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Bob Walker
Chair of theHouse Science Committee
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	George Brown
Succeeded by	Jim Sensenbrenner
House Republican Chief Deputy Whip
In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 1995 Serving with Steve Gunderson (1989–1993)
Leader	Bob Michel
Preceded by	Ed Madigan
Succeeded by	Dennis Hastert
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's16th district
In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Edwin Eshleman
Succeeded by	Joe Pitts
Personal details
Born	(1942-12-23)December 23, 1942 (age 82) Bradford,Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Education	College of William and Mary Millersville University (BS) University of Delaware, Newark (MA)
Walker's voice Walker supporting the International Space Station Authorization Act of 1995. Recorded September 27, 1995

Robert Smith Walker (born December 23, 1942) is an American educator and politician who representedPennsylvania in theUnited States House of Representatives as aRepublican for ten terms from 1977 until his retirement in 1997. He was best known for his fiery rhetoric and knowledge ofparliamentary procedure.

Born inBradford, Pennsylvania, Walker graduated fromPenn Manor High School. He attended theCollege of William and Mary from 1960 to 1961 and received his B.S. fromMillersville University of Pennsylvania in 1964.

Walker taught high school from 1964 to 1967. He took his M.A. from theUniversity of Delaware in 1968 and served in the Pennsylvania National Guard from 1967 to 1973.

Walker became an assistant to Pennsylvania congressmanEdwin Duing Eshleman, working for him from 1967 to Eshleman's retirement in 1977.

In 1976, Walker won the Republican nomination to succeed Eshleman from the 16th District, including all or part ofLebanon,Lancaster, andChester counties.

In Congress, Walker was an outspoken conservative and allied himself with fellow conservativesNewt Gingrich,Bob Dornan,Trent Lott and theConservative Opportunity Society. He was one of the speakers at the firstPennsylvania Leadership Conference in 1989.^[1]Michael Barone and Grant Ujifusa wrote that Walker was "scrappy, good humored, and ready to push his principles forward even at the cost of being mocked."^{[citation needed]}

He was a hawk ondeficit spending and worked to reduce government spending but at the same time served on the science committee and advocated more spending on the space program, weather research, hydrogen research, and earthquake programs as well as pushing for a cabinet-level department of science.

Walker was also responsible for a rare punishment of the Speaker of the House and aiding in the rise of Gingrich. WhenC-SPAN began televising the House, Walker, Gingrich, and other conservatives found they could reach a national audience with special order speeches, given at the end of the day after the House finished its legislative program. In these speeches, they assailed theDemocrats and their leadership in the House. On May 10, 1984, Walker was speaking to an empty chamber and SpeakerTip O'Neill had the cameras pan the nearly empty chamber.^[2] No notice of this change was given to the Republicans when it was implemented on May 14, 1984. When the Republicans found out what was going on, Walker, who was speaking when the panning began, andBob Michel, the Republican leader, angrily complained on the floor. The next day, Gingrich was speaking and Speaker O'Neill lost his cool, resulting in O'Neill's words being taken down and ruled out of order. No Speaker had been so punished since 1795. These events made Gingrich a household name. Gingrich would later bring Walker into the Republican leadership; Walker was chief deputy whip.

Walker was a fierce advocate of stronger drug laws. He proposed that all federal contractors institute programs among their employees with violations to result in the forfeiture of federal contracts – even if as little as one joint were found in a contractor's workplace. Walker also led a campaign against the rewriting of theCongressional Record and had the practice banned in the104th Congress when Republicans won control of the House. He was chairman of theHouse Science Committee during his last term.

Congressional Quarterly wrote that "he has raised too many hackles and rubbed too many nerves to be very popular" in the House, but the voters back in Pennsylvania only once gave him less than sixty-five percent of the vote.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001 he was appointed byPresidentGeorge W. Bush to chair theCommission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry. He also served on the President's Commission on Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy (2004) and the President's Commission on the United States Postal Service (2005).^[3]

His name had been circulated as a possibleNASA administrator following the 2004 resignation ofSean O'Keefe.^{[citation needed]} He is now on the board of directors ofSpace Adventures, and has served as chairman of the board of theSpace Foundation. He is chairman of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Energy. In October 2016 he was appointed space policy adviser ofDonald Trump'spresidential campaign.^[4]

Walker was executive chairman of the Washington lobbying firm, Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, before it closed its doors at the end of 2018. Walker is CEO of MoonWalker Associates. Walker is a member of the ReFormers Caucus ofIssue One.^[5]

• Michael Barone and Grant Ujifusa.The Almanac of American Politics, 1994. Washington, D.C.: National Journal, 1993.ISBN 0-89234-058-4
• Congressional Quarterly.Politics in America, 1992: The102nd Congress. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1991.ISBN 0-87187-599-3
• United States. Congress. Joint Committee on Printing.1987–1988 Official Congressional Directory,100th Congress. Duncan Nystrom, editor. Washington, D.C.:United States Government Printing Office, 1987.
• United States. Congress. Joint Committee on Printing.1991–1992 Official Congressional Directory,102d Congress. Duncan Nystrom, editor. S. Pub. 102–4. Washington, D.C.:United States Government Printing Office, 1991.

• United States Congress."Robert S. Walker (id: W000068)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• The Political Graveyard
• Interview with Former Congressman Robert Walker, Science Committee Chair, Part I
• Marketing Your Science? Keep it Real: An Interview with Congressman Robert Walker, Part II

• 1942 births
• 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives
• College of William & Mary alumni
• Living people
• Members of Congress who became lobbyists
• Millersville University of Pennsylvania alumni
• People from Bradford, Pennsylvania
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
• United States congressional aides
• University of Delaware alumni

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