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**[Biography of U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R)]{.underline}**

As a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, minority leader of
the Oklahoma Senate, mayor of Tulsa, congressman from Oklahoma's First
Congressional District, to his present role as Oklahoma's senior U.S.
Senator, Jim has served Oklahomans with pride and honor. Simply put, no
one consistently represents common sense, conservative Oklahoma values
more than Jim.

Jim considers one of his unique qualifications for office to be the 30
years he's spent in the business community being over regulated by the
federal bureaucracy. Throughout his political career, Jim has been a
strong advocate for the principles of limited government, individual
liberty, and personal responsibility. He believes that the federal
government works best when it returns dollars, decisions, and freedom to
our local communities and families.

During his tenure in Congress, Jim has forged a distinguished
legislative record on a diverse range of issues: surface transportation
and highway funding; environmental regulation and land management;
strengthening and supporting America's national defense; rural education
funding; and improving America's energy independence. In addition, Jim
has sponsored legislation to reduce taxes and reform the tax code; reign
in out of control federal bureaucracies; promote fiscal responsibility;
and reform the way Congress works.

As chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Jim played a
key role in passage of the 2005 Highway Bill, shepherding the important
legislation through the U.S. Senate. By doing so, he ended Oklahoma's
status as a 'donor state' as Oklahoma now receives more money than it
sends to Washington in federal highway funding. This historic
legislation also lessened the federal bureaucracy over highway trust
funds by returning the decision-making process back to the states. Jim
has also been a champion for restoring common sense and sound science to
important environmental and regulatory issues like clean air mandates,
wetlands, and endangered species.

From his post as the second ranking member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, Jim has gained a reputation as an expert on defense and
national security issues. Not only is Jim a strong supporter of
Oklahoma's defense industry and military community, he has also been a
tireless advocate for providing greater resources, the necessary
equipment, and proper training to our military personnel fighting the
War on Terror and combating global threats to our nation's security. Jim
has been to Iraq and Afghanistan as much as any other member of Congress
since the beginning of the War on Terror.

Jim is a reform-minded leader whose efforts to change the House of
Representatives' arcane discharge petition rule brought him national
attention and praise. The rule change eliminated much of the secrecy in
the legislative process and prevented Congressional leaders from keeping
popular bills bottled up in committee. Jim has taken that same approach
to shine light on the workings of the United States Senate, by
sponsoring legislation to end a Senator's ability to anonymously and
indefinitely obstruct the Senate's consideration of nominations and
legislation.

Jim was recently voted the "Most Outstanding Conservative U.S. Senator"
by Human Events Newspaper and the American Conservative Union. He
repeatedly receives various awards and recognitions, including the
"Lifetime Service Award" from the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum
Association, the National Taxpayers Association's "Friends of the
Taxpayer" Award, the "Hero of the Taxpayer Award" from Americans for Tax
Reform, the American Farm Bureau's "Friend of the Farm Bureau" Award,
the Center for Security Policy's "Keeper of the Flame" Award, the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce's "Spirit of Enterprise" Award, and an "A+" rating
from the National Rifle Association.

Jim is a lifelong Oklahoman who grew up in Tulsa and graduated from the
University of Tulsa with a degree in economics. He served in the U.S.
Army and has been a small businessman working in aviation, real estate,
and insurance for over 30 years. He was elected to the United States
Senate in 1994 to complete the unexpired term of Senator David Boren,
who resigned to become president of the University of Oklahoma. Jim was
re-elected in 1996 and again in 2002.

Inhofe has been married 48 years to his wife, Kay, and has four grown
children and twelve grandchildren. During his service in Washington, he
commutes back home to Oklahoma almost every weekend.

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