Issue One welcomes former Arizona Republican Representative Jim Kolbe to the ReFormers Caucus.
Congressman Kolbe represented Arizona’s 5th District for 11 terms, from 1985 to 2007 (the 8th District after the 2000 census), the first House Republican elected to represent the Arizona-Mexico border region. Rep. Kolbe served on the House Budget Committee and later on the Appropriations Committee, chairing the Treasury, Post Office and Related Agencies and the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Agencies subcommittees. Prior to being elected to the U.S. Congress, Rep. Kolbe served for six years in the Arizona State Senate.
Currently Rep. Kolbe is a fellow at the German Marshall Fund think tank and a consultant at Kissinger McLarty Associates, continuing to focus on the issues he championed in Congress: trade, foreign aid and immigration reform.
In September 2010, President Obama appointed Rep. Kolbe to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. In 2006, Mexican president Vincente Fox awarded him the “Order of the Aztec Eagle” for promoting the need for greater understanding between the congresses of the two countries.
We are delighted that Rep. Kolbe is bringing his energy and leadership to the ReFormers Caucus to help fix our broken political system.
