page_title: Kurt Schrader
section_title: Tenure
hierarchical_section_title: Kurt Schrader / U.S. House of Representatives / Tenure
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Representative Kurt Schrader (D-OR 5th District) speaks to a gathering of Oregon Army National Guard Soldiers and their family members during a mobilization ceremony to honor Company G, 1st Battalion, 189th Aviation Regiment, for their upcoming deployment overseas, January 27, in Salem, Oregon. Approximately 70 Soldiers in the unit are scheduled to deploy to the Middle East where they will provide aeromedical support throughout the Persian Gulf region using Blackhawk helicopters. (Photo by Sgt. 1st Class April Davis, Oregon Military Department Public Affairs)
context_page_description: Walter Kurt Schrader is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Oregon's 5th congressional district since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, his district covers Salem and Newport. Schrader previously served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly from 1997 to 2008.
context_section_description: Schrader voted for the Budget Control Act. He voted both in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and for funding SCHIP.
  Schrader is a political moderate, breaking with his party more frequently than 63% of the Democratic Caucus.
  On December 17, 2009, Schrader announced that he would become a member of the Blue Dog Coalition.
  Schrader was ranked as the 50th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring the frequency each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party). In December 2016, he severely criticized the election of Nancy Pelosi as House Minority Leader. "I'm very worried we just signed the Democratic Party's death certificate for the next decade and a half," he said.
  Abortion
  Representative Schrader is pro-choice and has received a 100 rating from both Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. In May 2012, Schrader opposed and voted against the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2012, introduced by Republican Representative Trent Franks of Arizona. The bill proposed imposing criminal penalties for giving abortions in special cases, notably when based on gender, race or color of the child or parent.
  Environment
  Schrader has received a score of 66% from Environment America and an 83% from the Sierra Club for his environmental positions. The League of Conservation Voters gave him a score of 93. Schrader, along with U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, helped award a grant in September 2012 from the Department of Energy to the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC). The grant will be used to create a new ocean energy test facility to test wave energy.
  Health care
  Schrader received a 100% rating from the Children's Health Fund. In 2016, he received an 86% from American Public Health Association. He supports the Affordable Care Act. Schrader is the co-chair (along with Pennsylvania Representative Allyson Schwartz) of the New Dem Health Care Task Force, which set forth an agenda of "more effectively implementing health care policy in this country that improves payment and delivery systems."
  In July 2017, Schrader led a group of ten House Democrats who proposed a plan to improve Obamacare. The plan included a $15 billion "annual reinsurance fund to pay health insurers that enroll higher-cost, sicker individuals."
  Agriculture regulation
  In March 2017, Schrader told a district audience that the Trump administration seemed determined to deregulate agriculture. He admitted that agriculture regulations "were a bit of an overreach," causing problems for both dairy and dirt farmers.
  Veterinary medicine
  Schrader coauthored the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2014 (H.R. 1528; 113th Congress), a bill that would amend the Controlled Substances Act to clarify that veterinarians are not required to have separate registrations to dispense controlled substances outside of their principal place of business, such as when treating animals on a farm.
  In 2010, Schrader told a magazine for veterinarians that being a veterinarian "gives you almost an immediate cache[t] with both the animal welfare folks and the livestock folks," enabling one to "intercede and broker solutions to problems that ordinarily would be very difficult for people to handle." He also said that it was good he had attended veterinary college and "learned how to study 24/7, because that's what I have been doing in Congress since I got here."
  Gun control
  In December 2017, Schrader was one of only six House Democrats to support legislation allowing concealed handgun licensees to carry their weapons in all 50 states.  He is one of the few Democrats to receive funding from the NRA.  
caption: Schrader speaking to members of the Oregon Army National Guard, 2017
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