Sam Brownback | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2018 | |
| 5thUnited States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom | |
| In office February 1, 2018 – January 20, 2021 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | David Saperstein |
| Succeeded by | Rashad Hussain |
| 46thGovernor of Kansas | |
| In office January 10, 2011 – January 31, 2018 | |
| Lieutenant | Jeff Colyer |
| Preceded by | Mark Parkinson |
| Succeeded by | Jeff Colyer |
| United States Senator fromKansas | |
| In office November 7, 1996 – January 3, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Sheila Frahm |
| Succeeded by | Jerry Moran |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromKansas's2nd district | |
| In office January 3, 1995 – November 7, 1996 | |
| Preceded by | Jim Slattery |
| Succeeded by | Jim Ryun |
| Secretary of Agriculture of Kansas | |
| In office September 18, 1986 – July 30, 1993 | |
| Governor | John W. Carlin Mike Hayden Joan Finney |
| Preceded by | Harland Priddle[1] |
| Succeeded by | Philip Fishburn[2] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Samuel Dale Brownback (1956-09-12)September 12, 1956 (age 68) Garnett, Kansas, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5 |
| Education | Kansas State University (BA) University of Kansas (JD) |
| Signature |  |
Sam Brownback on the death of his Senate colleague,Robert Byrd Recorded June 30, 2010 | |
Samuel Dale Brownback (born September 12, 1956) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as aUnited States senator fromKansas from 1996 to 2011 and as the46th governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018. A member of theRepublican Party, Brownback also served as theUnited States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom during theadministration of PresidentDonald Trump and was a candidate for theRepublican nomination for President in2008.
Born inGarnett, Kansas, Brownback grew up on a family farm inParker, Kansas. He graduated fromKansas State University with a degree in agricultural economics in 1978 and received aJ.D. from theUniversity of Kansas in 1982. He worked as an attorney inManhattan, Kansas, before being appointed Secretary of Agriculture of Kansas in 1986 byDemocratic governorJohn W. Carlin. Brownbackran for Congress in 1994 and defeated Carlin in the general election in a landslide. He represented Kansas's 2nd congressional district for a single term before running in a1996 special election for the U.S. Senate seat previously held byBob Dole. He won the election and was reelected by large margins in1998 and2004. Brownbackran for president in 2008, but withdrew before theprimaries began and endorsed eventual Republican nomineeJohn McCain.[3][4][5]
Brownback declined to run for reelectionin 2010, instead running for governor. He was elected governor of Kansasin 2010 and took office in January 2011. As governor, Brownback signed into law one of the largest income tax cuts in Kansas history, known as theKansas experiment.[6] The tax cuts caused state revenues to fall by hundreds of millions of dollars and created large budget shortfalls.[7] A major budget deficit led to cuts in areas including education and transportation.[8][9] In a repudiation of thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in 2013 Brownback turned down a $31.5 million grant from the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services to set up a public health insurance exchange for Kansas.[10] Also in 2013, he signed a bill that blocked tax breaks for abortion providers, banned sex-selection abortions, and declared that life begins at fertilization.[11] In the run-up to the2014 gubernatorial election, over 100 former and current Kansas Republican officials criticized Brownback's leadership and endorsed his Democratic opponent,Paul Davis.[12][13][14] Despite this, Brownback was narrowly reelected.[15] In June 2017, the Kansas Legislature repealed Brownback's tax cuts, overrode Brownback's veto of the repeal, and enacted tax increases.[16] Brownback left office as one of the least popular governors in the country.[17]
On July 26, 2017, the Trump administration announced that Brownback would be nominated as the newU.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.[18] Brownback was confirmed in January 2018 in a party-line vote; Vice PresidentMike Pence cast the necessary tie-breaking votes to end a filibuster and to confirm his nomination.[19] Brownback resigned as governor of Kansas effective January 31, 2018,[20] and was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom on February 1, 2018.[21] His ambassadorial tenure ended in January 2021.
