Spencer Thomas Bachus III (born December 28, 1947) is an American politician. He is a former U.S. representative for the state of Alabama, serving from 1993 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as ranking member (2007–2011) and chairman (2011–2013) of the House Financial Services Committee. On September 30, 2013, Bachus announced his retirement from Congress. His term ended in 2015.
Born and raised in Birmingham, Bachus graduated from Auburn University and the University of Alabama Law School. He served in the Alabama National Guard before being elected to the Alabama State School Board in 1986 and holding the position of Alabama Republican Party Chairman in 1991. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992, and was re-elected by wide margins. From 2006 to 2012, Bachus was the leading Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, serving as committee chairman when his party held a House majority during the 112th Congress. Due to House Republican term limits on committee leadership positions, Bachus was succeeded by Congressman Jeb Hensarling in 2013.
Early life, education, and career Bachus was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Edith (née Wells) and Jim Bachus Jr. He graduated from Auburn University in 1969 where he became a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He served in the Alabama National Guard from 1969 to 1971, during the Vietnam War, while attending law school; Bachus earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama Law School in 1972. Prior to his political career, he owned a sawmill and practiced law until 1992.
State politics In 1982, Bachus was elected to the Alabama Senate. Because new legislative elections were scheduled for 1983, he served only one year. In 1983 he was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives. In 1986, he was elected as the first Republican to the Alabama State Board of Education, serving one four-year term representing the 6th District. In 1990, he ran unsuccessfully for Attorney General of Alabama. In 1991, he became Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, serving in that position until his campaign for Congress.
U.S. House of Representatives
Summary From 2006 to 2012, Bachus was the leading Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, serving as committee chairman when his party held a House majority during the 112th Congress. Due to House Republican term limits on committee leadership positions, Bachus was named Chairman Emeritus of the Financial Services Committee and rejoined the Judiciary Committee, which he had to take leave of when named Financial Services Chair.
On September 30, 2013, Bachus announced his retirement from Congress. His term ended in January 2015.
Upon his retirement in 2014, Norman Ornstein wrote a column in the National Journal lamenting the "Exodus of Problem Solvers on Capitol Hill."
Elections Alabama's 6th congressional district was redistricted based on the 1990 United States census. In the 1992 election, Bachus defeated incumbent Democrat Ben Erdreich. Bachus was endorsed by The Birmingham News. Bachus got a major assist from redistricting, which drew most of Birmingham's black neighborhoods into the majority-black 7th district, replacing them with suburban and Republican territory around Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. The new 6th was almost 97 percent white; in contrast, the old 6th was 35 percent black. Despite being outspent almost 2 to 1, the 7th's more Republican bent was enough to give Bachus the victory by seven points. He was undoubtedly helped by George H. W. Bush winning the district by over 30 points.
Bachus would never face another contest nearly that close. No Democrat even filed from 2000 to 2010; before then, he defeated three nominal Democratic challengers with over 70 percent of the vote each time.
In the 2004 Republican primary, Bachus defeated Phillip Jauregui, a member of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's legal team. Bachus was unopposed in the 2004 general election.
In the 2010 midterm elections, Bachus easily turned back a challenge from pastor Stan Cooke in the Republican primary, winning 75% of the vote.
Bachus sought reelection in 2012 after the 6th was redrawn to cut out its share of Tuscaloosa. In the Republican primary, he drew three challengers, most notably State Senator Scott Beason. Beason ran well to Bachus's right and called for "true conservative leadership." Bachus heavily outspent him. The incumbent spent over $1.5 million, outspending Beason 45–1.Bachus Wins Republican Primary in Alabama – NationalJournal.com Spencer Bachus faces fight of his career – Alex Isenstadt – POLITICO.com Bachus defeated him 59%–27%. He won every county in the district except for Blount County.Our Campaigns – AL District 06 – R Primary Race – Mar 13, 2012
For the first time since 1998, Bachus faced a Democratic challenger. Colonel Penny Bailey defeated William Barnes to become the Democratic nominee. However, the new 6th was as heavily Republican as its predecessor, and Bachus turned back this challenge fairly easily, defeating Bailey with 71 percent of the vote.
