Sheldon Whitehouse

For more than 20 years, Sheldon Whitehouse has served the people of Rhode Island: championing health care reform, standing up for our environment, helping solve fiscal crises, and investigating public corruption. Now, his experience as a seasoned prosecutor and policymaker is at work for Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate, where he is bringing new leadership to Congress and working to set our country on a different course.

Whitehouse has emerged as a strong voice in Washington for issues affecting the people of Rhode Island. With the Ocean State facing record high unemployment, Whitehouse has worked hard to stabilize the economy and put people back to work. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which he supported, has created or saved more than 11,000 jobs in Rhode Island since it became law in 2009. He continues fighting in the Senate for greater investment in infrastructure and clean energy to create good jobs today and provide essential services to Rhode Island for years to come.

Whitehouse has also been a leader in the fight to reform our broken health care system, and worked to include language in health reform legislation to close the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole” which leaves many seniors unable to afford their prescription drugs. He has also spearheaded the nationwide effort to expand the use of health information technology (HIT), such as electronic medical records, which lower costs and improve health care quality for patients. Whitehouse helped Rhode Island become a leader in this growing field throughout his career, and in 2010 he worked to secure $26 million in federal funding for the Rhode Island Quality Institute for the implementation of HIT.

As a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Whitehouse has championed efforts to protect our environment, including our oceans and marine ecosystems, and he is a forceful advocate for urgent action to address the threat of climate change, especially its impact on our coastal communities.

A graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Whitehouse served as a policy advisor and counsel in the Office of the Governor of Rhode Island and as the state’s Director of Business Regulation before being nominated by President Bill Clinton to be Rhode Island's U.S. Attorney in 1994. He was elected State Attorney General in 1998, a position in which he served from 1999-2003. On November 7, 2006, Rhode Islanders elected Whitehouse to the Senate, where he is a member of the Special Committee on Aging, the Budget Committee, the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Select Committee on Intelligence. He chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts and the EPW Subcommittee on Oversight.

He lives in Newport with his wife, Sandra, a marine biologist and environmental advocate, and their two children.