Ileana Ros-Lehtinen ( ; ; born July 15, 1952) is an American politician and lobbyist from Miami who represented from 1989 to 2019. At the end of her tenure, she was the most senior U.S. Representative from Florida. She was chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2011–2013. In 1989, she won a special election becoming the first Cuban American elected to Congress. She was also the first Republican woman elected to the House from Florida. Ros-Lehtinen gave the first Republican response to the State of the Union address in Spanish in 2011, and gave the third in 2014.
In September 2011, Ros-Lehtinen became the first Republican member of the U.S. Congress to co-sponsor the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. In July 2012, she became the first Republican in the House to support same-sex marriage.
On April 30, 2017, Ros-Lehtinen announced that she would not be running for re-election in 2018.Mattezi, Patricia. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to Retire from Congress, Miami Herald, April 30, 2017.
Early life and education Ileana Ros y Adato was born in Havana, Cuba one of two children born to Enrique Ros (1924–2013), who later became a businessman and an anti–Fidel Castro activist, and his wife, Amanda Adato. The family immigrated to the United States when Ileana was seven years old. She graduated from Southwest Miami Senior High School in Miami. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in education and her Master of Arts degree in educational leadership from Florida International University in Westchester. She attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables, earning an Ed.D degree in higher education.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen grew up Catholic and is now an Episcopalian. Her maternal grandparents were Sephardic Jews, originally from the Ottoman Empire, who had been active in Cuba's Jewish community. Her maternal grandfather left the city of Kırklareli for Cuba in 1913, fleeing the devastation and economic collapse caused by the First Balkan War.Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen Meets Turkish Relatives in Istanbul Jan 31, 2012 Her mother later converted to Catholicism to marry her father.
Career
Ros-Lehtinen was an educator and the owner/operator of a private school in Miami-Dade County. She was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1982, where she met state Representative Dexter Lehtinen (D-Miami). They married on June 9, 1984, after he switched parties. They both served in the State House until 1986. In 1986, they were both elected to the Florida Senate, where he was elected to District 40 and she was elected in District 34."Senator called A Brainy Tough Guy". The Miami Herald. June 11, 1988, p. 1A In 1988, Lehtinen resigned his seat to become U.S. Attorney of South Florida. In 1989, Ros-Lehtinen resigned her seat to become a U.S. Representative.
U.S. House of Representatives
After incumbent Democratic U.S. Congressman Claude Pepper died on May 30, 1989, there was a special election scheduled for August 29, 1989. State Senator Ros-Lehtinen defeated Democrat Gerald Richman 53%–47%. She was the first Cuban American elected to the United States Congress and the first Republican woman elected from Florida. Upon her election, Ros-Lehtinen was incorrectly informed that she was also the first Latina elected to Congress, the first having been Rep. Barbara Vucanovich, who was of partial Mexican descent and was elected in 1982. In 1990, she won re-election to a full term with 60% of the vote. In total, she was elected to fourteen full terms, never winning with less than 58%.
Ros-Lehtinen joined Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) on a congressional delegation to the United Nations in order to encourage international support for an end to the genocide in Darfur. In addition, when Ros-Lehtinen returned from a trip to Darfur in April 2007 where she visited Sudanese refugee camps, she strongly encouraged the United States and the international community to find a solution to this humanitarian crisis.
After the 2008 elections, then President-elect Barack Obama rang Ros-Lehtinen to congratulate her on her re-election. She hung up on him, believing that it was a prank call from a radio station. She did the same to Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel when he rang to confirm the original call was genuine, and only accepted the call after Congressman Howard Berman managed to speak to her.Press Release from the Office of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida , ABC NewsCongresswoman hangs up on Obama, BBC, December 4, 2008
Ros-Lehtinen played a key role in keeping the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2010 from being passed into law. Although the bill had unanimously passed the Senate with bipartisan support, she persuaded enough Republicans in the House to vote against the bill so that it did not receive the required two-thirds majority. She reportedly invoked concerns about the legislation's cost and that funds could be used to promote abortion.
Ros-Lehtinen was the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2011–2013. During the 2011 Libyan civil war, she expressed support of the Libyan opposition; on February 26, 2011, she released a press release which stated, "stronger penalties must be imposed in order to hold the regime accountable for its heinous crimes, and to prevent further violence against the Libyan people". But on March 20, 2011, the day after the NATO strikes to enforce the no-fly-zone began, she expressed a different view in a press release: "I am concerned that the President has yet to clearly define for the American people what vital United States security interests he believes are currently at stake in Libya." The congresswoman has also been a forerunner in cutting U.S. aid to foreign lands, including the State Department, The Peace Corps, the Asia Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the East–West Center. She also advocates cutting funding to Lebanese Armed Forces and the West Bank and Gaza.
