His grandparents came to the United States from Italy one hundred years ago and settled in Stafford, where they had farms and were founding members of their church.

His father died when he was 12 years old, and Lampson took his first job at that young age sweeping floors to supplement the family's income.

He instituted an emphasis on customer service, successfully pushed for major upgrades in computer technology, and reduced the cost of collecting taxes by $3 million a year.

Much of Galveston County and the portion of Houston including NASA's Johnson Space Center (which had been part of the 9th since 1967) were drawn into DeLay's 22nd District.

His Republican opponent was Ted Poe, a longtime district court judge in Harris County, home to most of Houston.

He was one of several Democratic incumbents that were successfully removed from office as a direct result of Tom Delay's controversial mid-decade redistricting plan.

A Democratic presidential candidate had not carried the district since the Texan Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election.

He had only won re-election by 14 points in 2004 against a relatively unknown Democrat who spent virtually no money—an unusually close margin for a party leader.

[9] On April 4, 2006, DeLay withdrew his candidacy for the upcoming November midterm elections in the face of questions about his ethics;[10] he cited troubling poll numbers as the reason.

Lampson faced reelection in 2008 against Pete Olson, an attorney and a former aide to Senators Phil Gramm and John Cornyn.

[19] The devastation felt by the Smither family and the determination of the volunteers inspired Lampson to establish the first-ever United States House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.

[24] Its intent was to amend the federal criminal code to expand the reporting requirements with respect to violations of laws prohibiting sexual exploitation of children and child pornography.

Lampson worked closely with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and became known as a tireless advocate for their interests on Capitol Hill.

The landmark legislation affirmed President Clinton's key priorities: improving safety, protecting public health and the environment, and creating opportunity for all Americans.

He introduced the Amendment to the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2003, seeking to allow NASA to help Russia purchase additional Soyuz and Progress vehicles if the President notifies Congress they are needed to ensure the safety of the crew aboard the International Space Station and to maintain its operational viability while the Space Shuttle fleet is grounded;[42] it influenced the Bush administration's policy and led to passage of the Iran Nonproliferation Amendments Act of 2005.

[43] It provided guidelines for regulating the safety of commercial human spaceflight in the United States under the oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration.

He authored a concurrent resolution agreed to in the House and Senate[46] calling on allied nations to "comply fully with both the letter and the spirit of their international legal obligations under the Convention to ensure their compliance to honor their commitments and return wrongfully abducted children to their place of habitual residence, and ensure parental access rights by removing obstacles to the exercise of those rights.

"[47] Germany re-evaluated their non-compliance and put in place additional measures to honor the enforcement of international treaties compelling them to intervene in the return of abducted children to their country of origin.

[58] In 2002, Lampson helped facilitate a deal to allow 30,000 metric tons of grain to be shipped to Cuba from the Port of Galveston for the first time in forty years.

Part of the trip included a stop at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where he visited with wounded U.S. servicemen and women.

[65] In 2004, Lampson was one of forty-eight Catholic members of Congress that signed a letter to the cardinal archbishop of Washington, D.C., saying the threats by some bishops to deny communion to politicians who support abortion rights were "deeply hurtful," counterproductive and "miring the Church in partisan politics.

[71] In a 2019 statement on Facebook, Lampson expressed regret voting for the invasion into Iraq and believed the Bush administration misled Congress.

[72] He voted in favor of referring a House resolution entitled "H.Res.1258 - Impeaching George W. Bush, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors" to the Judiciary Committee.

Half of the defectors were members of the Blue Dog coalition, a group of Democrats who represent the center of the political spectrum.

[81] Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz, and Sean Hannity made public appearances in Jefferson County in order to rally support for the vulnerable incumbent, who had switched to the Republican Party a year earlier.

He is active with local organizations such as the American Heart Association, Land Manor (a rehabilitation facility), and the Young Men's Business League.

In 2019, Austria's Habsburg family honored Lampson with the "Medal of Friendship" in recognition of his work as a leading advocate for the NASA space program, the relationships he built with international partners, and his overall commitment to peace.

In 2008, Lampson was honored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with their prestigious "Spirit of Enterprise Award" in recognition of his pro-business voting record.

National television network Court TV honored Lampson with its first annual “Keep America Safe” award for his work on child safety issues.

The award goes to individuals and organizations that have shown commitment to a relationship among law enforcement, communities and families of missing children.