Николас Лампсон: Биография американского политика и общественного деятеля.

American politician (born 1945)

Nicholas Valentino Lampson (born February 14, 1945) is an American politician and restaurateur who is a former Democratic Congressman representing the 22nd Congressional District and the 9th Congressional District of Texas.

Lampson is a lifelong resident of Southeast Texas and a second generation Italian American. His grandparents came to the United States from Italy one hundred years ago and settled in Stafford, where they had farms and were founding members of their church. His parents grew up, met, and married in Fort Bend County. Lampson's mother and father eventually moved to Beaumont, where he was born. Lampson is one of six children born to a welder and a homemaker. His father died when he was 12 years old, and Lampson took his first job at that young age sweeping floors to supplement the family's income. Lampson's mother received $19 per month from Social Security as long as he stayed in school. This money helped his family stay together in those difficult years. This would later influence his commitment to protecting Social Security. Though Lampson's mother had only a fifth grade education, she encouraged her children in school, and all six graduated from college with at least one degree. His mother earned her GED on her 80th birthday. Lampson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and a master's degree in education from Lamar University, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He taught high school science at Hebert High School in Beaumont. An inner calling to be of service to others, and the experience of interning with Congressman Jack Brooks in 1969, led him to seek public office. In 1976, Lampson was elected tax assessor collector for Jefferson County and served nearly twenty years. He instituted an emphasis on customer service, successfully pushed for major upgrades in computer technology, and reduced the cost of collecting taxes by $3 million a year. He resigned from his post in order to run for congress.

In the spring of 1997, 12 year old Laura Kate Smither of Friendswood, Texas, was abducted while she was out jogging. Despite efforts by the community and law enforcement her body was found two and a half weeks later. The devastation felt by the Smither family and the determination of the volunteers inspired Lampson to establish the first ever United States House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. Its purpose is to raise awareness of missing and exploited children matters, develop legislation, and support policies that protect children from abduction, exploitation, and abuse. The caucus has played a significant role in promoting the welfare of children and has worked on various initiatives to strengthen child protection laws, improve law enforcement efforts in cases involving missing and exploited children, and provide support and resources to the families of victims. Caucus members pushed through passage of legislation including the Protection of Children From Sexual Predators Act of 1998, Child Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Act of 2000, AMBER Alert System, Code Adam Act, Protecting Our Children Comes First Act of 2007, and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. It became the largest bi partisan, issue based caucus in the House and inspired the creation of an identical caucus in the Senate. Lampson authored the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act of 2007. It passed the House and Senate. It was signed into law by President Bush on June 3, 2008. He introduced and passed the SAFE Act of 2007 in the House. Its intent was to amend the federal criminal code to expand the reporting requirements with respect to violations of laws prohibiting sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. It died in the Senate. Provisions of the bill were adopted in the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008 and signed into law. Lampson worked closely with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and became known as a tireless advocate for their interests on Capitol Hill.

Lampson won support for numerous projects benefiting Southeast Texas, including the Neches River Salt Water Barrier, funding for improving areas of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, port upgrades, and coastal and beach improvement projects. Other notable projects that he secured federal funding for include the Galveston Causeway, Galveston Island Trolley expansion, NASA 1 Bypass Freeway, and major renovations to the Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base's fire station. He co sponsored the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. The landmark legislation affirmed President Clinton's key priorities: improving safety, protecting public health and the environment, and creating opportunity for all Americans. Following the September 11 attacks, Lampson played a key role in passing Aviation Security legislation as a member of the Subcommittee on Aviation including the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The bill created a new Transportation Security Administration. He voted for the Maritime Transportation Antiterrorism Act. He co sponsored the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002. Lampson included language in the U. S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007 waiving the local funding match required under the Stafford Act. It passed unanimously through the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and allowed Texas communities to qualify for disaster assistance programs, providing a savings to the State of Texas totaling upwards of $40 million.

Lampson's congressional district included the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He established a reputation as a vocal advocate of the International Space Station, human space flights, and increased federal funding in support of NASA. In 2002 and 2003, he introduced the Space Exploration Act, a bill to establish long term goals for NASA and the nation's space program. This bill was largely adopted as policy by the Bush Administration in 2004. In 2007, he secured more than $300 million in additional federal funding for NASA. In 2008, twelve house members led by Lampson successfully urged House leaders to add $2 billion to NASA's budget in The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2008. The total budget was $20.2 billion. The additional funding allowed for a Space Shuttle flight to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. The project measures antimatter in cosmic rays and searches for evidence of dark matter. Samuel C. Ting, Nobel prize winning physicist, is the lead researcher on the project. The budget increase also accelerated the development of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), which would replace the Space Shuttle. Additional legislation supported by Lampson includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2000, the Commercial Space Transportation Competitiveness Act of 2000, the NASA Flexibility Act of 2004, the U. S. Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2008. He introduced the Amendment to the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2003, seeking to allow NASA to help Russia purchase additional Soyuz and Progress vehicles if the President notifies Congress they are needed to ensure the safety of the crew aboard the International Space Station and to maintain its operational viability while the Space Shuttle fleet is grounded; it influenced the Bush administration's policy and led to passage of the Iran Nonproliferation Amendments Act of 2005. Lampson was instrumental in passage of the U. S. Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. It provided guidelines for regulating the safety of commercial human spaceflight in the United States under the oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration. It also paved the way for commercial space tourism. The bill's author, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, credited Lampson among two other colleagues for being able to get this legislation passed.

