Barney Frank
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th district
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Robert Drinan
Succeeded by	Joseph Kennedy
Chair of the House Financial Services Committee
In office January 4, 2007 – January 3, 2011
Preceded by	Mike Oxley
Succeeded by	Spencer Bachus
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 8th Suffolk district
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1981
Preceded by	Francis Dailey
Succeeded by	Thomas Vallely
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 5th Suffolk district
In office January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1979
Preceded by	Eliot Wadsworth
Succeeded by	Daniel Pokaski
Personal details
Born	Barnett Frank March 31, 1940 (age 72) Bayonne, New Jersey,U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Jim Ready
Alma mater	Harvard University

Barnett "Barney" Frank (born March 31, 1940) is an American politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (2007–2011) and was a leading co-sponsor of the 2010 Dodd–Frank Act, a sweeping reform of the U.S. financial industry. Frank, a resident of Newton, Massachusetts, is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.[1]

Born and raised in Bayonne, New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He worked as a political aide before winning election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1972. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 with 52 percent of the vote. He has been re-elected every year since by wide margins. In 1987, he came out as gay, becoming the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily. From 2003 until his retirement, Frank was the leading Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, and he served as committee chairman when his party held a House majority from 2007 to 2011. In July 2012, he married his long-time partner, James Ready, becoming the first member of Congress to marry someone of the same sex while in office.retirement, Frank was the leading Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, and he served as committee chairman when his party held a House majority from 2007 to 2011. In July 2012, he married his long-time partner, James Ready, becoming the first member of Congress to marry someone of the same sex while in office.[2] Frank did not seek re-election in 2012, and retired from Congress at the end of his term in January 2013.[3] However, Frank had expressed interest in serving temporarily in the United States Senate after John Kerry had been confirmed as Secretary of Statebut was ultimately passed for Mo Cowan.[4]

Early life, education, and early career
Frank was born Barnett Frank[5] in Bayonne, New Jersey, one of four children of Elsie (née Golush) and Samuel Frank. His family was Jewish, and his grandparents had immigrated from Poland and Russia.[6] Frank’s father ran a Jersey City truck stop—a place Frank has described as “totally corrupt”—and when Frank was 6 or 7, served a year in prison for refusing to testify to a grand jury against Frank’s uncle.[7] Frank was educated at Harvard College, where he resided in Matthews Hall his first year and then in Kirkland House and Winthrop House, graduating in 1962. Frank’s undergraduate studies were interrupted by the death of his father, and Frank took a year off to help resolve the family’s affairs prior to his graduation.undergraduate studies were interrupted by the death of his father, and Frank took a year off to help resolve the family’s affairs prior to his graduation.[7] In 1964, he was a volunteer in Mississippi during Freedom Summer.[8] He taught undergraduates at Harvard while studying for a PhD in Government, but left in 1968 before having completed the degree, to become Boston mayor the degree, to become Boston mayor Kevin White’s Chief Assistant, a position he held for three years. He then served for a year as Administrative Assistant to Congressman Administrative Assistant to Congressman Michael J. Harrington. Frank later graduated from Harvard Law School, in 1977, where he was once a student of student of Henry Kissinger,[9] while serving as Massachusetts State Representative.

Pre-congressional career
In 1972, Frank was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives where he served for eight years. He made a name for himself in the mid-1970s as a political defender of the Combat Zone, Boston’s notorious red light district. Neighborhoods in Frank’s district bordered the Combat Zone. As a means of dealing with crime in the area (including violence, police corruption and the infiltration by organized crime), he introduced a bill into the Massachusetts General Court that would have legalized the sex-for-hire business but kept it quarantined in a red light district, which would have been moved to Boston’s Financial District.[10][11] The bill, which had the support of Boston’s Police Commissioner, never came up for a vote. Later, when Frank was running for Congress, opponents erroneously portrayed him as having attempted to permit red-light districts in all Bay State communities.

In 1979, Frank was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts. While in state and local government, he taught, part-time, at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and at Boston University. He published numerous articles on politics and public affairs; in 1992, he published Speaking Frankly, an essay on the role the Democratic Party should play in the 1990s.

