Jim Leach | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities | |
| In office August 7, 2009 – April 23, 2013 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Carole M. Watson (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Carole M. Watson (acting) |
| Chair of theHouse Financial Services Committee | |
| In office January 4, 1995 – January 3, 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Henry B. Gonzalez |
| Succeeded by | Mike Oxley |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromIowa | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Edward Mezvinsky |
| Succeeded by | Dave Loebsack |
| Constituency |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Albert Smith Leach (1942-10-15)October 15, 1942 Davenport, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | December 11, 2024(2024-12-11) (aged 82) Iowa City, Iowa, U.S. |
| Party | Republican (before 2022) Democratic (2022–2024) |
| Spouse | Deba Leach |
| Education | Princeton University (AB) Johns Hopkins University (MA) |
Leach, as chair of theHouse Financial Services Committee, closes debate on theGramm–Leach–Bliley Act Recorded November 4, 1999 | |
James Albert Smith Leach (October 15, 1942 – December 11, 2024) was an American academic and politician. He served as ninthChair of theNational Endowment for the Humanities from 2009 to 2013[1][2] and was a member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromIowa (1977–2007).
Leach was theJohn L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs at theWoodrow Wilson School ofPrinceton University.[3] He also served as the interim director of the Institute of Politics atHarvard Kennedy School atHarvard University from September 17, 2007, to September 1, 2008, whenBill Purcell was appointed permanent director.
Previously, Leach served 30 years (1977–2007) as aRepublican member of theUnited States House of Representatives, representingIowa's 2nd congressional district (numbered as the 1st District from 1977 to 2003). InCongress, Leach chaired the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services (1995–2001) and was a senior member of the House Committee on International Relations, serving as Chair of the committee's Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs (2001–2006).[4] He also founded and served as co-chair of the Congressional Humanities Caucus.[3] He lost his 2006 re-election bid toDemocratDave Loebsack. Leach sponsored the 1999Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, a notable piece of banking legislation of the 20th century.
In 2022, Leach broke with the Republicans and registered as a Democrat.[5]
James Albert Smith Leach was born inDavenport, Iowa on October 15, 1942.[6] He won the 1960 statewrestling championship at the 138-pound weight class for Davenport High School.[7][better source needed] He graduated fromPrinceton University in 1964 with an A.B. in politics after completing a senior thesis titled "The Right to Revolt:John Locke Contrasted withKarl Marx."[8] While a student at Princeton, Leach was a member ofThe Ivy Club. He then earned aMaster of Arts degree inSoviet studies fromJohns Hopkins University in 1966.[9][10] He later did further Soviet research at theLondon School of Economics, where he studied underLeonard Schapiro, the foremost expert on Soviet affairs.[11]
Prior to entering theUnited States Foreign Service, he was a staffer for then U.S. Rep.Donald Rumsfeld.[3] In 1969, he was an assistant to Rumsfeld, who had left his Congressional seat to become Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity in the Nixon administration.[12] While in the Foreign Service, he was a delegate to theGeneva Disarmament Conference and theU.N. General Assembly.[13] In 1973, Leach resigned his commission in protest of theSaturday Night Massacre whenRichard Nixon fired his Attorney General,Elliot Richardson, and the independent counsel investigating the Watergate break-in,Archibald Cox.[14]
After returning to Iowa to head a family business, Leach was elected in 1976 to Congress (defeating two-termDemocratEdward Mezvinsky), where he came to be a leader of a small band of moderate Republicans.[15] He chaired two national organizations dedicated to moderate Republican causes: theRipon Society and the Republican Mainstream Committee.[16][17] He also served as president of the largest international association of legislators –Parliamentarians for Global Action.[18]
During his 15 terms in Congress, Leach's voting record was generally conservative on fiscal issues, moderate on social matters, andprogressive inforeign policy. As chair of the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, he pressed for a Comprehensive Test Ban and led the first House debate on anuclear freeze.[19] He objected to military unilateralism as reflected in theIran-Contra policy of the 1980s. He pushed for full funding of U.S. obligations to the United Nations, supported U.S. re-entry intoUNESCO, and opposed U.S. withdrawal from the compulsory jurisdiction of theInternational Court of Justice.[20]
While he supported the firstGulf War in 1991, Leach was one of six House Republicans who voted against the authorization to use force against Iraq in 2002.[21][22] He was one of three Republican congressmen (alongsideMichael Castle andAmo Houghton) to vote against the 2003 extension of theBush-era tax cuts.[23]
Leach supported abortion rights except during thethird trimester but also opposed public funding of abortion, receiving an overall 30% rating from the Pro-Choice groupNARAL.[24] Leach was a supporter ofstem cell research.[25]
Leach supported campaign reform and pressed unsuccessfully for a system of partialpublic financing of elections whereby small contributions could be matched by federal funds with accompanying limits on the amounts that could be spent in campaigns including the personal resources candidates could put in their own races.[26] In his own campaigns, Leach did not accept donations from outside of Iowa.[27]