Sam Brownback was born on September 12, 1956, inGarnett, Kansas, to Nancy (Cowden) and Glen Robert Brownback.[22][23] He was raised in a farming family inParker, Kansas. Some of Brownback'sGerman-American ancestors settled in Kansas after leavingPennsylvania following theCivil War.[24] Throughout his youth, Brownback was involved with theFFA (formerly the Future Farmers of America), serving as president of his local and state FFA chapters, and as national FFA vice president from 1976 to 1977.[25]
After graduating from Prairie View High School, Brownback attendedKansas State University,[26] where was elected student body president and became a member of theAlpha Gamma Rho agricultural fraternity. After graduating from college in 1978 with a degree in Agricultural Economics in 1978,[27] he spent about a year working as aradio broadcaster for the now-defunctKSAC farm department, hosting a weekly half-hour show.[24][28] Brownback received hisJ.D. from theUniversity of Kansas in 1982.[29]
Brownback was an attorney inManhattan, Kansas,[24] before being appointed asKansas Secretary of Agriculture byGovernorJohn W. Carlin on September 18, 1986.[30][31] In 1990, he was accepted into theWhite House Fellow program and detailed to theOffice of the U.S. Trade Representative from 1990 to 1991. Brownback returned to Kansas to resume his position as Secretary of Agriculture. He left his post on July 30, 1993.[32] He was elected to theU.S. House of Representatives in 1994 and ran in the 1996special election for theU.S. Senate seat recently vacated byBob Dole.[33]
Sheila Frahm was appointed to fill the seat of U.S. senatorBob Dole when Dole resigned in 1996 to campaign for president. Brownback defeated Frahm in the 1996 Republican primary and went on to win the general election againstDemocrat Jill Docking by 112,677 votes.[34] In 2001, the Federal Election Commission assessed fines and penalties against Brownback's campaign committee and against his in-laws for improper 1996 campaign contributions.[35] As a result of these improper contributions, the campaign was ordered to pay the government $19,000 and Brownback's in-laws, John and Ruth Stauffer, were ordered to pay a $9,000 civil penalty for improperly funneling contributions through Triad Management Services.[36]
In 1998, Brownback was elected to a full six-year term, defeating Democrat Paul Feleciano by 244,921 votes.[37] He won reelection in the2004 Senate election defeating Democratic former lobbyist Lee Jones by 470,526 votes.[38]
Throughout his U.S. Senate career, his principal campaign donors were theKoch brothers ofWichita-basedKoch Industries, who donated more to Brownback than to any other political candidate during this period.[39][40]
Brownback was a member of theJudiciary Committee, theAppropriations Committee (where he chaired the Subcommittee onDistrict of Columbia when the Republicans were in the majority), theJoint Economic Committee, and theCommission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, which he at one time chaired. The Helsinki Commission monitors compliance with international agreements reached in cooperation withOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.[41]
In 2000, Brownback and CongressmanChris Smith led the effort to enact the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.[42]President Clinton signed the legislation in October 2000. According toChristianity Today, the stronger enforcement increased the number of U.S. federaltrafficking cases eightfold in the five years after enactment.[43]
By August 12, 2007, in the110th Session of Congress, Brownback had missed 123 votes due to campaigning (39.7 percent)–surpassed only byTim Johnson (D) ofSouth Dakota who due to a critical illness had missed 100% of the votes of the 110th Session, andJohn McCain (R) ofArizona with 149 votes missed due to campaigning (48.1 percent).[44]
In 2006, Brownback blocked a confirmation vote on aGeorge W. Bush federal appeals court nominee from Michigan, judgeJanet T. Neff. He objected to her joining the bench solely because she attended a same-sex commitment ceremony in Massachusetts in 2002 that involved a next-door neighbor who was a close childhood friend of Neff's daughters. Brownback's action blocked confirmation votes on an entire slate of appointments that had been approved by a bipartisan group of senators.[45] In July 2007, Brownback lifted the block that had prevented the vote, and the Senate confirmed Neff by an 83–4 vote.[46] Brownback was joined in opposition by just three other conservatives, then-SenatorsJim Bunning,Jon Kyl, andMel Martinez.[47]
In the mid-1990s, Brownback hiredPaul Ryan as his chief legislative director. Ryan later became amember of Congress, vice-presidential candidate, andSpeaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.[48]
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2023) |
In 2009,Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed an ethics complaint over a fundraising letter signed by Brownback for a conservative Catholic group which they alleged violated Senate rules by mimicking official Senate letterhead.[49] The letter had targeted five senators for being both Catholic and pro-choice:Maria Cantwell,John Kerry,Robert Menendez,Barbara Mikulski, andPatty Murray.[50] A spokesman said Brownback had asked the group to stop sending the letter even before the complaint was filed.[50]
In 2010, CREW lodged an ethics complaint claiming a possible violation of the Senate's gifts rule by four senators and four congressmembers. The congressmembers lived in a $1.8 million Washington, D.C. townhouse[51] owned byC Street Center, Inc., which was in turn owned by Christian-advocacy groupThe Fellowship.[52][53] CREW alleged that the property was being leased exclusively to congressional members, including Brownback, and that the tenants were paying rent that was below market value.[54] SenatorTom Coburn's spokesman asserted that the rents charged were fair.[55][56]
On December 4, 2006, Brownback formed anexploratory committee, the first step toward a presidential candidacy.[57] In reporting on his potential candidacy,CNN andThe Washington Post called Brownback a "favorite" of the religious right;[57][58]Rolling Stone called him "God's senator" in 2006.[59] His views placed him in the socially conservative wing of the Republican Party, and he stressed hisfiscal conservatism as well. "I am an economic, a fiscal, a social and a compassionate conservative", he said in December 2006.[58]
On January 20, 2007, in Topeka, Brownback announced that he was running forpresident in2008.[60] On February 22, 2007, a poll conducted byRasmussen Reports held that three percent of likely primary voters would support Brownback.[61]
On August 11, 2007, Brownback finished third in theAmes Straw Poll with 15.3% of all votes cast.[63] Fundraising and visits to his website declined dramatically after this event, as many supporters had predicted Brownback would do much better,[64] and speculation began that the candidate was considering withdrawing from the campaign. This sentiment increased after his lackluster performance in the GOP presidential debate of September 5, broadcast fromNew Hampshire byFox News Channel.[65] He dropped out of the race on October 18, 2007, citing a lack of funds.[66] Brownback formally announced his decision on October 19.[67] He later endorsedJohn McCain for president.[68]
In 2008, Brownback acknowledged he was consideringrunning for governor in 2010.[69] In January 2009, Brownback officially filed the paperwork to run for governor.[70]
His principal Senate-career campaign donors, theKoch brothers (and theirKoch Industries), again backed Brownback's campaign.[39]
Polling agencyRasmussen Reports found that Brownback led his then-likely Democratic opponent,Tom Holland, by 31 points in May 2010.[3][71]
On June 1, 2010, Brownback named Kansas state senatorJeff Colyer as his running mate.[72]
