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About Representative Wally Herger
Wally is a third generation rancher and small businessman from Northern California who throughout his tenure in Congress has continued to advocate for core conservative principles: a strong, secure America; a limited, fiscally responsible government; low taxes and fewer regulations on small businesses; and promoting traditional values.
Wally is the second most senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, an important committee that has jurisdiction over taxes, trade, Social Security and health care. At the beginning of the 111th Congress (2009), Wally was named the Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, where he was a very vocal opponent of President Obama's health care reform plan and advocated for market-based solutions to reform health care without growing government. He also maintained his seat on the Trade Subcommittee from which he has continued working to eliminate foreign trade barriers and open overseas markets for Northern California farmers and ranchers.
Previously, Wally chaired the Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee. In that position, he helped lead the reauthorization and expansion of the landmark 1996 welfare reform law, moving even more welfare recipients to work and breaking the cycle of generational welfare for hundreds of thousands of families. Wally also led efforts to improve the nation's child protection system. In an effort to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in federal welfare programs, Congressman Herger championed the "Criminal Welfare Prevention Act," which was enacted in 1996. This hugely successful provision, designed to stop the fraudulent payment of Social Security benefits to incarcerated individuals, has saved billions of taxpayer dollars.
Wally is a strong proponent for more balance in our environmental laws, and he supports policies to protect private property rights and promote local economic development in the North State. A staunch advocate of agriculture and Northern California's area of origin water rights, he supports efforts to enhance and improve flood control and water storage to meet the public health and safety needs of growing communities in our area. He believes in multiple use and open access to our federal lands and has long worked to improve land management policies to encourage more aggressive thinning and forest fuels treatments to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire. He has successfully championed several pieces of forest health legislation, including the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery Act of 1998 and the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act of 2000.
Wally was born in Sutter County in 1945 and raised on a cattle ranch in the small community of Rio Oso, located just south of Yuba City/Marysville. His public service career began when he was elected to the East Nicolaus School Board in 1976. In 1980, inspired by Ronald Reagan, he made a successful run for the California State Assembly where he served until his election to the House of Representatives in 1986. Wally and his wife, Pam, are the proud parents of nine children, and have nine grandchildren. Pam and Wally currently reside in Chico.
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