U.S. House of Representatives
 

1981, Congressional Pictorial Directory – Frank’s first term as Congressman

Elections
In 1980, Frank ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 4th congressional district, hoping to succeed Father Robert Drinan, who had left Congress, following a call by Pope John Paul II for priests to withdraw from political positions. In the Democratic primary held on September 16, 1980, Frank won 52% of the vote in a four-candidate field.[12][13] As the Democratic nominee, he faced Republican Richard A. Jones in the general election and won narrowly, 52%–48%.[14][15]

For his first term, Frank represented a district in the western and southern suburbs of Boston, anchored by Brookline and his hometown of Newton. However, in 1982, redistricting forced him to run against Republican Margaret Heckler, who represented a district centered on the South Coast, including Fall River andNew Bedford. Although the newly configured district retained Frank’s district number—the 4th—it was geographically more Heckler's district. Frank focused on Heckler's initial support for President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts, and won with 60% of the vote.[16]

Frank did not face another serious race again for a quarter-century.[17][18] From 1984 to 2008, he won re-election 12 times with at least 67% of the vote.[19]

In 2010, Frank ran for his 16th term. Public opinion polling showed him facing his first credible challenge since defeating Heckler in 1982. His opponent was Republican Sean Bielat, a U.S. Marine veteran and businessman.[20] In mid-September, an internal poll showed Frank leading 48%–38%.[21] In late October, he loaned his campaign $200,000.[22] In early October, the Cook Political Report changed its assessment of the district from “solid Democratic” to “likely Democratic”—meaning that while Frank was favored, a victory by Bielat could not be entirely ruled out. While Frank had a 3-to-1 advantage in terms of cash on hand, Bielat outraised him in September.[23] On October 25, a Boston Globe survey showed Frank leading 46%–33%.[24] Bielat released a TV ad showing Frank dancing under a disco ball, with the message that he was "dancing around the issues."[25] Frank won re-election to his 16th term, 54%–43%.[26]
On November 28, 2011, Frank announced at a news conference that he would not seek re-election in 2012.

Tenure
Scandal
In 1985 Frank was still closeted. That year he hired Steve Gobie, a male prostitute, for sex, and they became "more friends than sexual partners."[27] Frank housed Gobie and hired him with personal funds as an aide, housekeeper and driver and paid for his attorney and court-ordered psychiatrist.[27] In 1987, Frank kicked Gobie out after being advised by his landlord that Gobie kept escorting despite the support and was doing so in the residence.[27][28] Later that year, Gobie's friends convinced him they had a gay male version of Mayflower Madam, a TV movie they had been watching.[27] In 1989, Gobie tried to initiate a bidding war for the story between WUSA-TV (Channel 9), the Washington Times, and The Washington Post.[27] He then gave the story to The Washington Times for nothing, in hopes of getting a book contract.[28] Amid calls for an investigation, Frank asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate his relationship "in order to insure that the public record is clear."[29] The Committee found no evidence that Frank had known of or been involved in the alleged illegal activity and dismissed all Gobie's more scandalous claims; they recommended a reprimand for Frank using his congressional office to fix 33 of Gobie's parking tickets and for misstatements of fact in a memorandum relating to Gobie's criminal probation record.[30] The House voted 408–18 to reprimand Frank.[31][32] The attempts to censure and expel Frank were led by Republican Larry Craig (whom Frank later criticized for hypocrisy[33] after Craig's own arrest in 2007 for lewd conduct while soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom).[34][35][36] Despite the controversy, Frank won re-election in 1990 with 66 percent of the vote, and has won by larger margins until the 2010 Mid-term elections when Frank won by eleven points.[37]

Public image
Frank is known for his quick wit.[38] In one famous quip, he said he was unable to complete his review of the Starr Report detailing President Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, complaining that it was "too much reading about heterosexual sex".[39] In 2004 and again in 2006, a survey of Capitol Hill staffers published in Washingtonian gave Frank the title of the "brainiest", "funniest", and "most eloquent" member of the House.[40] In 2008, the same survey named him "brainiest", and runner up for "workhorse", and "most eloquent";[41] in 2010, he was named "brainiest", "workhorse", and "funniest".[42] He is also widely considered to be one of the most powerful members of Congress.[43][44][45] Democratic speech writer Josh Gottheimer, in his bookRipples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches, describes Frank as "one of the brightest and most energetic defenders of civil rights issues."[46]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
In 2003, while the ranking minority member on the Financial Services Committee, Frank opposed a Bush administration proposal, in response to accounting scandals, for transferring oversight ofFannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to a new agency that would be created within the Treasury Department. The proposal, supported by the head of Fannie Mae, reflected the administration's belief that Congress "neither has the tools, nor the stature" for adequate oversight. Frank stated, "These two entities ...are not facing any kind of financial crisis ... The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."[47] In 2003, Frank also stated what has been called his "famous dice roll":[48] "I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness [in the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] that we have in theOffice of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidised housing."[49] In July 2008, Frank said in an CNBC interview, "I think this is a case where Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound, that they are not in danger of going under. They’re not the best investments these days from the long-term standpoint going back. I think they are in good shape going forward."[50]