On November 2, 2010, Brownback defeated Holland, by 260,594 votes.[73] He succeeded GovernorMark Parkinson, who was sworn in after former governorKathleen Sebelius resigned from her position and became U.S. Secretary ofHealth and Human Services in 2009.[74]
In October 2013, Kansas state representativePaul Davis, the Democratic minority leader of theKansas House of Representatives, announced he would challenge Brownback in the2014 Kansas gubernatorial election.[75]
In July 2014, more than 100 current and former Kansas Republican officials (including former state party chairmen, Kansas Senate presidents, Kansas House speakers, and majority leaders) endorsed Democrat Davis over Republican Brownback,[12][13] citing concern over Brownback's deep cuts in education and other government services, as well as the tax cuts that had left the state with a major deficit.[76]
Tim Keck, chief of staff of Brownback's running mate, Lt. GovernorJeff Colyer, unearthed and publicized a 1998 police report showing that Davis, 26 and unmarried at the time, had been briefly detained during the raid of a strip club. Davis was found to have no involvement in the cause for the raid, and was quickly allowed to leave.[77] Responding to criticism of Keck's involvement in the campaign, Brownback spokesman John Milburn commented that it was legal to use taxpayer-paid staff to campaign. Media law experts expressed amazement when they learned that the Montgomery County's sheriff released non-public investigative files from 1998 in response to a mere request. Brownback's campaign capitalized on the 16-year-old incident.[78][79]
Brownback was reelected with a plurality, defeating Davis by 32,096 votes.[80][15][81]
Brownback took office in January 2011, in the early years of national recovery from theGreat Recession. Also in 2011, Republicans resumed control of the Kansas House of Representatives with their largest majority in half a century. Most Republicans in the Kansas Legislature were members of theTea Party movement who shared Brownback's conservative views.[82]
Two of Brownback's major stated goals were to reduce taxes and to increase spending on education.[83]
By April 2012, Brownback had an approval rating of 34 percent according to a Survey USA Poll.[84] A Republican polling company found his approval rating to be 51 percent in May 2012.[85] In November 2015, Brownback had an approval rating of 26 percent according to a Morning Consult poll, the lowest among all governors in the United States.[86] Three separate polls between November 2015 and September 2016 ranked Brownback as the nation's least-popular governor[87][88][89]—a September 2016 poll showing an approval rating of 23%.[90][91] In the state elections of 2016—seen largely as a referendum on Brownback's policies and administration—Brownback's supporters in the legislature suffered major defeats.[92][9][93] In 2017 after a protracted battle,[9] the new Kansas Legislature overrode Brownback's vetoes, voting to repeal his tax cuts and enact tax increases.[94][95][96][97]
Brownback, who had a 66% disapproval rating after the repeal of his signature law,[98] left office in 2018 as one of the least popular governors in the country.[17]
The Kansas City Star was named a finalist in the Public Service category for a2018 Pulitzer Prize due to its series entitled "Why so secret, Kansas?" TheStar reported that Kansas's already-secretive state government had only grown worse under Brownback.[99][100]
Brownback proposed fundamental tax reform to encourage investment and generate wealth while creating new jobs. Consistent with those objectives, he also proposed structural reforms to the state's largest budget items, school finance,[101]Medicaid,[102] and Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS), which have unfunded liabilities of $8.3 billion.[103] Brownback sought to follow a "red state model", passing conservative social and economic policies.[104]
As governor, Brownback initiated what he called a "red-state experiment"—dramatic cuts in income tax rates intended to bring economic growth.[105] In May 2012, Brownback signed into law one of the largest income tax cuts in Kansas' history[6]—the nation's largest state income tax cut (in percentage) since the 1990s.[106] Brownback described the tax cuts as a live experiment:
[On] taxes, you need to get your overall rates down, and you need to get your social manipulation out of it, in my estimation, to create growth. We'll see how it works. We'll have a real live experiment.[107][108][106]
The legislation was crafted with help from his Budget Director (formerKoch brothers political consultant Steven Anderson);[39][40][109][110][108] the Koch-sponsoredAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC);[111] andArthur Laffer, a popularsupply-side economist and former economic adviser for PresidentRonald Reagan.[82][112]
The law eliminated non-wage income taxes for the owners of 191,000 businesses, and cut individuals' income tax rates.[113] The first phase of his cuts reduced the top Kansas income-tax rate from 6.45 percent down to 4.9 percent, and immediately eliminated income tax on business profits frompartnerships andlimited liability corporations passed through to individuals.[106] Theincome tax cuts would provideUS$231 million in tax reductions in its first year, growing toUS$934 million after six years.[113] A forecast from the Legislature's research staff indicated that a budget shortfall will emerge by 2014 and will grow to nearlyUS$2.5 billion by July 2018.[113] The cuts were based on model legislation published by theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).[114][115]
In a May 2014Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled "A Midwest Renaissance Rooted in the Reagan Formula", Brownback compared his tax policies with those ofRonald Reagan. Brownback anticipated a "prosperous future" for Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri because they had enacted policies based on economic principles that Reagan laid out in 1964.[116][108]
The act was criticized by law professor Martin B. Dickinson of Kansas University for shifting the tax burden from wealthy Kansans to low- and moderate-income workers,[117] with the top income tax rate dropping by 25%.[118] Under Brownback, Kansas also lowered the sales tax and eliminated a tax on small businesses.[118] The tax cuts helped contribute toMoody's downgrading of the state's bond rating in 2014.[119] They also contributed to the S&P Ratings' credit downgrade from AA+ to AA in August 2014 due to a budget that analysts described as structurally unbalanced.[120] As of June 2014, the state had fallen far short of projected tax collections, receiving $369 million instead of the planned-for $651 million.[121]
The tax cuts and their effect on the economy of Kansas received considerable criticism in the media. Critics of the tax cuts includedMichael Hiltzik of theLos Angeles Times, the editorial board ofThe Washington Post,The New Republic, and BloombergBusinessweek.[106]The New York Times described Brownback's policies as "too far to the right".[121][122][123]Grover Norquist ofAmericans for Tax Reform defended the tax cuts as a model for the nation.[124]
In February 2017, a bi-partisan coalition presented a bill that would repeal most of Brownback's tax overhaul to make up for the budget shortfall.[125] The Senate passed SB 30 (38–0, with 2 not voting) on February 2, 2017.[126] The House passed SB 30 as amended (123–2) on February 22, 2017.[127] The Conference Committee Report was adopted by both the House (69–52) and Senate (26–14) on June 5, 2017. On June 6, 2017, the bill was sent to Brownback for signature, but he vetoed the bill. Later in the day both the House and Senate voted to override the veto.[128] Senate Bill 30 repealed most of the tax cuts which had taken effect in January 2013.
