Bauman, Robert, 1937-

Robert Edmund Bauman (born April 4, 1937) is an American lawyer, author, and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he notably served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 1st congressional district from 1973 to 1981.

Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, he moved to Easton, Maryland as a teenager attending Easton High School there before graduating from the Capitol Page School at the Library of Congress and earning B.S. and J.D. degrees from Georgetown University. He was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1964, was later admitted to the District of Columbia bar, and entered into private practice as a lawyer. From 1970 to 1973, he was a member of the Federal Hospital Council of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. From 1971 to 1973, he served as a Maryland State Senator.

Bauman was elected to the United States House of Representatives in an August 1973 special election. In Congress, Bauman established a reputation as a staunch conservative, often criticizing the state of morality in the United States. He was a founding member of several conservative activist groups, including the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) and the American Conservative Union (ACU), and he served both as national chairman. Bauman was also known for his exceptional knowledge of parliamentary procedure and was considered a rising star in the Republican Party in the late 1970s. On October 3, 1980, while he was running for re-election, Bauman was charged for soliciting sex from a 16-year-old male prostitute. Bauman was subsequently defeated by Democrat Roy Dyson that November. In 1982, Bauman again sought for the nomination for the House seat he had lost but withdrew from the race before the date of the Republican primary.

Bauman was co-founder and legal counsel for the Sovereign Society, a group dedicated to promoting offshore banking and investment, that funneled clients to the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca to help them avoid paying taxes to the United States government. Bauman is the author of numerous books on offshore and tax haven issues. He also wrote an autobiography, The Gentleman from Maryland: The Conscience of a Gay Conservative, which was published in 1986.