Joe Baca Email & Phone Number

I was born in Belen, New Mexico and I am the youngest of 15 children in a house where little English was spoken. I served in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper with both the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions from 1966-68.Following my service in the military, I earned my associates degree from Barstow Community College in 1970, and my bachelor’s degree in Sociology from California State University, Los Angeles in 1971. In 1979, I was the first Latino elected to the Board of Trustees for the San Bernardino Valley College District. I was elected to the State Assembly in 1992, where I became the first Latino elected Speaker pro Tempore. After serving 6 years in the State Assembly, I was elected to the State Senate in 1998. During a special election, I was elected to serve as a Member of Congress for the 43rd Congressional District. In 2007-08 I was elected chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.My wife, Barbara, and I have four children – Joe Jr., Jeremy, Natalie, and Jennifer. I also have 5 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. I am a Catholic and a parishioner of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Rialto, CA.

• 

  United States Congressman

  U.S. House Of Representatives

  1999 - 2012

  Congressman Joe Baca represented local residents in U.S. Congress from a special election in 1999 until recently in 2012.Congressman Joe Baca served on the House Agriculture Committee, and was the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Nutrition and Horticulture. He was also a member of the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry. He also served on the House Financial Services Committee, where he was a member of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.Throughout his career in public service, Joe has always strived to serve as a voice for the poor and disadvantaged. His legislative priorities for the future of the Inland Empire are to create new jobs and further economic development, provide a quality education to all children, safeguard the health of our citizens, ensure greater public safety for all area residents, promote funding for vital water and transportation projects, and honor our veterans and military personnel for their outstanding service. In fact, since 1999, Joe has secured over $154.5 Million in federal dollars to fund local education, health, public safety, transportation, and water projects.In his role as Chair of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Joe was integral in securing record levels of funding for federal nutrition programs in the 2008 Farm Bill - which helped put food on the table for 38 million hungry Americans. In addition, in his time as Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the 110th Congress (2007-08) Joe successfully led the efforts to beat back harmful anti-immigrant and English-only amendment, ensure that Hispanic and Native American veterans were recognized in the PBS World War II documentary, "The War," and secure record levels of funding for outreach at Minority Serving Institutions of higher learning - including Hispanic Serving Institutes, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges.