Loretta Sanchez

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez represents the California 47th Congressional District, which encompasses the Southern California cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Fullerton in Orange County. She was elected to Congress in November 1996, and was re-elected to her current fourth term in November 2002 with 60 percent of the vote.

Loretta is known for two things: accessibility and collaboration. Those traits have served her well both in Washington and in Orange County.

She travels to her home district from Washington each week to do work in the community and meet with constituents. Loretta has focused much of her time on issues such as education, public safety & crime reduction, economic development, and protections for our senior citizens. Born and raised in the district she serves, she is acutely aware of the issues facing her constituency.

While in Washington, she has been successful at working on bi-partisan projects and helping to bring funding back to the district for many community projects. During her tenure, she has secured appropriations measures totaling more than $300 million in federal tax dollars, which was sent back home to Orange County. She has worked hard to improve the infrastructure and quality of life for this fast-growing suburban county through various transportation, education, environmental, and crime reduction projects.

She has hosted hundreds of community events for her constituency. She has personally visited every school in her district, often with dignitaries such as former Vice President Al Gore, cabinet secretaries, astronauts and other Members of Congress. She regularly hosts "Community Office Hours," a grassroots approach to generating community interest in and accessibility to their Congressional representative.

Loretta is a businesswoman. Prior to her work in Congress, she was a financial manager at the Orange County Transportation Authority. She was an assistant vice president at Fieldman Rollap and Associates, specializing in advising clients of the firm in the area of municipal finance–a skill that serves her well in her role as Congresswoman. Loretta was an associate at Booz, Allen and Hamilton, putting financial plans together for municipalities as well as private companies. She eventually started her own consulting business in Santa Ana, assisting public agencies and private firms with financial matters, including cost-benefit analysis, strategic planning and capital acquisition. She received industry recognition when the State of California selected her to independently review the financial status of Orange County=s first toll road to save about $300 million in financing costs.

Loretta attended Chapman University, in Orange, California, where she was selected in January 2002 to serve as the university’s first Latina member of the Board of Trustees. She received her bachelor’s degree in economics in 1982 (voted "Business Student of the Year"), and then entered American University in Washington, D.C. to obtain her master’s in business administration with an emphasis on finance, which she received in 1984. During the second year of her MBA program at American, Loretta spent a year in Rome, Italy, attending European Community’s Market Management School.

Congresswoman Sanchez is the ranking woman of the House Armed Services Committee. Her seat on this panel helps her bring jobs to Orange County’s growing high-tech industrial base. Loretta was instrumental in requiring the Department of Defense to include the City of Palmdale, California when it investigates cost alternatives for Joint Strike Fighter production. She has served on the Terrorism Panel of this Committee, where she joined other Members to investigate intelligence progress and terrorist threats to the United States. As terrorism becomes more and more of a concern for Americans, Congresswoman Sanchez is actively participating in protecting members of the Armed Services stationed around that world and on our own soil, as well as the citizens of this nation.

This year, Congresswoman Sanchez was selected by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to serve as the third-ranking Democrat of the Select Committee for Homeland Security. The Select Committee will provide oversight of the new Department of Homeland Security to assure it is working effectively and quickly. The Committee has legislative jurisdiction over matters relating to the Homeland Security Act and will play a central role in fighting the war on terrorism.

While serving on the Homeland Security Committee, Congresswoman Sanchez will take a leave of absence from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which oversees education and labor issues. During her tenure on the Committee, she has protected parental involvement initiatives and successfully saved national gender equity in education program. She spearheaded efforts to promote school safety, including the well-being of children walking and bicycling to and from local schools in Orange County. She is also the author of legislation to facilitate tax-free bonds to encourage school construction across the country.

Congresswoman Sanchez is a member of the Hispanic Caucus, the Blue Dog Democrats, the New Democratic Coalition, and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. She also is a member of the Women’s Congressional Caucus, the Older Americans Caucus, the Law Enforcement Caucus, and the Congressional Sportsman’s Caucus. She serves on various boards. She is Past President of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, a member of the Los Amigos of Orange County, the Rotary Club of Anaheim, and the Anaheim Assistance League.

Loretta is married to Stephen Brixey, a securities trader, and their families have called the 47th Congressional District home for more than half a century.