Board Member
Sam Farr, a Democrat and fifth-generation Californian, represented the state's beautiful 20th Congressional District, which includes all of Monterey and San Benito Counties, and the southern parts of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties, including the city of Santa Cruz.
After college, Sam attended the Monterey Institute of International Studies where he learned Spanish, and signed up for the Peace Corps, serving two years in Colombia, South America. He was a California Assembly staffer for a decade, and was elected to the California State Assembly, where he was known for writing one of the nation's strictest oil spill liability laws and being a champion for the organics industry. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1993 by special election when the former Congressman Leon Panetta resigned to assume a position with the Clinton Administration. Sam was elected to a full term in Congress in 1994, and continued to serve his district until 2016. He was recognized as a leader in legislative efforts for educational excellence, environmental protection, and economic development.
Sam represented the largest National Marine Sanctuary along the United States and has long been an advocate for our oceans. He is an original co-chair of the bipartisan House Oceans Caucus. In the late 1990s, Sam authored legislation to establish an oceans commission, patterned off the law that created the Stratton Commission in the 1960s. The Oceans Act was signed into law on Aug. 8, 2000 and in 2004 the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy released a comprehensive inventory of our nation's coastal and marine resources, ocean programs and policies, federal funding priorities, infrastructure requirements and technological opportunities.
In addition to the House Oceans Caucus, Sam served on the Appropriations Committee and was the Ranking Democrat and only Californian on the Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA and Related Agencies Subcommittee, and served as co-chair of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus, the Congressional Organic Caucus, the Defense Communities Caucus and the Unexploded Ordinance Caucus. He also served as the chairman of California's Democratic Congressional Delegation in the early 2000's.
From 2005-2008, Congressman Sam Farr led an effort to include language in the Department of Defense authorization bill that resulted in two adaptive golf carts being provided at each of the 174 golf military courses, allowing disabled veterans and the public, access to these adaptive carts. In 2014, Sam introduced, along with then Congressman Tammy Duckworth, H. R. 5541, a bill to promote the provision of exercise and fitness equipment that is accessible to individuals with disabilities.