Adams, Brock, 1927-2004

<p>Brock Adams was a liberal Democrat whose record of public service spanned almost 40 years. He served in both houses of the U.S. Congress and as Secretary of Transportation under President Jimmy Carter.</p>

<p>Brockman Adams was born on January 13, 1927, in Atlanta, Georgia, but grew up in Portland and Seattle. Upon graduation from Seattle’s Broadway High School in 1944, he enrolled in the University of Washington. He interrupted his studies to enlist in the U.S. Navy, where he served for two years. He returned to the University in 1946 and graduated summa cum laude in 1949 with a degree in economics. During his senior year he served as President of the Associated Students of the University of Washington and was the first student to both serve in that post and receive the President’s Medal of Excellence as the University’s top scholar. After receiving a law degree from Harvard University in 1952, Adams entered private practice in Seattle.</p>

<p>Adams entered electoral politics in 1958 with an unsuccessful challenge of King County Prosecutor Charles O. Carroll. He was an early organizer for John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign and eventually chaired Kennedy’s Western Washington organization. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Adams U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington. Adams resigned this position in March 1964 to run for Congress. In November he was elected to represent Washington’s Seventh Congressional District, the south side of Seattle and its southern suburbs, Renton and Kent. In this area are the major Boeing manufacturing plants. He was reelected six times by ever-increasing margins and served on the following committees: Interstate and Foreign Commerce; District of Columbia; Revenue and Financial Affairs; Banking and Currency; and Agriculture.</p>

<p>Adams' record on social issues was solidly liberal. He was an advocate of civil rights, the 18 year old vote and the Equal Rights Amendment.</p>

<p>In 1967 Adams broke with President Lyndon Johnson over his escalation of the Vietnam war. In 1969 he urged President Richard Nixon to speed up the withdrawal of U.S. troops. He condemned the bombings of North Vietnam and was one of the 85 Congressmen who supported the October 15th 1969 Vietnam War Moratorium march. In 1971 he called for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of the year.</p>

<p>The two issues with which Adams was primarily concerned during his tenure in the U.S. House were transportation and economic policy. As chairman of the subcommittee on Transportation and Aeronautics, Congressman Adams worked to strengthen the nation’s railroad system. In 1973 he sponsored the Shoup-Adams bill which saved Northeastern railroads and restructured them into a viable system. In 1966, with Senator Magnuson, he sponsored legislation to relieve a national box car shortage and in 1974 introduced the Rail Freight Transportation Improvement Act to make available more rail equipment. Adams was also a proponent of rapid transit and introduced legislation to provide federal assistance to cities for design and construction of mass transportation facilities. Along with other members of the Washington State delegation, he pushed unsuccessfully for a government loan to Boeing for development of the Supersonic Transport (SST). During the energy crisis in 1974, Adams introduced legislation to ration fuel.</p>

<p>Adams was outspoken in issues involving the economy and the federal budget. He was an advocate of tax reform and proposed a minimum tax on wealthy individuals and corporations. As a member of the Steering and Policy Committee of the House Majority in 1974, he helped develop the Democratic position on the economy.</p>

<p>Adams was involved in a bitter battle to reform the House District of Columbia Committee, which was the governing body for the District. The Committee had for years been controlled by a conservative Southern faction. Motivated by concern for the problems of urban decay in the nation’s capitol, Adams succeeded, in 1973, in guiding through Congress a bill that gave the District a measure of home rule.</p>

<p>Adams helped to craft the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The law called for the creation of a Budget Committee in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and required that Congress create an overall budget before passing spending or revenue legislation. Although the law did not require the new process to be inaugurated until 1976 for the 1977 fiscal year, Congress chose to write non-binding budget resolutions in 1975 to guide spending for the 1976 fiscal year.</p>

Brockman Adams (January 13, 1927 – September 10, 2004) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a member of Congress. A Democrat from Washington, Adams served as a U.S. Representative, Senator, and United States Secretary of Transportation. He was forced to retire in January 1993 due to public and widespread sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape allegations.

Brock Adams was born January 13, 1927, in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from the University of Washington at Seattle, in 1949, and received a law degree from Harvard Law School, in 1952. Adams served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946, and was admitted to the Washington state bar in 1952, opening a private practice in Seattle, Washington. He taught law at the American Institute of Banking from 1954 to 1960, and served as United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington from 1961 to 1964. He was elected as a Democrat to the House and served six terms beginning January 3, 1965. He was chairman for the newly created Budget Committee during the 94th Congress. On January 22, 1977, Adams resigned to become the fifth Secretary of Transportation, serving from January 23, 1977 to July 20, 1979. While Secretary, Adams challenged the automobile industry to make dramatic changes in design, including increased fuel efficiency and mandatory air bags. During his tenure, the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 became law. After resigning his Cabinet post, he resumed law practice, this time in Washington, D.C., where he was a lobbyist for CSX Corporation and other railroad carriers. On November 4, 1986, he was elected as a U.S. Senator from Washington, defeating incumbent Slade Gorton. He served one term from January 3, 1987, to January 3, 1993, he chose not to be a candidate for reelection in 1992 after eight women made statements to The Seattle Times alleging that Adams had sexually harassed them. Following a ten-year battle with Parkinson's disease, he died at his home in Stevensville, Maryland, on September 10, 2004.