Brownback's tax overhaul was described in a June 2017 article inThe Atlantic as the United States' "most aggressive experiment in conservative economic policy".[16] The drastic tax cuts had "threatened the viability of schools and infrastructure" in Kansas.[16]
The Brownback experiment didn't work. We saw that loud and clear.[16]
—Heidi Holliday, executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth 2017
In April 2014, Brownback signed a controversial school finance bill that eliminated mandatory due process hearings, which were previously required to fire experienced teachers. According to theKansas City Star:
The bill also allows school districts to hire unlicensed teachers for science and math classes. And it creates a tax break for corporations that donate to private school scholarship funds.[129]
The resulting cuts in funding caused districts to shut down the school year early.[130]
According to theBureau of Economic Analysis, during the period from 2008 to 2018 (Brownback was governor from 2011 to 2018), Kansas averaged an annual GDP growth rate of 0.9% -- exactly half the national average.[131] During that same period — when national employment increased and wages rose — job growth in Wichita (Kansas' largest city, and hometown of Brownback's principal funders, theKoch family) dropped 3.2%, and the city's average annual wages stagnated.[132]
In 2015, the job growth rate in Kansas was 0.8 percent, among the lowest rate in America with only "10,900 total nonfarm jobs" added that year.[133][134] Kansas had a $350 million budget shortfall in February 2017.[135] In February 2017, S&P downgraded Kansas' credit rating to AA−.[136]
Despite Kansas' major role in the aerospace,[137][138][139] telecommunications[140][141] and GPS technology[142] industries,[143] a 2019 report from the KC Tech Council reported that Kansas growth in tech jobs ranked next-to-last in the nation — losing 220 tech jobs between 2017 and 2018 (Brownback's final year as governor), according to theComputing Technology Industry Association — while over 40 other states grew tech employment.[131] Despite slowing the rates of decline following theGreat Recession, 59% of telecommunications jobs in the Kansas City telecommunications industry[141] — and 600 jobs in Wichita's (aerospace-dominated[137][138]) manufacturing industry[144] — were lost during the Brownback administration.
By the last year of the Brownback administration, 2018, Kansas had the second-highestfarm-bankruptcy rate increase in the nation (after New York) — a decade-high rate for the state.[145]
In August 2011, over the objections of Republican Kansas Insurance CommissionerSandy Praeger,[108] Brownback announced he was declining a $31.5 million grant from theU.S. Department of Health and Human Services to set up an insurance exchange as part of the federal health care reform law.[146] In May 2011, Brownback had directed the state's insurance commissioner to slow the implementation timeline for the exchange development. Upon announcing the refusal of the budgeted grant money for the state, his office stated:
There is much uncertainty surrounding the ability of the federal government to meet its already budgeted future spending obligations. Every state should be preparing for fewer federal resources, not more. To deal with that reality Kansas needs to maintain maximum flexibility. That requires freeing Kansas from the strings attached to the Early Innovator Grant.[10]
The move was unanimously supported by the delegates of the state party central committee at its August 2011 meeting, but aNew York Times editorial criticized Brownback for turning down the grant which could have helped ease the state's own budget:
Instead of letting Kansas design its own model program for an online computer exchange to help people choose among health insurance providers, Mr. Brownback's rebuff increases the likelihood that the state must design one at its own expense or see federal officials create an exchange, as required under the new law.[147][108]
Brownback also signed into law the Health Care Freedom Act, based on model legislation published by theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).[114][115]
Brownback signed threeanti-abortion bills in 2011. In April 2011, he signed a bill banning abortion after 21 weeks, and a bill requiring that a doctor get a parent's notarized signature before providing an abortion to a minor.[148] In May 2011, Brownback approved a bill prohibiting insurance companies from offering abortion coverage as part of general health plans unless the procedure is necessary to save a woman's life. The law also prohibits any health-insurance exchange in Kansas established under the federal Affordable Care Act from offering coverage for abortions other than to save a woman's life.[149]
A Kansas budget passed with Brownback's approval in 2011 blockedPlanned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri from receiving family planning funds from the state. The funding amounted to about $330,000 a year.[150] A judge has blocked the budget provision, ordered Kansas to begin funding the organization again, and agreed with Planned Parenthood that it was being unfairly targeted.[151] In response, the state filed an appeal seeking to overturn the judge's decision.[152] Brownback has defended anti-abortion laws in Kansas, including the Planned Parenthood defunding. "You can't know for sure what all comes out of that afterwards, but it was the will of the Legislature and the people of the state of Kansas", Brownback said.[153]
In May 2012, Brownback signed the Health Care Rights of Conscience Act, which "will allow pharmacists to refuse to provide drugs they believe might cause an abortion".[154]
In April 2013, Brownback signed a bill that blocked tax breaks for abortion providers, banned sex-selection abortions and declared that life begins at fertilization. The law notes that any rights conferred by it are subject to limits set forth in applicable U.S. Supreme Court decisions.[11]
On April 7, 2015, Brownback signed The Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act, which bans the most common technique used for second-trimester abortions. Kansas became the first state to ban the procedure.[155][156]