After comments by State Department over Israeli settlements, she demanded that the Obama administration halt its "condemnations" of "an indispensable ally and friend of the United States." In September 2011, she introduced a bill to cut off US funding to any UN organization which recognizes Palestinian statehood. Ros-Lehtinen has been an opponent of funding for the Peace Corps. In 2011, she led a hearing about the perils that volunteers faced and the lack of concern for victims of sexual abuse while serving. Ros-Lehtinen pressured the State Department to accelerate its processing of passports, something that had hindered American citizens' travel during the crucial summer travel season. Calling the delay "outrageous, incomprehensible, unconscionable" at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she is chairwoman, Ros-Lehtinen brought the pressure of committee Republicans to bear on the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs and spur them to action.
On May 7, 2014, Ros-Lehtinen introduced the Venezuelan Human Rights and Democracy Protection Act (H.R. 4587; 113th Congress) in the House. The bill would impose sanctions against Venezuela and authorize appropriations to support civil society in that country. The sanctions would be directed at any government official who was involved in the mistreatment of protestors. She said that the bill was to "condemn the ongoing human rights abuses being committed in Venezuela, and to answer the cries of the people of Venezuela." Ros-Lehtinen also said that she was "pleased that the House of Representatives has acted to punish the thugs of the Maduro regime for brutally repressing and violating the human rights of those seeking to exercise their basic freedoms of speech and assembly in Venezuela."
She was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership. In 1993, Ros-Lehtinen became one of the first two women to play in the annual Congressional Baseball Game, alongside Blanche Lincoln (then under her maiden name Lambert) and Maria Cantwell.
Committee assignments Committee on Foreign Affairs (Chair, 2011–2013)
Caucus membership Co-chair, Congressional Vision Caucus Co-chair, National Marine Sanctuary Caucus Congressional Pro-Life Women's Caucus Climate Solutions Caucus Congressional Taiwan Caucus Congressional Hispanic Conference United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus Congressional Arts Caucus Afterschool Caucuses Problem Solvers Caucus
Notable campaign contributors A major individual campaign contributor to Ros-Lehtinen is Irving Moskowitz, a funder of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. J Street, a lobby group, called on Ros-Lehtinen to return campaign contributions from Moskowitz and said that he "actively undermines the two-state solution and the foreign policy of the United States by funding illegal settlements in the occupied territories". American Council on World Jewry president Jack Rosen expressed "great concern" about the demand.
Political positions A leading Republican moderate, Ros-Lehtinen opposed Donald Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy. In April 2017, she called on President Trump to remove Steve Bannon from his position as the chief strategist in the Trump administration. As of May 2018, Ros-Lehtinen had voted with her party in 85.7% of votes in the 115th United States Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 68.7% of the votes.
The National Journal, as cited in the Almanac of American Politics 2016, gave Ros-Lehtinen a composite score of 54% conservative and 46% liberal. She was ranked as the sixth most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress in the Bipartisan Index, created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy to assess congressional bipartisanship. During the first session of the 115th United States Congress, Ros-Lehtinen's ranking improved to second.
Economic issues She signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. Ros-Lehtinen voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 in its initial September 29, 2008 vote, which failed, but voted in favor of the revised bill in its October 3, 2008 vote, which passed. Retrieved October 3, 2008 In February 2017, she voted against a resolution which would have directed the House to request 10 years of Trump's tax returns, which would then have been reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee in a closed session. Ros-Lehtinen voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. According to one estimate, 39,900 of Ros-Lehtinen's constituents could lose their health insurance in 2019 due to the bill's passage.
Foreign policy Ros-Lehtinen was rated 57% conservative and 43% liberal on foreign policy issues by the National Journal. She supported President George W. Bush's surge policy in Iraq, supports Israel, and is in favor of continued sanctions against Cuba. She supported the de facto government in Honduras, headed by Roberto Micheletti, that emerged after the military coup against President Manuel Zelaya. Speaking of the decision to invade Iraq: "Whether or not there is a direct link to the World Trade Center does not mean that Iraq is not meritorious of shedding blood. The common link is that they hate America."