Rice, Kathleen, 1965-

Kathleen Maura Rice ((born February 15, 1965) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served as the U.S. Representative for New York's 4th congressional district since 2015.

Born in Manhattan, she grew up in Garden City on Long Island. After graduating from Garden City High School, Rice attended Catholic University and the Touro Law Center. In 1992 Rice began her career as an assistant district attorney in the Kings County District Attorney's Office, under District Attorney Charles Hynes. In 1999, Rice was appointed assistant United States Attorney in Philadelphia by then-Attorney General Janet Reno. As a federal prosecutor, she prosecuted white-collar crimes, corporate fraud, gun and drug cases, and public corruption. Rice was elected Nassau County District Attorney in 2005, the first woman to hold the position. In 2010, she lost the Democratic primary for New York State Attorney General.

In 2014, Rice was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In Congress, Rice has become a leading voice on national security issues as a member of the Homeland Security Committee, where she passed legislation to improve airport security screening in her first year and conducted rigorous oversight of the Trump Administration's border policies during her tenure as Chair of the Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations. As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, she established herself as a fierce advocate for veterans and for accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and she authored bipartisan legislation to expand employment opportunities for veterans, which was signed into law in January 2021. For the 117th Congress, Rice was named to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has the broadest jurisdiction of any authorizing committee in Congress, and she remains a member of the Homeland Security Committee.