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Daniel Inouye
Image:Daniel Inouye official photo.jpg
Senior Senator, Hawaiʻi
Term of office: 1963–Present
Political party:	Democratic
Preceded by:	Oren E. Long
Succeeded by:	Incumbent (2011)
Born:	September 7, 1924 Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
Spouse:	Margaret Shinobu Awamura (deceased)
Religion:	Methodist

Daniel Ken Inouye (Japanese) (born September 7 1924) is a recipient of the Medal of Honor and currently serves as the senior United States Senator from Hawaiʻi. He has been a senator for forty three years, a distinction which few senators have achieved, and is currently the third most senior member, after fellow Democrats Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy. He was also the first American of Japanese descent to serve in the United States House of Representatives and later the first in the Senate. He is a member of the Democratic Party and has continuously represented Hawaiʻi in the United States Congress since it achieved statehood in 1959.

Contents 1 Biography 2 "The Gang of 14" 3 Trivia 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Inouye was born in Honolulu, the son of Japanese immigrants. In 1943 he enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which became one of the most highly-decorated units in the history of the U.S. Army. During the World War II campaign in Europe he received the Bronze Star and also the Distinguished Service Cross, which was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor (see the full citation here). Although he lost his right arm in the war he remained in the military until 1947, discharged with the rank of captain. He went to college on the GI Bill. He graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1950 with a B.A. in political science. He earned his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC in 1953. Soon afterward he was elected to the territorial legislature, of which he was a member until shortly before Hawaiʻi achieved statehood in 1959. He won a seat in the United States House of Representatives as Hawaiʻi's first full member, and took office on August 21, 1959, when Hawaiʻi became a state. He was reelected in 1960.

In 1962 he was elected to the United States Senate, succeeding fellow Democratic Sen. Oren E. Long. He has been re-elected every six years, in 1968, 1974, 1980, 1986, 1992, 1998, and 2004. He gained national attention for his service on the Senate Watergate Committee. He was chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence from 1975 until 1979, and chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs from 1987 until 1995 and from 2001 until 2003. Inouye was also involved in the Iran Contra investigations of the 1980s, chairing a special committee from 1987 until 1989. He was a candidate for reelection to the Senate in 2004 and easily defeated his Republican opponent, Campbell Cavasso. His wife of fifty-seven years, Maggie, died on March 13, 2006.

[edit] "The Gang of 14"

On May 23, 2005, Inouye was one of fourteen moderate senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate.

[edit] Trivia

Daniel Inouye appeared as himself in The Next Karate Kid (1994).

Inouye's son Daniel Ken Inouye, Jr. was a member of 1980s hardcore punk band Marginal Man.

Daniel Inouye met Bob Dole while they were both in Percy Jones Army Hospital, recovering from wounds suffered in World War II. Bob Dole mentioned to Daniel while in the hospital that after the war he planned to go to Congress. Daniel beat him there by a few years. Despite being members of different political parties, the two lawmakers remain life-long friends. The hospital where they met, Percy Jones Army Hospital, later became a Federal Center and, in 2003, was renamed the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in honor of the two men and another senator who had stayed in the hospital, Philip Hart.

[edit] See also

• Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, housed in the Daniel K. Inouye Building

[edit] External links

• Daniel Inouye's official U.S. Senate homepage
• Voting record maintained by the Washington Post

Preceded by: (none)	United States Representative for Hawaii 1959–1963	Succeeded by: Thomas Ponce Gill
Preceded by: Oren E. Long	United States Senator (Class 3) from Hawaii 1963 – present Served alongside: Hiram Fong, Spark Matsunaga, Daniel Akaka	Incumbent

Hawaii's delegation to the 110th United States Congress

Senators: Daniel Inouye (D), Daniel Akaka (D) Representative(s): Neil Abercrombie (D), Mazie Hirono (D) All delegations: Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming — American Samoa • District of Columbia • Guam • Puerto Rico • U.S. Virgin Islands

Gang of 14 (in the United States Senate)
Republicans: McCain • Graham • Warner • Snowe • Collins • DeWine • Chafee Democrats: Lieberman • Byrd • Nelson • Landrieu • Inouye • Pryor • Salazar

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