washington Wilderness bill and he has consistently succeeded in funding
other critical additions to National Parks and roadless areas in Washington State. In the
late 1980s and early 1990s he was involved in the regional effort to develop a response to
the listing of the Northern Spotted Owl, which resulted in reductions of timber harvesting
on federal lands. During the Clinton-Gore Administration, he worked
with all of the relevant federal agencies to assemble a program of federal assistance to
affected forest workers and timber communities, which has totaled more than $1.2 billion
in the past six years and which continues today. He also worked
with the Clinton-Gore Administration to bring federal assistance to the west
coast states to address the listings of threatened salmon runs. Perhaps
his biggest environmental achievement came in September, 2000, as Rep. Dicks
wrote a landmark bill that created a new federal lands conservation
trust. This bill doubed the nation's commitment to preserving threatened
parklands and protecting wildlife over a six year period.
At home, he has been known as an aggressive
champion of economic development funds for local communities, and he was successful in
bringing Urban Development Action Grants and other federal programs to spur the
revitalization of downtown Tacoma and to re-develop the waterfront areas of Bremerton. He
launched the effort to restore Tacomas Union Station by turning it into a federal
courthouse, and was a major advocate for locating a branch campus of the University of
Washington in downtown Tacoma. Rep. Dicks was also the instigator of a landmark land
claims settlement, as he led the effort to resolve land claims made by the Puyallup Tribe
that were clouding titles to important port, industrial and residential property in Pierce
County. After years of negotiations, the settlement agreement was reached and Rep. Dicks
introduced the legislation which authorized and appropriated the federal share of the
settlement. In Bremerton, he has worked with the Navy and the local community to build new
housing and to create incentives for improving the existing housing stock. He co-chaired
an effort to preserve and restore the Admiral Theatre, and is currently supporting the
concept of a downtown/waterfront retail development that will boost the citys tax
base and improve the quality of life for Navy personnel stationed at Bremerton. Rep.
Dicks amendment to a highway reauthorization bill created a separate federal program
for ferry system funding, which has provided for the start of a new fast ferry run from
Bremerton-to-Seattle.
Professional Associations
Rep. Dicks currently serves on the Congressional Advisory Council of the
Henry M.
Jackson Foundation and on the Board of Advisors of the
National Bureau of Asian Research.
He is a member of the Washington State Bar and District of
Columbia Bar, and is a member of the
Council
on Foreign Relations. In Washington State, he serves as an honorary member of Rotary
and Kiwanis clubs in his district, and as a member of the Puget Sound Naval Bases
Association.
Personal
Born December 16, 1940, Rep. Dicks is married to the former Suzanne Callison. They have
two children, David and Ryan.
Norm's Family. Pictured from left to right are Ryan Dicks, his wife Ann, Norm, his mother Eileen, his wife Suzie, and David Dicks with his wife Antonia.
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