CLCV will honor Senator Barbara Boxer with the Byron Sher Lifetime Achievement Award at our annual Environmental Leadership Awards in San Francisco on June 9, 2016.
A forceful advocate for families, children, consumers, the environment and her State of California, Barbara Boxer became a United States Senator in January 1993 after 10 years of service in the House of Representatives and six years on the Marin County Board of Supervisors. In November 2010, she was reelected to her fourth term in the Senate.
A national leader on environmental protection, Senator Boxer is the ranking member on the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW).
Senator Boxer has won numerous awards for her efforts to create a cleaner, healthier environment and for her dedicated work to address the threats of climate change. She formed the Senate Climate Action Task Force with Senator Whitehouse and worked to “wake up Congress” to climate change. In a 2014 interview about the task force, Boxer said:
“We are realistic about the current makeup of Congress and the difficulty in passing climate change legislation, but we are not going to sit back or give up trying to raise visibility of the serious threats facing our nation. The great news is that we have a group of 23 Senators who are all committed to using our bully pulpit to elevate the issue and wake up Congress.
We are the generation that must tackle climate change and other critical issues that impact public health and the environment. Our children and grandchildren are depending on us.”
Senator Boxer has fought to remove arsenic from drinking water and authored an amendment ensuring that drinking water standards protect children, and has led efforts to protect children from lead and other dangerous chemicals.
Boxer has also been a champion in Congress to protect California’s coast from offshore oil drilling and fought to end the unethical use of human subjects in pesticide testing by federal agencies.
To ensure that future generations of Californians will be able to enjoy our natural heritage, Senator Boxer has written laws designating more than 1 million acres of California wilderness. She wrote the Senate bill that elevated Pinnacles National Monument into America’s 59th National Park. She helped champion the creation of the Fort Ord National Monument and Cesar Chavez National Monument, as well as efforts to expand the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries.
Senator Boxer also authored the California Missions Preservation Act to protect and restore California’s 21 historic missions, and led the effort in the Senate to create the Manzanar National Historic Site.
Senator Boxer is a true environmental champion, and as she serves her final year in the U.S. Senate, CLCV and our allies look forward to honoring her with our lifetime achievement award next week.
