The Honorable Thomas M. Davis, III
Tom Davis was first elected to office in 1979, winning a hard-fought campaign to represent Mason District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. This would be the first of 14 straight victories, a winning streak spanning three decades.
In 1993, after spending 12 years as the Mason District supervisor, Tom defeated the incumbent chairman of the county board, taking the top elected office in Fairfax County, Virginia. Despite a severe economic downturn and a county budget deep in the red, Tom was able to implement a number of reforms that resulted in Fairfax being named the best managed county in the country by Governing Magazine.
In 1994, Tom successfully won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to represent the 11th Congressional District of Virginia. He was the first freshman in 50 years to be given a subcommittee chairmanship, taking the gavel of the Subcommittee on the District of Columbia.
Throughout his tenure in Congress, Tom was widely recognized as a skilled legislator, an honest broker and a political mastermind. Through legislation such as the D.C. Control Board Act, he helped rescue the District of Columbia from its troubled fiscal situation. The National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997 resulted in the closure of Lorton Prison, a long-standing but previously unachievable goal for the citizens of Fairfax County.
Tom also drew on his past experience as the general counsel of Litton PRC to establish a well-deserved reputation for expertise on procurement and information technology issues. In this regard, he was truly representative of his Northern Virginia district, the economy of which is driven by IT and government services. Measures such as the Federal Acquisition Reform Act, the Services Acquisition Reform Act, and the Federal Information Security Management Act illustrate Tom’s knowledge of and interest in these matters. Tom spent considerable time in writing legislation to protect internet privacy; to manage information security within Government and the vulnerabilities of file sharing and computer security. He has lectured widely and testified before the U.S. Senate on Cyber Security matters.
Tom earned national recognition as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2000 and 2002, when was instrumental in maintaining his party’s majority in the House of Representatives. He is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of political minutia, often lecturing members of Congress on the electoral history of their own districts.
After the 2002 election, he was named chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, gaining national prominence once again by chairing hearings on the use of performance enhancing substances in professional sports. Other notable accomplishments include his hard-hitting but objective report on the federal response to Hurricane Katrina; his sponsorship of legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco; and passage of the National Capital Transportation Amendments Act, which authorizes much needed capital reinvestment in the Washington Metro system, and legislation related to cyber crimes.
Tom recently accepted a position as the Director of Federal Government Affairs for Deloitte LLP, in which he continues his effort to being effective, common sense solutions to government.
Last Update: 7-13-10
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