Schaffer was co-chairman of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, and an outspoken leader in promoting American interests and human rights in Eastern Europe.

[citation needed] In 1993, Schaffer made headlines when he removed a display from the Capitol—that was in clear view of visiting children—that contained pamphlets describing "unsafe sexual practices.

"[5] Schaffer was first elected to the U.S. Congress in November 1996 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district, succeeding Wayne Allard and Hank Brown.

[6] Schaffer upheld his pledge in spite of pleas from national Republicans and President George W. Bush to run for another term.

[7] Schaffer led no fewer than four congressional delegations to Ukraine, and offered an ultimately unsuccessful balanced budget resolution and amendment.

[8] His education policy work focused on school-choice and local control, and Schaffer was remembered for being able to help his Republican colleagues form their arguments when debating this issue.

[9] He has received multiple recognitions for his advocacy of Ukraine–United States relations, and for defense of Ukraine's territorial integrity under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.

He was also a board member on the National Alternative Fuels Foundation,[17] but environmental groups released attack ads during the 2008 U.S. Senate race highlighting Shcaffer's congressional vote which gave $2.5 billion to alternative energy research and a much larger amount to traditional energy research and tax credits.

Schaffer has been chairman of the Leadership Program of the Rockies, a nonprofit corporation that provides economic education and civic-leadership training in Colorado.

Since 2003, Schaffer has been chairman of Leadership Program of the Rockies, a nonprofit organization providing economic education and civic-leadership training in Colorado.

[23] As Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education, Schaffer borrowed ideas from Singapore and Finland when working to create new forward-thinking standards that are both internationally benchmarked and designed to grow students’ strategic thinking capabilities over fact memorization.

[citation needed] In 2006, Schaffer founded Dreamsoft Colorado, LLC,[29] a firm that creates high-end interactive websites for business and political clients.

Coors entered the bitter primary battle after Schaffer faced down potential contenders such as David Liniger, founder of ReMax.

[31] On September 28, 2008, Udall and Schaffer appeared on Meet the Press's Senate Debate series, discussing the proposed bailout of the U.S. financial system.

[32] In 2008, the League of Conservation Voters named Schaffer a member of its "Dirty Dozen" because of an anti-environmental record during his tenure in Congress.

[33] In 2001, then-congressman Schaffer voted for President Bush's energy plan that Democrats argued was a $33 billion gift to the oil corporations.

[35] Schaffer was allegedly linked to the Mariana Islands worker abuse scandal by his association with the Traditional Values Coalition.