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Position
Senior Consultant
Company
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP and Former Member of Congress
Bio

Former U.S. Congressman Lamar Smith advises clients on a range of
public policy and government relations issues. Rep. Smith served for
more than three decades in Congress (1987-2018) as the
representative for the 21st Congressional District of Texas.
During his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Smith
served as Chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology
Committee, which has jurisdiction over NASA, the Department of
Energy (including its 17 national laboratories), the Environmental
Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Federal
Aviation Administration, and the National Institute of Standards and
Technology. He oversaw agency budgets of about $40 billion, where
the primary focus was on research and development.
Rep. Smith also served on the Judiciary Committee and the Homeland
Security Committee. He is a former Chairman of the Judiciary
Committee and the Ethics Committee, which made him the only recent
member of Congress to have chaired three committees.
Rep. Smith was ranked the most effective member of the House in the
112th Congress (2011-2012) in a study that was jointly conducted by
the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University. According to the
same study, he was ranked in the top 10 percent in effectiveness in the
last eight Republican Congresses. He was named Policymaker of the
Year by
Politico and Politico Pro for his work on patent reform
legislation. According to Politico, “the lawmakers’ America Invents Act
became the only major piece of tech legislation signed into law in
2011—a rare instance in which a bipartisan effort bore fruit.”
Recognition
Received the 2018 Leadership Award from the Space
Transportation Association
Received the 2017 Statesmanship Award from the U.S.
Association of Former Members of Congress
Received the 2013 White Hat Award from the Nashville
Songwriters Association International
Named 2011 Policymaker of the Year in Technology by Politico
and Politico Pro for his work on patent reform legislation
Received the 2006 President’s Award from the National Music
Publishers Association

Interests
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