As a member of the minority for his first nine terms, he became known for the development of three reports – one in the 1980s calling for a more progressive approach toCentral American politics; a second in the early 1990s on reforming the United Nations written for a national commission he legislatively established and later chaired; and the third issued when he was ranking minority member of the Banking Committee on the challenges of regulatingderivatives.[28]
In the wake of a 1996 Ethics Committee probe of then Speaker of the HouseNewt Gingrich, which cited the Speaker for providing false information under oath to a House committee, Leach broke ranks with tradition and voted against his party's nominee for Speaker in the subsequent Congress.[29] In one of the few occasions in the 20th century when any party division was recorded on the initial leadership organizing votes on the House floor, he voted for the former Republican leader,Bob Michel, and received two votes himself, causing Leach to take a distant third in the contest for Speaker of the105th Congress behind Gingrich and the Democratic nominee,Dick Gephardt.[30]
Leach was a top critic of PresidentBill Clinton and played a leading role in the House's investigation of theWhitewater scandal.[31][32][33] In the 1980s he had objected to political misjudgments that lengthened and deepened losses in thesavings and loan industry.[34] Because criminal referrals had been lodged by a federal agency against President Clinton, his wife, and their partners in a real estate venture for their role in the failure of a modest-sized Arkansas S&L, Leach as chair of theHouse Banking Committee held four days of hearings (all in the same week) on the causes and consequences of the failure.[35] While federal taxpayer losses (approximately $70 million) associated with this particular S&L were not as large as with bigger institutions around the country, no S&L anywhere failed with a higher percentage of losses relative to assets than the one in Arkansas.[citation needed]
In the end, the independent counsel brought more than 50 criminal convictions related to the failed S&L, including cases against Clinton's successor as Governor of Arkansas,Jim Guy Tucker, and his business partners in Whitewater.[36]
Leach did not think that the crimes surrounding the failure of the Whitewater-tied S&L should have been considered in animpeachment framework. Like many in Congress, he was surprised that theJustice Department chose to refer certain sex-related charges toKenneth Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel, and even more so when Starr chose subsequently to refer certain of them to the Congress. But in what he described as a close judgment call, Leach voted for thearticle of impeachment that related to felonious lying under oath.[37]
TheGramm–Leach–Bliley Act, also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, Pub. L. No. 106–102, 113 Stat. 1338 (November 12, 1999), is an Act of the United States Congress which repealed part of theGlass–Steagall Act of 1933, opening up competition among banks, securities companies and insurance companies. The Glass–Steagall Act prohibited a bank from offering investment, commercial banking, and insurance services.This act of deregulation has been cited as one reason for thesubprime mortgage crisis,[38][39][40][41] which in turn is cited as a prime component of the2008 financial crisis. In this regard in 2009 and since, Gramm–Leach has been considered in part a target of theVolcker Rule within the overallDodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.[42][43][44][45]
Leach was usually reelected without much difficulty (including an unopposed run in 1990). He remained very popular in the 1st even as his district turned increasingly Democratic, especially from the 1990s onward.[citation needed] For most of his career, he represented the Democratic strongholds of Davenport,Cedar Rapids andIowa City. The district had last supported a Republican for president in 1984, and by the mid-1990s most of its state legislators were Democrats.[citation needed] The district became even more Democratic after the 2000 census, in which it was renumbered the 2nd District. Additionally, his hometown of Davenport, which had anchored the district for decades, was drawn into the 1st District (previously the 2nd District).[citation needed] Leach seriously considered running against fellow Republican incumbentJim Nussle in the 1st District primary. Had he done so, it was considered very likely that the reconfigured 2nd would have been taken by a Democrat.[original research?] However, Leach opted to move to Iowa City in the reconfigured 2nd and won reelection two more times. Still, it was considered very likely that Leach would be succeeded by a Democrat once he retired.[citation needed]
In 2006, Leach was defeated in a considerable upset by Democratic opponentDave Loebsack, a political science professor atCornell College.[46] Loebsack had only qualified for the Democratic primary as a write-in candidate, and Leach was not on many Democratic target lists. However, Loebsack won by a narrow margin of approximately 6,000 votes, largely by running up an 8,395-vote margin inJohnson County, home to Iowa City.[47]
In conjunction with a Democratic tide which swept Eastern Iowa and across the U.S. in the 2006 election, there were two factors seen as what led to Leach's defeat: his refusal to allow theRepublican National Committee to distribute leaflets that were seen as anti-gay, attacking Loebsack for his views on gay marriage, and his refusal to take out-of-state andpolitical action committee money.[48][49]
The second related to his success just before adjournment in passing H.R. 4411. Gambling interests opposed him during the election and contended the bill had passed without hearings. The bill had been subject to extensive hearings over several Congresses, especially on the House side where both theFinancial Services and theJudiciary committees had shared jurisdiction.[50] Leach argued that Internet gambling weakened the economy and jeopardized the social fabric of the family.
