Tammy Baldwin

Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin (born February 11, 1962)[1] is an American politician and lawyer serving since 2013 as the junior United States senator from Wisconsin.

[35] She ran uncontested in the primary election,[36] and spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention about tax policy, campaign finance reform, and equality in the United States.

Baldwin was featured in Time's November 19, 2012, edition, in the Verbatim section, where she was quoted as saying "I didn't run to make history" on her historic election.

[58] In 2019, she and eight other Democratic senators sent United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue a letter that criticized the USDA for purchasing pork from JBS USA, an American subsidiary of a Brazilian corporation.

[64] Baldwin was one of 17 senators to sign a letter to President-elect Donald Trump in 2016 asking him to fulfill a campaign pledge to bring down the cost of prescription drugs.

[66] Baldwin was one of six senators to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2017 requesting their "help in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the 340B program", a Trump administration rule mandating that drug companies give discounts to health-care organizations presently serving large numbers of low-income patients.

PolitiFact wrote that "while Pope Francis has called for helping the poor and addressing economic inequality, we could not find that [Trump] has spoken out on this particular tax break.

"[68] In 2016, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a business-oriented lobbying group that usually supports Republican candidates, gave her a 32% cumulative score on "key business votes".

[70] She expressed opposition to the Trump tax-reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, saying that it was being drafted "behind closed doors" and charging that it was being "shoved through."

[71] Baldwin sponsored the Reward Work Act of 2018, which proposed to guarantee the right of employees in listed companies to elect one-third of the board of directors.

[72] She signed a letter to United States Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta in 2019 that advocated that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) make a full investigation into a complaint filed in May by a group of Chicago-area McDonald's employees that detailed instances of workplace violence, such as customers throwing hot coffee and threatening employees with firearms.

[85] Baldwin was one of 11 senators to sign a letter in 2017 to United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions expressing their concern "about credible allegations that the Trump campaign, transition team, and Administration has colluded with the Russian government, including most recently the events leading to the resignation of Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as National Security Adviser."

The senators requested the creation of "an independent Special Counsel to investigate collusion with the Russian government by General Flynn and other Trump campaign, transition and Administrative officials" in order to maintain "the confidence, credibility and impartiality of the Department of Justice".

[86] After United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in 2016 that the Trump administration was suspending its obligations in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 60 days in the event that Russia continued to violate the treaty, Baldwin was one of 26 senators to sign a letter expressing concern over the administration "now abandoning generations of bipartisan U.S. leadership around the paired goals of reducing the global role and number of nuclear weapons and ensuring strategic stability with America's nuclear-armed adversaries" and calling on Trump to continue arms negotiations.

She said there would be "postwar challenges", that "there is no history of democratic government in Iraq", that its "economy and infrastructure are in ruins after years of war and sanctions", and that rebuilding would take "a great deal of money".

[92][93] Baldwin voted against tabling a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee in 2018 that would have required Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen within the next 30 days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda.

[95] Baldwin was one of 18 senators to sign a letter to Thad Cochran and Barbara Mikulski in 2016 requesting that the Labor, Health and Education subcommittee hold a hearing on whether to allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to fund a study of gun violence and "the annual appropriations rider that some have interpreted as preventing it" with taxpayer dollars.

"[96] Baldwin was a cosponsor of the Military Domestic Violence Reporting Enhancement Act in 2017, a bill to create a charge of domestic violence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and stipulate that convictions must be reported to federal databases to keep abusers from purchasing firearms within three days in an attempt to close a loophole in the UCMJ whereby convicted abusers retain the ability to purchase firearms.

[97] Baldwin was a cosponsor of the NICS Denial Notification Act in 2018,[98] legislation developed in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that would require federal authorities to inform states within a day after a person failing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System attempted to buy a firearm.

"[111] In 2018 she was one of ten senators to sponsor the Choose Medicare Act, an expanded public option for health insurance that also increased Obamacare subsidies and rendered people with higher incomes eligible for its assistance.

[115] In 2022, Baldwin voted with Democrats to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare at $35 a month.

[117] In 2024, Baldwin co-sponsored the Stop Predatory Investing Act to ban corporate investors that buy up more than 50 single-family homes from deducting interest or depreciation on those properties.

[128][129][130] Baldwin introduced a bill in 2013 that would "bring greater government transparency, oversight and due process whenever authorities use information gathered for intelligence purposes to make domestic non-terrorism cases against Americans.

[136] Her vote received renewed attention in Wisconsin's 2012 U.S. Senate race, when Tommy Thompson's campaign released an ad about it that PolitiFact rated "Mostly False".

[136] Thompson said, "Wisconsin voters need to know that Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin put her extreme views above honoring the men and women who were murdered by the terrorists in the Sept. 11 attacks on our nation.

Baldwin voted against the measure in 2006—and criticized Republicans for adding in references to the Patriot Act, immigration bills, and other controversial matters.

"[136] Baldwin was a cosponsor of a bipartisan resolution led by Gary Peters and Jerry Moran in 2019 that opposed privatization of the United States Postal Service (USPS), citing the USPS as a self-sustained establishment and noting concerns that privatization could cause higher prices and reduced services for its customers, especially in rural communities.

[141] Baldwin said, "we should have done a better job listening to and communicating with another constituent with whom we were working on problems at the VA",[140] and that she had started a review of why her office had failed to act on the report.

As a result of the review, Baldwin fined her chief of staff, demoted her state director, and reassigned a veterans' outreach staffer.

In 2020, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride parade, Queerty named Baldwin one of 50 heroes "leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all people".

Baldwin presiding over the House while serving as Speaker Pro Tempore , 2007
Baldwin campaigning in 2012
Baldwin and Thompson debating during the 2012 election
Baldwin questions the Secretary of Agriculture while on the Senate Appropriations Committee , 2017.
Baldwin meets with a family to discuss the expanded child tax credit of 2021
Baldwin meets with farmers about the Farm Bill of 2018
Baldwin pushes for climate action and the passage of the 2021 Build Back Better bill
Baldwin speaks about asthma inhaler costs
Baldwin pushes for domestic shipbuilding and Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 in 2024.
Baldwin visits Fairbanks Morse Defense in 2024
Baldwin welcomes back Wisconsin soldiers from Iraq, 2016
Baldwin pushes for continued access to reproductive care for veterans, 2023.
Baldwin visits community organization that rehabilitates houses with federal grants she secured for the state, 2023.
Baldwin at the White House to celebrate the signing of the Respect for Marriage Act , 2022.
Baldwin speaking at a U.S. Department of Justice event
Baldwin discusses the Jason Simcakoski Memorial and Promise Act, 2016