Frank was criticized by conservative organizations for campaign contributions totaling $42,350 between 1989 and 2008. Bill Sammon, the Washington managing editor for Fox News Channel, claimed the donations from Fannie and Freddie influenced his support of their lending programs, and said that Frank did not play a strong enough role in reforming the institutions in the years leading up to the Economic crisis of 2008.[51] In 2006, a Fannie Mae representative stated in SEC filings that they "did not participate in large amounts of these non-traditional mortgages in 2004 and 2005."[52] In response to criticism, Frank said, "In 2004, it was Bush who started to push Fannie and Freddie into subprime mortgages, because they were boasting about how they were expanding homeownership for low-income people. And I said at the time, 'Hey—(a) this is going to jeopardize their profitability, but (b) it's going to put people in homes they can't afford, and they're gonna lose them.'"[7]

In 2009 Frank responded to what he called "wholly inaccurate efforts by Republicans to blame Democrats, and [me] in particular" for the subprime mortgage crisis, which is linked to the financial crisis of 2007–2009.[53] He outlined his efforts to reform these institutions and add regulations, but met resistance from Republicans, with the main exception being a bill with Republican Mike Oxley that died because of opposition from President Bush.[53] The 2005 bill included Frank objectives, which were to impose tighter regulation of Fannie and Freddie and new funds for rental housing. Frank and Mike Oxley achieved broad bipartisan support for the bill in the Financial Services Committee, and it passed the House. But the Senate never voted on the measure, in part because President Bush was likely to veto it. "If it had passed, that would have been one of the ways we could have reined in the bowling ball going downhill called housing," Oxley told Frank. In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Lawrence B. Lindsey, a former economic adviser to President George W. Bush, wrote that Frank "is the only politician I know who has argued that we needed tighter rules that intentionally produce fewer homeowners and more renters."[7] Once control shifted to the Democrats, Frank was able to help guide both the Federal Housing Reform Act (H.R. 1427) and the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act (H.R. 3915) to passage in 2007.[53] Frank also said that the Republican-led Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999, which repealed part of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 and removed the wall between commercial and investment banks, contributed to the financial meltdown.[53] Frank stated further that "during twelve years of Republican rule no reform was adopted regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 2007, a few months after I became the Chairman, the House passed a strong reform bill; we sought to get the [Bush] administration's approval to include it in the economic stimulus legislation in January 2008; and finally got it passed and onto President Bush's desk in July 2008. Moreover, "we were able to adopt it in nineteen months, and we could have done it much quicker if the [Bush] administration had cooperated."[54]
Subprime Mortgage crisis
 
Congressmen Ellison & Frank at Financial Services Field Hearing on Home Foreclosures in Minneapolis.

As former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, beginning in 2007, Frank was "at the center of power".[17] Frank has been a critic of aspects of the Federal Reserve system, partnering with some Republicans in opposition to some policies.[55] Frank says that he and Republican Congressman Ron Paul "first bonded because we were both conspicuous nonworshipers at the Temple of the Fed and of the High Priest Alan Greenspan."[55]

Frank has been involved in mortgage foreclosure bailout issues.[56] In 2008 Frank supported passage of the American Housing Rescue & Foreclosure Prevention Act, intended to protect thousands of homeowners from foreclosure.[17] This law, H.R. 3221, is considered one of the most important and complex issues on which he worked.[17][57] In an August 2007 op-ed piece in Financial Times, Frank wrote, "In the debate between those who believe in essentially unregulated markets and others who hold that reasonable regulation diminishes market excesses without inhibiting their basic function, the subprime situationunfortunately provides ammunition for the latter view."[58] Frank was also instrumental in the passage of H.R. 5244, the Credit Cardholders' Bill of RightsAct of 2008, a measure that drew praise from editorial boards and consumer advocates.[59][60][61] In 2007. Frank co-sponsored legislation to reform the Section 202 refinancing program, which is for affordable housing for the elderly, and Section 811 disabled programs.[62] Frank has been a chief advocate of the National Housing Trust Fund,[7] which was created as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and was the first affordable housing program to be enacted by the Congress since 1990.[63]

During the subprime mortgage crisis, Frank was characterized as "a key deal-maker, an unlikely bridge between his party's left-wing base and [...] free market conservatives" in the Bush administration.[64][65] Hank Paulson, the U.S. Treasury Secretary for the Bush administration, said he enjoyed Frank's penchant for brokering deals, "he is looking to get things done and make a difference, he focuses on areas of agreement and tries to build on those."[64]

The New York Times noted that the Federal Housing Administration's crucial role in the nation's housing market, providing low-down-payment mortgages during the crisis of 2007–2010 when no mortgages would otherwise have been available, "helped avert full-scale disaster" by helping people purchase or refinance homes and thereby putting a floor under falling home prices. However, due to the tighter flow of credit from the banks, total FHA loans in 2009 were four times that of 2006, raising concern that year that if the economy were to dip back into recession, more Fed funds could be required to keep those loans afloat. Frank's response was that the additional defaults — 2.2% more of the total portfolio in 2009 than the year before — were worth the economic stabilization of the broader policy, noting "It was an effort to keep prices from falling too fast." In that context, he opined, "I don't think it's a bad thing that the bad loans occurred." In fact, the unprecedented number of loans made since 2008 were noted to be performing far better than those in the prior two years.[66]