Lampson participated in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and served as chairman of the Congressional Study Group on Germany, an inter parliamentary assembly between the German Bundestag and the U. S. House of Representatives. He was involved in the effort to expand NATO to include all of the Balkan states following the dissolution of the USSR. Traveling to each of the countries, he served as a delegate to help determine their membership eligibility. The abduction of American children by a non custodial parent and failure of countries such as Germany in honoring The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was an issue pressed by Lampson. He authored a concurrent resolution agreed to in the House and Senate calling on allied nations to "comply fully with both the letter and the spirit of their international legal obligations under the Convention to ensure their compliance to honor their commitments and return wrongfully abducted children to their place of habitual residence, and ensure parental access rights by removing obstacles to the exercise of those rights." Germany re evaluated their non compliance and put in place additional measures to honor the enforcement of international treaties compelling them to intervene in the return of abducted children to their country of origin. Lampson was a member of the Cuba Working Group and a proponent of lifting trade embargoes. He co sponsored the Cuban Food and Medicine Security Act of 1999, Bridges to the Cuban People Act of 2001, Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2002, Export Freedom to Cuba Act of 2003, Bridges to the Cuban People Act of 2003, and Agricultural Export Facilitation Act of 2007. In 1999, he traveled to Cuba with Southeast Texas rice farmers to meet President Fidel Castro and his government in an attempt to call for renewed agricultural trade between the United States and Cuba. Before a 1960s trade embargo, Cuba imported virtually all of its rice from the U. S. The members of the delegation played a major role in getting a landmark law signed by President Clinton the very next year: the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. For the first time in decades, it opened the door to modest trade with Cuba. As of 2016, that law has led to more than $5 billion in American exports to Cuba. In 2002, Lampson helped facilitate a deal to allow 30,000 metric tons of grain to be shipped to Cuba from the Port of Galveston for the first time in forty years. In 2003, he traveled to Germany as part of a congressional delegation meeting with the German Bundestag. Part of the trip included a stop at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where he visited with wounded U. S. servicemen and women. In 2008, he traveled to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India with Senator Ben Nelson, Congressman Allen Boyd, and Congressman Tim Mahoney. They met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf

After 14th District U. S. Congressman Ron Paul decided that he would not run for re election to Congress in order to focus on his presidential campaign, Lampson filed papers to run for Congress in that 14th District. The 14th had been shifted well to the east in redistricting, and now included roughly 85 percent of the territory Lampson had represented during his first stint in Congress. Notably, Beaumont and Galveston, the largest cities in Lampson's old district, were now in the 14th. Lampson won the May 29, 2012 primary with 83.23% of the vote and faced State Rep. Randy Weber in the November 6th general election. Lampson was defeated by Weber on November 6, 2012, by a 53% to 45% margin. Lampson only carried his home county of Jefferson County and was unable to overcome the partisan lean of a district that was significantly redder than the territory he had previously represented.

Lampson ran for county judge of Jefferson County in 2018. His opponent was Republican incumbent Jeff R. Branick. The election was held on November 6, 2018. He lost the election, 50.63% to 49.37%, a margin of 949 votes. Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz, and Sean Hannity made public appearances in Jefferson County in order to rally support for the vulnerable incumbent, who had switched to the Republican Party a year earlier. Lampson was endorsed by the Beaumont Enterprise. He focused his campaign on securing relief for victims of Hurricane Harvey and diversifying the economic development of Jefferson County.

Lampson has worked on seniors' issues at the local and national levels as a director of the Area Agency on Aging. He served as a delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Aging. He is active with local organizations such as the American Heart Association, Land Manor (a rehabilitation facility), and the Young Men's Business League. He is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was chair of the 1995 Bishop's Faith Appeal at the Diocese of Beaumont.

In 2019, Austria's Habsburg family honored Lampson with the "Medal of Friendship" in recognition of his work as a leading advocate for the NASA space program, the relationships he built with international partners, and his overall commitment to peace. In 2012, Lampson was honored as one of the "Legends of Galveston" at the Hilton Galveston Island Resort. In 2008, Lampson was honored by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce with their prestigious "Spirit of Enterprise Award" in recognition of his pro business voting record. During the same year he was the recipient of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Guardian of Small Business Award in recognition of his strong voting record and his efforts to increase business opportunities, reduce taxes, and eliminate overly burdensome taxes in the 110th Congress. In 2004, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children honored Lampson with the Congressional Leadership Award in recognition of his commitment to protecting American children. National television network Court TV honored Lampson with its first annual “Keep America Safe” award for his work on child safety issues. The Laura Recovery Center honored Lampson with the Triangle of Trust Award. The award goes to individuals and organizations that have shown commitment to a relationship among law enforcement, communities and families of missing children. In 2002, the Houston Chronicle ranked Lampson #1 in constituent services among all other Houston area congressmen. The Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership honored Lampson with its prestigious Quasar Award for Exceptional Leadership in Economic Development in 1997. He was recognized as the Outstanding Young Man of Beaumont in 1978 by the Texas Jaycees.

Lampson is married to Susan Floyd Lampson, a retired special education teacher and former Ms. Port Arthur. They have two daughters, Hillary and Stephanie, and six grandchildren. He and his family reside in their hometown of Beaumont. He currently serves as the Vice President of Operations at a regional healthcare company and administrator over their hospice program. He also owns restaurants in Port Arthur and Bridge City. Lampson underwent a successful quadruple bypass surgery on March 25, 2007, at the Texas Heart Institute. He is a Roman Catholic.