Congresswoman Jackie Speier (pronounced SPEAR) is a fearless fighter for women's equality, LGBTQ rights, and the disenfranchised who has dedicated her life to eliminating government corruption while working to strengthen America's national and economic security. She was named to Newsweek's list of 150 "Fearless Women" worldwide and one of "Politico's 50" most influential people in American politics for bringing the Me Too reckoning to Congress.

She proudly represents California's 14th Congressional District, stretching from the southern portion of San Francisco through San Mateo County to East Palo Alto. Speier serves on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), where she is the Chair of the Military Personnel Subcommittee, and on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where also she serves as Chair of the Strategic Technologies and Advanced Research (STAR) Subcommittee and serves on the Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation (C3) Subcommittee. Additionally, she serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, where she serves on the Subcommittees on National Security and Economic and Consumer Policy. Speier is also Co-Chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus (DWC), the Congressional Armenian Caucus, the Bipartisan Task Force To End Sexual Violence, and the Gunviolence Prevention Task Force.

Fighting for Women's Rights

In October 2017, Congresswoman Speier brought the Me Too movement to Congress by sharing her own misconduct experience when she was a Congressional aide. Her legislation, the ME TOO Congress Act, became the basis of the bipartisan Congressional Accountability Act (CAA) Reform Act signed into law in December 2018. When Speier first started working on Congressional sexual harassment in 2014, she was told by a colleague that even anti-harassment training would never see the light of day. Today, thanks to the CAA Reform Act and a related resolution, anti-harassment training is mandatory; survivors are no longer forced to undergo mandatory counseling, mediation, and cooling-off periods; and workers can't be silenced with forced non-disclosure agreements. Moreover, interns and fellows have the same protections as permanent staff; employees can be heard in anonymous and regular climate surveys; and Members must personally cover the costs for their harassing behavior, not taxpayers. As a result of these efforts, employees also now have legal representation and counseling through the Office of Employee Advocacy. In addition, the U.S. House of Representatives is no longer exclusively providing counsel to Member offices accused of misconduct.

The CAA Reform Act went into effect in June 2019 and has already made tremendous progress in people's lives. However, Congresswoman Speier's work is not finished. She will be introducing additional legislation with her colleague Congressman Bradley Byrne to bolster protections for staff further and hold Members accountable for their discriminatory behavior.