Richard M. Burr

Richard Mauze Burr

Serving his fifth term in Congress, Richard Burr (NC-05) is a committed and respected advocate for the people of North Carolina. Raised in Winston-Salem, Richard's priorities focus on the needs of his constituency and promoting economic vitality for a competitive community. Richard is uniquely positioned to protect and promote North Carolina's economic and security interests as a leader on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
After graduating from R.J. Reynolds High School and Wake Forest University, Richard began his career far from the halls of Congress. After 17 years with Carswell Distributing, he entered politics to reverse a trend of rising taxes and centralized government that burdened North Carolina families and business. Elected in 1994, Richard was sworn into office January 1995 and immediately began work with his colleagues to restore accountability and fiscal discipline to the federal government. Dubbed the "Contract With America," Republicans in the House made good on their promise to pass legislation to restore common sense principles to federal government practices.

Richard's first major legislative achievement was passage of H.R. 1411 (S. 830, enacted), the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997. The "Burr Bill" makes significant improvement to the federal regulation of food, drugs, medical devices, and biologics by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Quickly recognized as an effective legislator by his colleagues, Richard was selected by Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) to serve as Vice-Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in January 2001. With jurisdiction over all interstate and foreign commerce, including energy, telecommunications, health care, biomedical research, consumer protection, the environment, and travel and tourism, the Committee considers nearly half of all legislation introduced on the House floor. As the only member of the North Carolina delegation on the Committee, Richard is committed to being a voice for all North Carolinians.

Richard has taken an active role in working to improve our nation's health care infrastructure. His primary goal is to ensure that all North Carolinians have access to affordable, high quality health care services. Selected to the Speaker Hastert's Task Force on Health Care, Richard was a chief architect and original sponsor of "Medicare Rx 2000," legislation that offers an affordable prescription drug benefit for all Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare Rx 2000 passed the House of Representatives in June 1999 and is the foundation for future consideration of prescription drug legislation.

In January 2001, Richard was selected by Speaker Hastert to serve on the House Select Committee on Intelligence and the Task Force on Terrorism. In the wake of September 11th, the Task Force was granted elevated status as the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security. In this capacity, Richard is actively involved in examining all aspects of terrorist attacks, including the vulnerability of America's infrastructure and counter-terrorism, preparedness and response capabilities.

In June 2002, Richard joined President George W. Bush at the White House for the Rose Garden signing ceremony of "The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act." Richard was a member of the Conference Committee on Bioterrorism and an original co-sponsor of this legislation, which provides funds to strengthen North Carolina's preparedness and response to bioterror threats and other public health emergencies.

At the request of local government leaders, property owners, and environmental enthusiasts in Northwest North Carolina, Richard petitioned the Clinton Administration in 1998 to designate the New River as an American Heritage River as defined in Executive Order 13061. As the oldest river in the world, President Clinton selected the New as one of his first American Heritage Rivers and personally appeared with Richard and other state officials in Ashe County for an official dedication.

With bipartisan spirit, Richard joins the North Carolina delegation as a strong supporter of the National Sea Grant College program, a program that encourages the wise stewardship of our marine resources through research, education, outreach and technology transfer. A longtime target for elimination, Richard fights to maintain funding to the program and one of its funding recipients, North Carolina State University.

Outside of the beltway, Richard currently serves as the state Co-Chairman of the Partnership for a Drug Free North Carolina, and as a Board Member for Brenner Children's Hospital. Richard is also an active Board Member of Idealliance, a group of local, academic, and government officials working to expand the Piedmont Triad Research Park. Richard resides in Winston-Salem with his wife Brooke and two sons.