From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Silvestre Reyes
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 16th district
In office 1997–present
Preceded by	Ron Coleman
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Born	November 10, 1944 (1944-11-10) (age 63) Canutillo, Texas
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Carolina Gaytan
Religion	Roman Catholic

Silvestre Reyes (born 10 November 1944 in Canutillo, Texas) represents Texas's 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.

Reyes served in the United States Army and he later worked for the U.S. Border Patrol. In 1993, serving as the Chief Patrol Agent of the El Paso Border Patrol Sector, Reyes led the Border Patrol to position agents on the border to intercept illegal immigrants. He is a Vietnam War veteran.

Reyes resigned [retired] from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and began to run for Congress against Congressman Ron Coleman in the Democratic primary, but Coleman retired. After winning a primary runoff,^[1] Reyes was easily elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat in November 1996.^[2] He was most recently re-elected by a wide margin in November 2006.^[3]

Reyes has served as chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and in 2002, he considered running for the United States Senate, but decided against such a move. In 2005 he missed 94 votes in the House, the ninth most of any member.

Reyes was a key player in the 109th Congress because of his Immigration and Border Patrol experience. He was instrumental in leading the opposition to the House immigration proposal proposed by James Sensenbrenner, H.R. 4437. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi selected Reyes to present and lead the debate on a Democratic substitute to replace the Sensenbrenner legislation, which was voted down on a party line vote.

As a senior member of both the Armed Services and Select Intelligence Committees Congressman Reyes is a key member of Congress on Defense and military issues. His leadership is credited with the recent success of Fort Bliss and White Sands military bases in the most recent Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions by the Department of Defense. On December 1st, 2006, Reyes was tapped by soon to be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.^[4]

In a December 2006 interview with the Congressional Quarterly, Reyes incorrectly said that al-Qaeda, a Sunni group, was "predominantly probably Shi'ite." He also avoided answering the question whether Hezbollah, a Shi'ite organization, was Sunni or Shi'ite, answering now famously ""Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah? ... Why do you ask me these questions at 5 o'clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?" Congressman Reyes, who has been a ranking member of the Select Intelligence Committees for a number of years, has been criticized for his lack of knowledge of the most basic of facts consequential to the war on terror.^[5]

In the same interview, Reyes said he favors sending more troops to Iraq: "on a temporary basis, I’m willing to ramp them up by twenty or thirty thousand ... for, I don’t know, two months, four months, six months – but certainly that would be an exception."^[6] Yet, a month later when President Bush proposed sending approximately 21,500 more troops, Reyes said to the El Paso Times, "we don't have the capability to escalate even to this minimal level."^[7]

On August 25, 2007, Reyes, Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Armed Services Committee and 4 other US Congressmen visited American troops deployed in the southern Philippines to overview the US-Philippines relationship. Reyes headed the bipartisan delegation which included New Jersey Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen , member of appropriations committee and the select intelligence oversight panel; New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson of the committee on energy and the intelligence committee; New York Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, a Democrat, of the financial services and international relations committees; and Maryland Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of the appropriations and intelligence committees. They drove to the base of the Joint Special Operation Task Force Philippines (JSOTFP), a US-led body, which trains Filipino soldiers against terror, in Barangay Upper Calarian.^[8]

1. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=222681
2. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=30069
3. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=207718
4. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/01/reyes.intelligence.ap/index.html
5. ^ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236199,00.html
6. ^ Jeff Stein: Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda (Congressional Quarterly, 8 December 2006)
7. ^ http://www.elpasotimes.com/search/ci_4990009
8. ^ Inquirer.net, US congressmen visit troops in Mindanao

• U.S. Representative Silvestre Reyes official House site
• Silvestre Reyes at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission — Silvestre Reyes campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — Silvestre Reyes issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Silvestre Reyes campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Representative Silvestre Reyes (TX) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Silvestre Reyes profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Silvestre Reyes voting record
• Silvestre Reyes for U.S. Congress official campaign site

v • d • e Chairs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
Roybal • García • Richardson • Martinez • Torres • Bustamante • Fuster • de la Garza • Ortiz • Serrano • Pastor • Becerra • Roybal-Allard • Reyes • Rodriguez • Napolitano • Baca

This article about a Texas politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.