Tenure Bachus had a conservative voting record, with a lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union. He was a signer of Americans for Tax Reform's Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Bachus was an active legislator, engaged in many important issues over the course of his congressional career. He helped amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to curtail identity theft and ease consumer access to their credit reports. Bachus also had a reputation for good constituent service.
1990s
In the late 1990s, during his tenure as Chairman of the Banking Oversight Committee, he uncovered the Community Development Financial Institute (CDFI), which led to the resignation of the top two CDFI officials.
In the 1990s he became an advocate of international debt relief for the Third World, and joined a broad coalition of activists in a one-day fast to demand action, which was ultimately successful. He criticized the Bush administration over negotiations with the genocidal regime in Sudan, and urged Bush to stop payment of oil revenues to the Sudanese government. Bachus was credited when the Bush Administration decided, in 2007, to place sanctions on Sudan.
In 1995, Bachus pushed for the creation of the Alabama National Cemetery, a United States National Cemetery located in Montevallo, Alabama. Bachus said, "The Alabama National Cemetery will always be the thing I'm most proud of.... It was the second one built, and I'm so thankful for it. We now (have) veterans from every war buried there."
On November 4, 1999, Bachus voted in favor of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act. This law repealed part of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933, removing barriers in the market among banking companies, securities companies and insurance companies that prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and an insurance company. With the passage of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms, and insurance companies were allowed to consolidate. The legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
2000s
While Bachus was Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit (2001 – 2006), the House of Representatives passed and the President signed into law the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-159), which contained the strongest federal identity theft protections enacted into law to that date and entitled consumers to annual free credit reports from each of three major credit bureaus.
Additionally, while Bachus was Subcommittee Chairman, enacted into law was The Check Clearing for the 21st Century (CHECK) Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-100). This law authorized the use of digital versions of paper checks for transfer by financial institutions, saving money and eliminating delays and losses caused by the transportation of physical checks.
Again, as Subcommittee Chairman, Bachus played a leading role in passing the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Conforming Amendments Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-173), which reformed the federal deposit insurance system and raised the FDIC coverage limit for retirement accounts to $250,000.
On July 26, 2002, he voted for the Homeland Security Act of 2002 which created the United States Department of Homeland Security.
Bachus also was active in advancing the search for Natalee Holloway, who went missing while on a senior trip to Aruba. Holloway attended high school in Mountain Brook, an affluent Birmingham suburb in the congressman's district.
In 2005, Bill Maher commented about the Army missing its recruiting goal by 42% in April, saying, "More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club. We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies." Bachus responded to Maher's comments, saying "I think it borders on treason. In treason, one definition is to undermine the effort or national security of our country."
On December 14, 2005, he voted for the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act. The USA PATRIOT Act is an act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. On May 26, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the PATRIOT Sunsets Extension Act of 2011.
In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. In 2008, he opposed H.R. 5767, the Payment Systems Protection Act (a bill that sought to place a moratorium on enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act while the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve defined "unlawful Internet gambling").
In 2006, as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Bachus worked on bipartisan draft subprime mortgage reform legislation to address abuses in the lending market. According to the book Act of Congress by Robert G. Kaiser, "Bachus thought that if it had passed in 2005, subprime lending would have dried up, and the Great Crash could have been avoided or at least made much less serious."
In 2008, Bachus proposed the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing, an addition to the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 that required licensing for mortgage brokers.
During deliberations on the legislative response to the 2008 financial crisis, Bachus, as Ranking Member on the Financial Services Committee, was one of the original proponents of the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) that the U.S. Treasury eventually adopted as the primary method of stabilizing the U.S. banking system.
As described in Robert G. Kaiser's book Act of Congress:
At a forum entitled Five Years Later: A Financial Crisis Symposium co-hosted by the University of Chicago and the Paulson Institute on October 29, 2013, former Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank stated, "Spencer Bachus gets some credit for this. In the meeting, he was the senior Republican, the leader of the Republican minority at the time, and when it was presented as buying up the assets, he was one of the first in our meetings to raise the notion of, well, how about a capital injection."