Brownback attended Texas governorRick Perry's prayer event in August 2011. Aside from Gov. Perry himself, Brownback was the only U.S. governor who attended.[157][158] About 22,000 people attended the rally, and Brownback and Perry were the only elected officials to speak.[159] Brownback's participation in the rally resulted in some controversy, and editorials published inThe Winfield Daily Courier andThe Kansas City Star expressed disappointment.[160][161]
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In March 2017, it was reported that Brownback was being considered by PresidentDonald Trump to be appointed either as hisU.S. Ambassador to the U.N. for Food and Agriculture in Rome,[162] or as theU.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom in Washington, DC.[163] On July 26, 2017, the White House issued a statement that Brownback would be nominated as the new U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.[18] As a senator in 1998, Brownback sponsored the legislation that first created theUnited States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).[19]
Due to his positions and actions on Islam and LGBT issues, Brownback's nomination was criticized by figures such as Rabbi Moti Rieber, the executive director of Kansas Interfaith Action,[164] Robert McCaw, director of government affairs for theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),[165] as well as theAmerican Civil Liberties Union.[166]
As of the end of the 2017 session, Brownback's Ambassadorial nomination had not come up for a confirmation vote. As it failed to receive unanimous support for it to carry over to 2018 for approval, it required renomination to come to a vote.[167] He was renominated on January 8, 2018.[168]
On January 24, 2018, the Senate voted along party lines, 49–49, with two Republicans absent, to advance his nomination to the floor, with Vice PresidentMike Pence casting thetie-breaking vote to end the Democrats' filibuster. With the Senate again locked at 49–49 later that day, Pence again cast the tie-breaking vote, confirming the nomination.[19] On January 25, Brownback submitted his resignation as governor. Brownback's resignation was effective January 31, 2018, on which date Lieutenant GovernorJeff Colyer was sworn in as governor.[20][169]
Brownback was sworn in on February 1, 2018.[170][171][172] He became the first Catholic to serve in the role.[164][173]
In July 2018, Brownback reportedly lobbied the UK government over the treatment of far-right British activistTommy Robinson.[174] Arizona Republican representativePaul Gosar and five other congressmen invited Robinson to speak to United States Congress on November 14, 2018, on a trip sponsored by the U.S.-based,Middle East Forum. He was expected to get visa approval by the State Department despite his criminal convictions and use of fraudulent passports to enter and depart the U.S.[175]
Brownback's tenure as ambassador ended on January 20, 2021.[176]
Brownback promoted religious freedom as a means of promoting individual and economic flourishing and reducing terrorism and other types of religion-related violence.[177]
Brownback repeatedly condemned China's record on religious freedom, saying, "China is at war with faith. It is a war they will not win".[178] He highlighted China'spersecution of Uyghurs, TibetanBuddhists,Falun Gong practitioners, and ChineseChristians.[179] In remarks made at theUnited Nations, Brownback strongly condemned theXinjiang internment camps where more than one million Uyghurs are reported to have been detained.[180] On July 13, 2020, Brownback, along with three other U.S. politicians, wassanctioned by the Chinese government for "interfering in China’s internal affairs" through their condemnation of human rights abuses inXinjiang.[181]
In his first trip as Ambassador, Brownback traveled toBangladesh to meet withRohingya refugees fromMyanmar at theKutupalong refugee camp nearCox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Brownback stated that the accounts of violence he heard were as bad as anything he had ever seen, including in his visits toDarfur, Sudan in 2004.[182] Following the trip, the State Department highlighted Myanmar's intensification of violence against its ethnic minorities.[183] In the 2017 International Religious Freedom Report, the State Department described the violence against the Rohingya that forced an estimated 688,000 people to flee Myanmar as "ethnic cleansing."[184]
At the 2020 Ministerial to Advance Freedom of Religion or Belief inPoland, Brownback spoke about COVID-19's effect on freedom of religion.[185]
Brownback opposes abortion.[186] He was personally anti-abortion though politically pro-choice during his early career.[187] In 2007, Brownback said that he saw abortion "as the lead moral issue of our day, just like slavery was the lead moral issue 150 years ago."[188] On May 3, 2007, when asked his opinion of repealingRoe v. Wade, Brownback said, "It would be a glorious day of human liberty and freedom."[189]
In 2007, Brownback said he "could support a pro-choice nominee" to the presidency because "this is a big coalition party."[190]
In May 2011, Brownback eliminated by executive order and then vetoed government funding for the Kansas Arts Commission in response to state defiance of his executive order, making Kansas the first state to de-fund its arts commission.[191] TheNational Endowment for the Arts informed Kansas that without a viable state arts agency, it would not receive a planned $700,000 federal grant.[192] Brownback has said he believes private donations should fund arts and culture in the state. He created the Kansas Arts Foundation, an organization dedicated to private fundraising to make up the gap created by state budget cuts.[192][193]
Brownback said in an interview: "I am not a supporter of adeath penalty, other than in cases where we cannot protect the society and have other lives at stake."[194] In a speech on theSenate Judiciary Committee, he questioned the current use of the death penalty as potentially incongruent with the notion of a "culture of life", and suggested it be employed in a more limited fashion.[195]