After his defeat, Leach's name was floated as a potential replacement toJohn Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations.[51][52] On December 8, 2006, Leach's House colleaguesEarl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) andJim Walsh (R-New York) sent a letter to PresidentGeorge W. Bush urging the President to nominate Leach for the post.[53] However, the nomination instead went to theUnited States Ambassador to Iraq,Zalmay Khalilzad.[54]
Leach then taught at Princeton and served on the board of several public companies and four non-profit organizations, including theCentury Foundation, theKettering Foundation and theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace.[55] He was a member of theCouncil on Foreign Relations and formerly served as atrustee of Princeton University.[56]
Leach holds eighthonorary degrees and has received decorations from two foreign governments.[57] He is the recipient of the Wayne Morse Integrity in Politics Award, the Woodrow Wilson Award from Johns Hopkins, the Adlai Stevenson Award from the United Nations Association, and the Edger Wayburn Award from theSierra Club.[58] A three-sport athlete in college, Leach was elected to theNational Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum inStillwater, Oklahoma, and theInternational Wrestling Hall of Fame inWaterloo, Iowa.[59]
On September 17, 2007, Leach was named as Interim Director of theInstitute of Politics (IOP) atHarvard Kennedy School after former directorJeanne Shaheen left to pursue a U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire.[60]
Leach resided inIowa City and Princeton with his wife Elisabeth (Deba), son Gallagher, and daughter Jenny.[61]
On August 12, 2008, Leach broke party ranks to endorse DemocratBarack Obama over fellow RepublicanJohn McCain in the2008 U.S. presidential election.[62] He spoke at the2008 Democratic National Convention inDenver,Colorado, on the night of August 25, 2008.[63] He was introduced by SenatorTom Harkin, a fellow Iowan.[64]
On November 14 and 15, 2008, Leach and former ClintonSecretary of StateMadeleine Albright served as emissaries for President-elect Obama at the international economic summit being held inWashington, D.C.[65]
President Obama announced his nomination of Leach to be the ninthChair of theNational Endowment for the Humanities in June 2009.[66] The appointment was confirmed in August 2009.[1]
On August 1, 2013, Jim Leach began serving a three-year term as public affairs chair at theUniversity of Iowa and he was slated to begin teaching there as a visiting professor of law in the spring of 2014.[67]
In 2020, Leach, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted thatPresident Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him."[68]
In 2022, Leach revealed in an interview with theQuad-City Times that he had changed his registration to Democratic ahead of the June primary, citing his switch as a rebuke of the national party and their response to theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack the previous year. Leach also stated that he wanted to supportChristina Bohannan, a Democratic candidate (and ultimately the nominee) forIowa's 1st congressional district that year in the primary; he also endorsed DemocraticU.S. Senate nomineeMichael Franken.[5]
Leach died on December 11, 2024, at a hospital inIowa City, Iowa, from a heart attack and a stroke, at the age of 82.[69][70][6]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theHouse of Representatives fromIowa's 1st congressional district 1977–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theHouse Financial Services Committee 1993–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Financial Services Committee 1995–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theHouse of Representatives fromIowa's 2nd congressional district 2003–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theJoint China Commission 2003–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by Carole M. Watson Acting | Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities 2009–2013 | Succeeded by Carole M. Watson Acting |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