Committee assignments
• Committee on Financial Services (Ranking Member)
Political positions and votes
 

Frank in his congressional office in 2002

Abortion
In 2009 Frank had a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America,indicating a pro-choice voting record.[67] He voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act,[68] against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act[69] and against restrictions on the transportation of minors across state lines by non-family members to circumvent local abortion laws. In 1993 Frank co-sponsored the "Freedom of Choice Act" (H.R.25) (1993-H25) to "protect the reproductive rights of women".[70][71] In 2006, he co-sponsored the "Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies Act" (S.3945) 06-S3945), a bill for "emergency contraception for rape victims".[70] In 2007 he co-sponsored the "Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act" (S.1800 & HR.2064) (07-HR2064) to "providing emergency contraception at military facilities"; the "Prevention First Act" (S.21&H.R.463 2009-S21) to "expand access to preventive health care services that help reduce unintended pregnancy, reduce abortions, and improve access to women's health care".[70]

Civil rights
In 1987, Frank was the Chair of the important House Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Law and Governmental Relations in the 100th Congress. In this position, he was one of the staunchest supporters of redress and reparations for Japanese American internment during World War II.[72][73] In 2001, Frank co-sponsored an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to apply equal rights based on gender differences.[74] In 2002 he co-sponsored the "Federal Agency Protection of Privacy Act" (H.R.4561) to require a "Privacy Impact Statement" on new federal rules.[74] In 2002 he was scored at 93% by the American Civil Liberties Union on civil rights issues indicating a pro-civil rights voting record.[74]

In 2006, Frank was one of three Representatives to oppose the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, which restricted protests (notably those of Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church) at soldiers' funerals. He opposed the bill, which passed unanimously in the Senate, on civil liberties and constitutional grounds. Frank said of the vote, "I think it's very likely to be found unconstitutional. It's true that when you defend civil liberties you are typically defending people who do obnoxious things... You play into their hand when you let them provoke you into overdoing it. I don't want these thugs to [make the] claim [that] America is hypocritical."[75] The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People scored him at 100% in 2006 indicating a pro-affirmative-action stance.[74]

In 2007, Frank co-sponsored the "Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act" (S.2521/H.R.4838) to "provide benefits to domestic partners of Federal employees".[74] That same year, he co-sponsored the "Equal Rights Amendment" (S.J.RES.10/H.J.RES.40) to "strengthen the ongoing efforts of women across the country to obtain equal treatment."[74] In 2009, he signed bills recognizing the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the 100th anniversary of the NAACP.[74]

Frank has been outspoken on many civil rights issues, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. In 1987, he publicly came out as gay.[76] In 1990, Frank was instrumental in crafting the 1990 Immigration Act, which restated the reasons for which a person could be denied entry into the country. The act did not include "sexual preference exclusion[s]", reforming earlier immigration law which allowed persons to be excluded for a sexual deviance "afflict[ion]".[77] He said in a 1996 interview: "I'm used to being in the minority. I'm a left-handed gay Jew. I've never felt, automatically, a member of any majority." In 1995, then-Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey famously referred to Frank as "Barney Fag" in a press interview. Armey apologized and said it was "a slip of the tongue". Frank did not accept Armey's explanation, saying "I turned to my own expert, my mother, who reports that in 59 years of marriage, no one ever introduced her as Elsie Fag."[78] In 1998, Frank founded the National Stonewall Democrats, the national LGBT Democratic organization.

In 2006, Frank and incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were accused by Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) of having a "radical homosexual agenda"; Frank responded "I do have things I would like to see adopted on behalf of LGBT people: they include the right to marry the individual of our choice; the right to serve in the military to defend our country; and the right to a job based solely on our own qualifications.[7][79] I acknowledge that this is an agenda, but I do not think that any self-respecting radical in history would have considered advocating people's rights to get married, join the army, and earn a living as a terribly inspiring revolutionary platform."[79] Frank's stance on outing gay Republicans has been called the "Frank Rule" whereby a closeted person who uses her or his power, position, or notoriety to hurt LGBT people can be outed.[80] The issue became relevant during the Mark Foley scandal of 2006, during which Frank clarified his position on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher: "I think there's a right to privacy. But the right to privacy should not be a right to hypocrisy. And people who want to demonize other people shouldn't then be able to go home and close the door and do it themselves."[81]

In February 2009, Frank was one of three openly gay members of Congress, along with Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jared Polis of Colorado. In April 2009, Frank was named in the LGBT magazineOut's "Annual Power 50 List", landing at the top spot.[43]
In 2006 the Human Rights Campaign scored him at 100% indicating a pro-gay-rights stance.