page_title: Mark Souder
section_title: Congressional career
hierarchical_section_title: Mark Souder / Congressional career
caption_attribution_description: Mark Souder, member of the United States House of Representatives.
context_page_description: Mark Edward Souder is an American Republican politician who was a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1995 to 2010.
  During the 1980s and early 1990s, he worked as a congressional aide and committee staff director to Dan Coats. He was elected to his congressional seat in 1994.
  On May 18, 2010, Souder announced his resignation from Congress effective May 21, 2010, after admitting to an affair with one of his part-time female staff members. The resignation was accepted by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on May 18, 2010, ending Souder's time in office.
context_section_description: Souder was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Republican in November 1994, and was re-elected in every election thereafter until his resignation in 2010. This is the only elected office he has ever held. He originally ran on a signed pledge with America that he would not serve more than two additional terms. He was regarded as a staunch advocate of abstinence education and family values.
  Souder was the Ranking Member on the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism. He was also a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee. Along with U.S. Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), he was co-founder and co-chairman of the Congressional National Parks Caucus. He was also co-founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Drug Policy.
  Until the start of the 110th Congress, Souder was chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources. The subcommittee had authorizing jurisdiction over the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP, known popularly as "the Drug Czar's Office"), and it oversaw all U.S. Government anti-narcotics operations, both foreign and domestic. In addition, the panel had broad oversight authority (covering the National Park Service, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, public health programs, the Smithsonian Institution, etc.).
  In March 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Elimination Act, which represented the most comprehensive anti-meth legislation ever passed by Congress. Souder authored much of this law, which targets meth trafficking at local and state, national, and international levels.
  In December 2006, Bush signed into law the ONDCP Reauthorization Act, which Souder had authored and introduced. The law reauthorizes the office of "the Drug Czar" for five years.
caption: Souder early in his congressional career
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