Jane Harman | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2011 | |
| President of theWoodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars | |
| In office February 28, 2011 – February 28, 2021 | |
| President | Barack Obama Donald Trump Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Lee Hamilton |
| Succeeded by | Mark Green |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's36th district | |
| In office January 3, 2001 – February 28, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Steven T. Kuykendall |
| Succeeded by | Janice Hahn |
| In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Mel Levine (redistricting) |
| Succeeded by | Steven T. Kuykendall |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jane Margaret Lakes (1945-06-28)June 28, 1945 (age 79) New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | Smith College (BA) Harvard University (JD) |
Harman speaks on restricting the use ofjihadist terminology within theUnited States Intelligence Community Recorded July 16, 2008 | |
Jane Margaret Harman (néeLakes, June 28, 1945) is an American former politician who served as theU.S. representative forCalifornia's 36th congressional district from 1993 to 1999 and again from 2001 to 2011. A member of theDemocratic Party, she was theranking member on theHouse Intelligence Committee (2002–2006), before she chaired theHomeland Security Committee's Intelligence Subcommittee (2007–2011).
Resigning from Congress in February 2011, Harman became president and CEO of theWoodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.[1] She succeeded former U.S. representativeLee Hamilton and was the first ever woman to lead the organization. She stepped down in February 2021 after a decade, and is a distinguished scholar and president emerita.
Harman was born Jane Margaret Lakes inNew York City, the daughter of Lucille (née Geier) and Adolf N. Lakes.[2] Her father was born in Poland and escaped fromNazi Germany in 1935;[3] he worked as amedical doctor. Her mother was born in the United States and was the first in her family to receive a college education. Her maternal grandparents immigrated fromRussia.[4] Harman's family moved to Los Angeles, California when she was 4 and there she attendedLos Angeles public schools, graduating fromUniversity High School in 1962.[5] She received abachelor's degree in government,magna cum laude, fromSmith College in 1966 and served as president of the Smith College Young Democrats.[6] Harman continued her studies atHarvard Law School, where she earned herJuris Doctor degree in 1969.[7] Harman is Jewish.[1]
After graduating fromlaw school, Harman – then known as Jane Lakes – married futureNOAA administratorRichard A. Frank in 1969, and they had two children. They spent a short time in Switzerland, and then she worked for two years as an associate with the law firm Surrey, Karasik and Morse in Washington, D.C. She began her political career by serving on the staff of SenatorJohn V. Tunney, as his legislative assistant from 1972 to 1973. In 1973, Tunney named her his senior counsel and staff director for theSenate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights in 1975. During this time she also taught at Georgetown. When Tunney lost re-election in 1976, Harman – then known asJane Lakes Frank – joined theCarter White House where she served asDeputy Secretary of the Cabinet. She became a special counsel to theDepartment of Defense from 1979 to 1980.
Harman was first elected toCongress in 1992 and became the first Smith College graduate to be elected to Congress. From 1993 to 1999, Harman representedCalifornia's 36th district, serving in the103rd,104th, and105th Congresses. In 1994, she barely survived reelection in a heavilyRepublican year, winning by 812 votes overRancho Palos Verdes Mayor Susan Brooks.
Harman did not run for the106th United States Congress in 1998, instead entering the 1998 California gubernatorial race.
After losing the Democratic nomination toLieutenant GovernorGray Davis, she briefly taughtpublic policy andinternational relations atUCLA as a Regents' Professor before running for andwinning her old congressional seat in the 2000 election.
Harman narrowly won her old seat in 2000, defeating Republican incumbentSteven T. Kuykendall, before she was easily re-elected in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010.
Representing theaerospace center of California during her nine terms in Congress, she served on all the major security committees: six years onArmed Services, eight years onIntelligence, and eight onHomeland Security. She made numerous congressional fact-finding missions to hotspots around the world, includingNorth Korea,Syria,Libya,Afghanistan,Pakistan,Yemen, andGuantanamo Bay. During her long public career, Harman has been recognized as a national expert at the nexus of security and public policy issues. She received theDefense Distinguished Service Medal in 1998, the CIAAgency Seal Medal in 2007, and the CIA Director's Award, and the Director of National IntelligenceDistinguished Public Service Medal in 2011.
Harman is a tenacious pro-Israeli, who used to have close ties to the U.S. intelligence community.[8] She resigned in February 2011, to head the Washington-basedWoodrow Wilson Center, a foreign policythink tank.[8]
In 2009, it was revealedNSA wiretaps reportedly intercepted a 2005 phone call between Harman and an agent of the Israeli government, in which Harman allegedly agreed to lobby the Justice Department to reduce or drop criminal charges against two employees ofAIPAC in exchange for increased support for Harman's campaign to chair theHouse Intelligence Committee.
Harman denied the allegations, and called for the government to release the full transcript of the wire-tapped conversation, something they never did. In June 2009, Harman received a letter from the Justice Department and House Ethics Committee declaring her "neither a subject nor a target of an ongoing investigation by the Criminal Division." The espionage charges were later dropped on the two employees from AIPAC.[citation needed]
Harman is on most issues aliberal, earning a 95% rating from the liberal groupAmericans for Democratic Action. On intelligence and defense issues, Ben Pershing described her as a centrist. For example, she was one of many Democrats who supported theIraq War. Harman has combined a moderate stance on economic, trade, and foreign policy issues with liberal stances on social issues.
Harman was a co-sponsor of theArmenian genociderecognition resolution bill in 2007. However, while still cosponsoring the bill, she wrote a letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee ChairTom Lantos urging him to delay a floor vote on the legislation.[9] Her argument was that while the genocide deserved recognition, it was not a good time to embarrassTurkey, given that country's role in moderating extremism in the Middle East.[10]
Harman served as a member of theDefense Policy Board, the State DepartmentForeign Affairs Policy Board, theDirector of National Intelligence’sSenior Advisory Group, and theHomeland Security Advisory Council. She was a member of the CIA External Advisory Board from 2011 to 2013. Harman is a Trustee of theAspen Institute and an Honorary Trustee of theUniversity of Southern California. She also serves on the Presidential Debates Commission and theCommittee for a Responsible Federal Budget and is a member of the ReFormers Caucus ofIssue One.[11]
She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, and serves on the Executive Committees of theTrilateral Commission and theMunich Security Conference.
Harman's first marriage was to Richard Frank, in 1969, with whom she had two children.[12] Her second marriage was to audio pioneer and multi-millionaireSidney Harman,[8] who served from 1977 to 1979 as the Undersecretary of the Department of Commerce in theCarter administration before repurchasing the company he founded,Harman International Industries, and later taking it public.[13] She also had two children with him.[12] She has eight grandchildren.
Sidney Harman retired in 2008 from Harman Industries, purchasedNewsweek magazine in 2010, and founded the Academy for Polymathic Study at USC before he died in April 2011.[13] Harman maintains her residence inVenice Beach, California, and has homes inWashington, D.C., andAspen, Colorado.
Harman was a good friend of SenatorDianne Feinstein, and was among the last people to visit Feinstein prior to her death in 2023.[14]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 36th congressional district 1993–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Steven Kuykendall | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 36th congressional district 2001–2011 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theHouse Intelligence Committee 2003–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of theWoodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 2011–2021 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas former U.S. representative | Order of precedence of the United States as former U.S. representative | Succeeded byas former U.S. representative |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