Brownback visited refugee camps inSudan in 2004 and returned to write a resolution labeling theDarfur conflict asgenocide, and has been active on attempting to increase U.S. efforts to resolve the situation short of military intervention.[196] He is an endorser of theGenocide Intervention Network, which called him a "champion of Darfur" in its Darfur scorecard, primarily for his early advocacy of theDarfur Peace and Accountability Act.[197]
As governor he urged a flattening of the income tax to spur economic growth in Kansas. In December 2005, Brownback advocated using Washington, DC, as a laboratory for aflat tax.[198][199]
Brownback has stated that he is a devout believer in a higher power and rejectsmacroevolution as an exclusive explanation for the development over time of new species from older ones.[200] Brownback favors giving teachers the freedom to useintelligent design to critique evolutionary theory as part of theTeach the Controversy approach:
There's intelligence involved in the overall of creation ... I don't think we're really at the point of teaching this in the classroom. I think what we passed in the U.S. Senate in 2002 the Santorum Amendment is really what we should be doing, and that is that you teach the controversy, you teach what is fact is fact, and what is theory is theory, and you move from that proceedings, rather than from teaching some sort of different thought. And this, I really think that's the area we should concentrate on at the present time, is teaching the controversy.[201]
— Senator Sam Brownback,Larry King Live, CNN, August 23, 2005
Brownback spoke out against the denial of tenure atIowa State University to astronomerGuillermo Gonzalez, a proponent ofintelligent design, saying "such an assault on academic freedom does not bode well for the advancement of true science."[202]
Brownback opposes government-funded elective abortions in accordance with theHyde Amendment. He has been a strong supporter of legislation to establish a national childhood cancer database and an increase in funding for autism research.[203][better source needed] Brownback supports negotiating bulk discounts on Medicare drug benefits to reduce prices. In 2007, Senators Brownback andSherrod Brown (D-OH) sponsored an amendment to theFood and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007. The amendment created a prize as an incentive for companies to invest in new drugs and vaccines for neglected tropical diseases. It awards a transferable "Priority Review Voucher" to any company that obtains approval for a treatment for a neglected tropical disease.[204] The prize was initially proposed byDuke University faculty Henry Grabowski, Jeffrey Moe, and David Ridley in their 2006Health Affairs paper: "Developing Drugs for Developing Countries."[205]
Brownback has supported a bill that would introduceprice transparency to the U.S.health care industry,[206] as well as a bill which would require the disclosure ofMedicare payment rate information.[207]
On December 16, 2006, Brownback gave an interview to theChristian Post, stating: "We can get to this goal of eliminating deaths bycancer in ten years."[208]
Brownback had a Senate voting record that has tended to support higher legal immigration levels[209] and strong refugee protection. Brownback was cosponsor of a 2005 bill ofTed Kennedy andJohn McCain's which would have created a legal path to citizenship for millions ofillegal immigrants already present.[210] On June 26, 2007, Brownback voted in favor of S. 1639, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act.[211][212] Brownback supports increasing numbers of legal immigrants, building a fence on Mexican border, and the reform bill "if enforced."While he initially supported giving guest workers a path to citizenship, Brownback eventually voted "Nay" on June 28, 2007.[213] Brownback has said that he supports immigration reform because theBible says to welcome the stranger.[214]
On April 25, 2016, Brownback issued executive orders barring state agencies from facilitatingrefugee resettlement from Syria and other majority-Muslim countries, in concert with the federalOffice of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). He maintained they presented security risks, and his decision entirely removed Kansas from the program. The ORR served notice that it would instead work directly with local refugee resettlement organizations. Kansas was the first state to withdraw from the federal refugee resettlement program.[165]
As a result of Brownback's action, Kansas lost about $2.2 million annually that had been provided to support resettlement agencies. The state had been working with three such agencies, among them Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, in making appropriate placements. In the seven months preceding his order, 354 refugees were resettled in Kansas, with 13 Syrians placed in the Wichita or Kansas City areas in the previous 16 months. RepresentativeJim Ward from Wichita called Brownback's announcement "a distraction", intended solely for political purposes, as Kansas faced a $290 million budget deficit.[215]
Brownback supported a political surge coupled with the military surge of 2007 inIraq and opposed the Democratic Party's strategy of timed withdrawal:
It does mean that there must be bipartisan agreement for our military commitment on Iraq. We cannot fight a war with the support of only one political party. And it does mean that the parties in Iraq – Sunni, Shi'a and Kurds – must get to a political agreement, to a political equilibrium. I think most people agree that a cut and run strategy does not serve our interest at all, nor those of the world, nor those of the region, nor those of the Iraqi people. So I invite my colleagues, all around, particularly on the other side of the aisle, to indicate what level of commitment they can support.[216]
— Senator Sam Brownback, U.S. Senate floor speech, January 16, 2007
