Bobby Scott has been fighting for us in Congress representing Virginia’s third congressional district since 1993.
Prior to serving in Congress, Bobby served 15 years in the Virginia General Assembly where he focused his legislative efforts on creating jobs, increasing access to affordable healthcare, improving education and economic opportunities, promoting evidence-based crime prevention strategies and enhancing consumer protections. Bobby's legislative successes in the General Assembly include raising Virginia's minimum wage, enhancing opportunities for Virginia's families, and establishing the Governor's Employment and Training Council.
With his first election to Congress in November 1992, Bobby made history by becoming the first African-American elected to Congress from Virginia since the Reconstruction-era. Because his maternal grandfather immigrated from the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, Bobby also has the distinction of being the first voting member of Congress with Filipino ancestry.
In Congress, Bobby currently serves as the Chairman of the influential Committee on Education and Labor. As Chairman, he has sponsored and advanced legislation out of the House of Representatives to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, as well as the PRO Act, which protects and strengthens the rights of workers to organize and join a union. In 2015, Bobby was one of the lead authors of the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act and reauthorized the landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Bobby is also leading the fight in Congress to improve equity in education, free students from the burdens of crippling college debt through his College Affordability Act, protect and expand access to affordable health care, ensure workers have a safe workplace where they can earn a living wage free from discrimination, and guarantee seniors have a secure and dignified retirement.
Bobby has also earned a reputation in Congress as an ardent defender of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He voted against the original USA PATRIOT Act and has tirelessly fought to strengthen protections for individual civil liberties and privacy.
As the former chairman and top Democrat on the Crime Subcommittee on the House Judiciary Committee, Bobby is also leading the fight for evidence-based criminal justice reform. During his first term in Congress, Bobby led the opposition to the 1994 Crime Bill and has been working ever since to fix our criminal justice system. He has sponsored the Youth PROMISE Act, which would provide resources to state and local governments for evidenced-based juvenile crime prevention programs.
Core provisions of Bobby’s Youth PROMISE Act were signed into law in 2018 as part of the Juvenile Justice Reform Act. Bobby has also authored the Safe, Accountable, Fair and Effective (SAFE) Justice Act, which has been heralded as one of the most comprehensive reforms to our nation's broken criminal justice system. The SAFE Justice Act has attracted the support of liberals and conservatives inside and outside of Congress. And in 2014, Bobby's Death in Custody Reporting Act was signed into law by President Obama. The Act requires law enforcement agencies to report to the U.S. Department of Justice data on individuals who die in custody or in the course of arrest. Recognizing his leadership on these issues, former Vice President Joe Biden appointed Bobby as co-chair of the Democratic Party’s 2020 Platform Criminal Justice Unity Task Force.
On protecting our region's defense interests, Bobby is an active member of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus and is a leading advocate for shipbuilding, shipbuilders, and our men and women in uniform. He sponsored the House version of the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, which was signed into law by President Bush in 2008 and has been credited as the largest expansion of veteran educational benefits since World War II. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has regularly given Bobby an A rating for his work on behalf of our nation's veterans.
Because of his penchant for working long hours in the Capitol and regularly barnstorming the third congressional district to make himself available to everyone he represents, Bobby was recognized as one of the 25 hardest working Members of Congress by The Hill newspaper in 2010.
The son of a doctor and a public school teacher, Bobby grew up in the southeast community of Newport News and has devoted his life and career in service to our community. He attended Harvard College and received his law degree from Boston College. During and immediately after law school, he served in the National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve. After passing the Virginia bar exam, Bobby returned home to Newport News to practice law. To ensure representation of those unable to afford an attorney, Bobby founded the Peninsula Legal Aid Center. He also served as one of the youngest branch presidents of the Newport News NAACP. Bobby is an active member of many community organizations and is a member of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in southeast Newport News.