Advisory Board » Tom Daschle
Tom Daschle Biography
Born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Tom
Daschle graduated from South Dakota State
University in 1969. Upon graduation, he entered
the United States Air Force, where he served as
an intelligence officer in the Strategic Air
Command until mid-1972.
After serving on the staff of Sen. James Abourezk, Daschle was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, serving eight years. He is one of the first members of Congress to serve in a Democratic leadership position in his first term of office as a Regional Whip.
In 1986, Daschle was elected to the U.S. Senate and two years later he became the first Co-Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and the first South Dakotan to be elected to a leadership position in the U.S. Congress. In 1994, Senator Daschle was elected by his colleagues as their Democratic Leader. Only Lyndon Johnson served fewer years in the Senate before being elected to the position. Senator Daschle is one of the longest serving Senate Democratic Leaders in history and the only one to serve twice as both Majority and Minority Leader. During his tenure as Leader, Senator Daschle co-managed only the second impeachment trial of a U.S. president, led the Senate in response to the attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the anthrax attack on his office one month later.
Today, Daschle is an advisor to the law firm of Alston and Bird where he provides strategic advice on public policy issues such as climate change, energy, health care, trade, financial services, and telecommunications. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University and a public speaker.
In 2007, he joined with former Majority Leaders George Mitchell, Bob Dole, and Howard Baker to create the Bipartisan Policy Center, an organization dedicated to finding common ground on some of the pressing public policy challenges of our time. He is also Co-Chair of the ONE Vote '08 Campaign, along with former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, to address health and poverty in the developing world in a more aggressive and successful way.
Senator Daschle serves on the Advisory Boards of Intermedia Partners and BP Energy. He also serves on the boards of CB Richard Ellis, Mascoma Corporation, Prime BioSolutions, The Freedom Forum, the Mayo Clinic, the Center for American Progress, the LBJ Foundation, and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
He has published articles in numerous newspapers and periodicals and is the author of the book, Like No Other Time. He holds a number of honorary doctorate degrees.
He is married to Linda Hall Daschle and has three children and four grandchildren.
After serving on the staff of Sen. James Abourezk, Daschle was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, serving eight years. He is one of the first members of Congress to serve in a Democratic leadership position in his first term of office as a Regional Whip.
In 1986, Daschle was elected to the U.S. Senate and two years later he became the first Co-Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and the first South Dakotan to be elected to a leadership position in the U.S. Congress. In 1994, Senator Daschle was elected by his colleagues as their Democratic Leader. Only Lyndon Johnson served fewer years in the Senate before being elected to the position. Senator Daschle is one of the longest serving Senate Democratic Leaders in history and the only one to serve twice as both Majority and Minority Leader. During his tenure as Leader, Senator Daschle co-managed only the second impeachment trial of a U.S. president, led the Senate in response to the attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the anthrax attack on his office one month later.
Today, Daschle is an advisor to the law firm of Alston and Bird where he provides strategic advice on public policy issues such as climate change, energy, health care, trade, financial services, and telecommunications. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University and a public speaker.
In 2007, he joined with former Majority Leaders George Mitchell, Bob Dole, and Howard Baker to create the Bipartisan Policy Center, an organization dedicated to finding common ground on some of the pressing public policy challenges of our time. He is also Co-Chair of the ONE Vote '08 Campaign, along with former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, to address health and poverty in the developing world in a more aggressive and successful way.
Senator Daschle serves on the Advisory Boards of Intermedia Partners and BP Energy. He also serves on the boards of CB Richard Ellis, Mascoma Corporation, Prime BioSolutions, The Freedom Forum, the Mayo Clinic, the Center for American Progress, the LBJ Foundation, and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
He has published articles in numerous newspapers and periodicals and is the author of the book, Like No Other Time. He holds a number of honorary doctorate degrees.
He is married to Linda Hall Daschle and has three children and four grandchildren.
Tom Daschle Statement
National governance in America is inherently a partisan process, dominated by two political parties that often have fundamentally conflicting approaches and ambitions. It is the rare politician who can regularly transcend institutional pressures and work effectively with his counterparts across the aisle. But, like so many things in life, finding the courage and will to work in a bipartisan manner often produces the enduring policies that history will judge most favorably and of which the authors will be most proud. During my tenure in the U.S. Senate, I remember fondly working with my colleague, Senator Bob Dole, to pass the reformulated gasoline provisions in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, which helped the most polluted cities in America improve their air quality and led to an increase in the use of domestically-produced biofuels.
In my experience, most Americans share a vast number of ideals. We all want to live in a peaceful, crime-free society, provide our children with the highest standards in education, care for the less fortunate among us, enjoy freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion, have access to quality health care, practice fiscal responsibility, live in a clean environment, and have limitless economic opportunities. As a father and a grandfather, increasingly I measure the success of our labor by our ability to bequeath a society defined by these characteristics to future generations of Americans. I look forward to working with my former Senate colleagues to explore in a bipartisan fashion critical issues, such as health care, trade, and natural resource management that continue to defy simple resolution. Republicans and Democrats alike should be able to work together more effectively to pursue these common values and I hope that through the Bipartisan Policy Center we can foster greater cooperation in meeting the many challenges confronting American society.