In May 2007, Brownback stated: "We have not lost war; we can win by pulling together". He voted Yes on authorizing use of military force against Iraq, voted No on requiring on-budget funding for Iraq, not emergency funding and voted No on redeploying troops out of Iraq by July 2007.[217] He has also condemned anti-Muslim bigotry in name of anti-terrorism.[203]
On June 7, 2007, Brownback voted against theHabeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007 when that bill came up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which Brownback sits.[218] (The bill was passed out of the committee by a vote of 11 to 8.)[219] The bill aims to restorehabeas corpus rights revoked by theMilitary Commissions Act of 2006.[220]
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In October 2007, Brownback announced his support fora plan designed byBenny Elon, then-chairman ofIsrael's far-right-wingNational Union/National Religious Party (NU/NRP) alliance.[221] Elon's positions included dismantling thePalestinian National Authority andHamas and rejecting atwo-state solution. The plan calls for the complete annexation of theWest Bank by Israel, and the deportation of its massive majority Arab population to a new Palestinian state to be created within present-day Jordan, against that latter country's historic opposition.[221]
In 1996, as a member of the House of Representatives, Brownback voted for theDefense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for purposes of federal law as the union between a man and a woman.[222] Brownback has stated that he believeshomosexuality to be immoral as a violation of both Catholic doctrine[223] andnatural law.[224] He has voted againstgay rights, receiving zeros in four of the last five scorecards as a U.S. senator from theHuman Rights Campaign.[225][226][227][228][229] He opposes bothsame-sex marriage and same-sexcivil unions.[224] He opposes adding sexual orientation andgender identity to federalhate crime laws.[224][230] He has declined to state a position onhomosexual adoption,[231][232] although a candidate for chair of theKansas Republican Party claims he was blackballed by political operatives affiliated with Brownback for not opposing homosexual adoption.[233] Brownback supported "don't ask, don't tell,"[234] the U.S. government's ban on openly homosexual people in the military. Brownback has associated with organizations such as theFamily Research Council[235][236] andAmerican Family Association.[237][238]
In 2003, Brownback worked withAlliance for Marriage andTraditional Values Coalition to introduce a Senate bill containing theFederal Marriage Amendment, a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would federally prohibit same-sex marriage in the United States.[239][240][241][242] The bill was a response toGoodridge v. Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts state court decision finding that same-sex couples had the right to marry in Massachusetts.[239][240][241] In reaction to theGoodridge decision, Brownback stated that same-sex marriage threatened the health of American families and culture.[243]
In 2006, Brownback blocked the confirmation of federal judicial nomineeJanet T. Neff because she had attended a same-sex commitment ceremony.[244][245][246] At first, he agreed to lift the block only if Neff would recuse herself from all cases involving same-sex unions. Brownback later dropped his opposition.[244][245][246] Neff was nominated to the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan by PresidentGeorge W. Bush on March 19, 2007, to a seat vacatedDavid McKeague and was confirmed by a vote of 83-4 by theSenate on July 9, 2007. She received her commission on August 6, 2007.[46]
In April 2011, Brownback began work on a Kansas government program to promote marriage, in part through grants to faith-based and secular social service organizations.[247][248] In June 2011, the administration revised contract expectations for social work organizations to promote married mother-father families.[249][250] It explained the change as benefiting children.[249][250]
In January 2012, Brownback did not include Kansas'ssodomy law in a list of unenforced and outdated laws that the legislature should repeal.[251][252][253][254] Gay rights advocates had asked his administration to recommend its repeal because the law has been unenforceable since the Supreme Court'sLawrence v. Texas decision in 2003.[251][252][253][254][255]
In February 2012, the Brownback administration supported a religious freedom bill that would have stopped cities, school districts, universities, and executive agencies from having nondiscrimination laws or policies that covered sexual orientation or gender identity.[256][257][258]
In 2013, after oral arguments inUnited States v. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court case striking down part of theDefense of Marriage Act, Brownback publicly reaffirmed his opposition to same-sex marriage.[259]
In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court denied petitions to review several federal appellate decisions overturning state bans on same-sex marriage.[260][261] The court's actions favored repeal of Kansas's ban on same-sex marriage because two of the appeals (Kitchen v. Herbert andBishop v. Oklahoma) originated in theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which includes Kansas.[260][261] In response, Brownback defended Kansas's same-sex marriage ban as being supported by a majority of Kansas voters and criticized "activist judges" for "overruling" the people of Kansas.[262][263][264]
On February 10, 2015, Brownback issued an executive order rescinding protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender state workers that was put into place by then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius eight years previously.[265] The ACLU generally characterized his actions as being "religious freedom to discriminate."[166]
Brownback supportsadult stem cell research andcord blood stem cells. Brownback appeared with three children adopted fromin vitro fertilization clinics to coincide with a Senate debate over the Cord Blood Stem Cell Act of 2005[266][better source needed] to show his support for the bill and adult stem cell research.
On June 15, 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law theBroadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 sponsored by Brownback, a former broadcaster himself. The new law stiffened the penalties for each violation of the Act. TheFederal Communications Commission will be able to impose fines in the amount of $325,000 for each violation by each station that violatesdecency standards. The legislation raised the fine by tenfold.[267][268][better source needed]
On September 3, 1997, Meredith O'Rourke, an employee of Kansas firm Triad Management Services, wasdeposed by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs regarding her activities and observations while providing services for the company relative to fund raising and advertising for Brownback. The deposition claims that Triad circumvented existing campaign finance laws by channeling donations through Triad, and also bypassed the campaign law with Triad running 'issue ads' during Brownback's first campaign for the Senate.[269][270]
Brownback has said he does not believe there is an inherentright to privacy in theU.S. Constitution. He has, however, expressed disapproval ofGeorge W. Bush's assertions on the legality of theNSA wiretapping program.[271]
Brownback introduced into the Senate a resolution (Senate Joint Resolution 4) calling for the United States to apologize for past mistreatment ofNative Americans.[272][273][274]
Brownback was responsible for introducing the Senate's version of a bill that would successfully establish theNational Museum of African American History and Culture.[275]
Brownback has advocated forcloser relations between the United States and Armenia, citing the need to defend the country from aggression byAzerbaijan.[276] In a 2023Washington Times opinion piece, the former ambassador called forIsrael to also support Armenia due to the two nations' shared backgrounds asJudeo-Christian nations populated by ethnic groups that have been the victims of genocides despitegeopolitical tensions.[277] On April 24, 2024, Brownback called forsanctions against Azerbaijan and that the United States "can’t let a repeat of 1915 happen again on our watch" at anArmenian Genocide Remembrance Day rally in front of the White House.[278]
Throughout his Senate career, Brownback's principal campaign donors were the politically influential libertarianKoch brothers of Kansas, and their enterprises, including Kansas-basedKoch Industries—and Brownback was one of the candidates most-heavily funded by the Kochs' campaign donations. Over the course of his political career, they donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaigns.[39][40][108][106][82]
Brownback's signature tax and regulatory policies coincide tightly with the Kochs' position on those issues.[39][40] It was crafted with the assistance of the Koch-backedAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Brownback's first Budget Director, Steve Anderson. Anderson was a former Koch employee who previously worked at the Kochs' principal political organization, the libertarian think-tankAmericans for Prosperity (AFP), developing a "model budget" for Kansas, until his appointment as Brownback's first budget director. Anderson remained Brownback's budget director for three years, before returning to a Koch-linkedthink tank, theKansas Policy Institute.[109][110][108]
Brownback also hired the wife of a Koch-enterprise executive as his spokesperson.[82]
Brownback, however, has denied that the Kochs have an undue influence in Kansas government,[39] and analysts have noted key differences between Brownback and the Kochs in two of Brownback's main gubernatorial policy areas:
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Brownback is married to the former Mary Stauffer, whose family owned and operatedStauffer Communications until its sale in 1995.[279] They have five children: Abby, Andy, Elizabeth, Mark, and Jenna. Two of their children are adopted.[280] A formerevangelical Christian, Brownback converted to Catholicism[106] in 2002 and is associated with the conservative denominational organization,Opus Dei.[281] In 2017, Brownback stated that he sometimes attends an evangelical church with his family.[282]
| 1994 Kansas's 2nd congressional district Republican primary election results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Republican | Sam Brownback | 35,415 | 48.3 |
| Republican | Bob Bennie | 26,008 | 35.5 |
| Republican | Joe Hume | 11,872 | 16.2 |
| Total votes | 73,295 | 100.0 | |
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | Overall turnout | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | John W. Carlin | 71,025 | 34.4% | Sam Brownback | 135,725 | 65.6% | 206,750 |
| Year | Incumbent | Votes | Pct | Challenger | Votes | Pct | Challenger | Votes | Pct | Overall turnout | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Sheila Frahm (incumbent) | 142,487 | 41.6% | Sam Brownback | 187,914 | 54.8% | Christina Campbell-Cline | 12,378 | 3.6% | 342,779 |
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | Reform | Votes | Pct | Overall turnout | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Jill Docking | 461,344 | 43.3% | Sam Brownback | 574,021 | 53.9% | Donald R. Klaassen | 29,351 | 2.8% | 1,064,716 |
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | Libertarian | Votes | Pct | Reform | Votes | Pct | Overall turnout | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Paul Feleciano | 229,718 | 31.6% | Sam Brownback(incumbent) | 474,639 | 65.3% | Tom Oyler | 11,545 | 1.6% | Alvin Bauman | 11,334 | 1.6% | 727,236 | |||||
| 2004 | Lee Jones | 310,337 | 27.5% | Sam Brownback(incumbent) | 780,863 | 69.2% | Steven A. Rosile | 21,842 | 1.9% | George Cook | 15,980 | 1.4% | 1,129,022 |
| 2010 Kansas gubernatorial election: Republican primary result | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Republican | Sam Brownback | 263,920 | 82.1 |
| Republican | Joan Heffington | 57,160 | 17.8 |
| Total votes | 321,080 | 100.0 | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Sam Brownback – Jeff Colyer | 530,760 | 63.28 | |
| Democratic | Tom Holland – Kelly Kultala | 270,166 | 32.21 | |
| Libertarian | Andrew Gray – Stacey Davis | 22,460 | 2.68 | |
| Reform | Ken Cannon – Dan Faubion | 15,397 | 1.84 | |
| Total votes | 838,790 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicangain fromDemocratic | ||||
| 2014 Kansas gubernatorial election: Republican primary result | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Republican | Sam Brownback(incumbent) | 166,687 | 63.2 |
| Republican | Jennifer Winn | 96,907 | 36.7 |
| Total votes | 263,594 | 100.0 | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Sam Brownback (incumbent) – Jeff Colyer (incumbent) | 433,196 | 49.82 | |
| Democratic | Paul Davis – Jill Docking | 401,100 | 46.13 | |
| Libertarian | Keen A. Umbehr – Josh Umbehr | 35,206 | 4.05 | |
| Total votes | 869,502 | 100.00 | ||
In a startling rebuke to the governor, more than 100 Kansas Republican officials endorsed Davis on Tuesday, a rarity in statewide races and a wakeup call for Brownback, an arch-conservative on economic and social issues, and a former U.S. senator. The defectors said they are as concerned about cuts in education and other government services as well as the tax cuts that have left the state with a major hole in its budget.
He is modest in demeanor, flat almost to the point of dullness.
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