House of Representatives and Senate
In the 1972 election, Cohen won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Maine's 2nd congressional district, succeeding Democrat William Hathaway, who was elected to the US Senate.
During his first term in Congress, Cohen became deeply involved in the Watergate investigation. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, he was one of the first Republicans to break with his party, and voted for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. During this time, Time magazine named him one of "America's 200 Future Leaders."
After three terms in the House, Cohen was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978, defeating William Hathaway in his first bid for reelection. He was reelected in 1984 and 1990, serving a total of 18 years in the Senate (1979–1997). In 1990 he defeated Democrat Neil Rolde.
In 1994 Cohen investigated the federal government's process for acquiring information technology, and his report, Computer Chaos: Billions Wasted Buying Federal Computer Systems, generated much discussion. He chose not to run for another Senate term in 1996; Susan Collins, who had worked for Cohen, was elected to succeed him. (Maine's other current senator, Olympia Snowe, had also worked for Cohen while he was in the House of Representatives.)
While in the Senate, Cohen served on both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Governmental Affairs Committee (1979–1997) and was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee 1983–1991 and again 1995–1997. He also participated in the drafting of several notable laws related to defense matters, including the Competition in Contracting Act (1984), the Montgomery G.I. Bill Act (1984), the Goldwater-Nichols Act (1986), the Intelligence Oversight Reform Act (1991), the Federal Acquisition Reform Act (1996), and the Information Technology Management Reform Act, also known as the Clinger-Cohen Act (1996).
Read more about this topic: William Cohen
Famous quotes containing the words house of, house and/or senate:
“You see how this House of Commons has begun to verify all the ill prophecies that were made of it—low, vulgar, meddling with everything, assuming universal competency, and flattering every base passion—and sneering at everything noble refined and truly national. The direct tyranny will come on by and by, after it shall have gratified the multitude with the spoil and ruin of the old institutions of the land.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“Somewhere between the overly intrusive parent and the parent who forgets about us after we’re out of the house is the ideally empathetic parent who recognizes the relativity of choice, the errors of his or her own way, and our need to find our own way and who can stay with us at a respectful distance while we do it.”
—Roger Gould (20th century)
“We have been here over forty years, a longer period than the children of Israel wandered through the wilderness, coming to this Capitol pleading for this recognition of the principle that the Government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. Mr. Chairman, we ask that you report our resolution favorably if you can but unfavorably if you must; that you report one way or the other, so that the Senate may have the chance to consider it.”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)