Dianne Feinstein

Dianne Feinstein
File:Dianne Feinstein congressional portrait.jpg Official portrait, 2000s
United States Senator from California
In office November 4, 1992 – September 28, 2023
Preceded by	John Seymour
Succeeded by	Vacant
Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
In office January 3, 2015 – January 3, 2017
Preceded by	Saxby Chambliss
Succeeded by	Mark Warner
Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
In office January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2015
Preceded by	Jay Rockefeller
Succeeded by	Richard Burr
Chair of the United States Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control
In office January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2015
Preceded by	Joe Biden
Succeeded by	Chuck Grassley
Chair of the Senate Rules Committee
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Trent Lott
Succeeded by	Chuck Schumer
38th Mayor of San Francisco
In office November 27, 1978 – January 8, 1988 Acting: November 27, 1978 – December 4, 1978
Preceded by	George Moscone
Succeeded by	Art Agnos
President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
In office January 9, 1978 – December 4, 1978
Preceded by	Quentin L. Kopp
Succeeded by	John L. Molinari
Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
In office January 8, 1970 – December 4, 1978
Preceded by	William Blake
Succeeded by	Louise Renne
Constituency	At-large district (1970–1978) 2nd district (1978)
Personal details
Born	Dianne Emiel Goldman (1933-06-22)June 22, 1933 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Jack Berman (m. 1956; div. 1959) Bertram Feinstein (m. 1962; d. 1978) Richard C. Blum (m. 1980; d. 2022)
Children	Katherine
Parents	Leon Goldman
Education	Stanford University (BA)
Signature	Dianne Feinstein's signature
Website	Senate website

Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (/ˈfaɪnstaɪn/ FYNE-styne; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933 – September 28, 2023) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from California for 31 years, from 1992 until her death in 2023. Since 1993, she had been the state's senior senator. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.

A San Francisco native, Feinstein graduated from Stanford University in 1955. She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and served as the board's first female president in 1978, during which time the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk drew national attention. Feinstein succeeded Moscone as mayor and became the first woman to serve in that position. During her tenure, she led the renovation of the city's cable car system and oversaw the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Despite a recall attempt in 1983, Feinstein was a popular mayor and was named the most effective mayor in the country by City & State in 1987.

After losing a race for governor in 1990, Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 1992 special election. In November 1992, she became California's first female U.S. senator; shortly after, she became the state's senior senator after Alan Cranston retired in January 1993. Feinstein has been reelected five times. In the 2012 election, she received 7.86 million votes, the most popular votes received by any U.S. Senate candidate in history.

Feinstein authored the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. She was the first woman to have chaired the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee and the first woman to have presided over a U.S. presidential inauguration. Feinstein chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2009 to 2015 and was the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2017 to 2021. Aged 90, she was the oldest sitting U.S. senator and member of Congress. She was also the longest-serving U.S. senator from California, the longest-tenured female senator in history, and the senior Democratic member of the Senate. In February 2023, Feinstein announced she would not seek reelection in 2024. During her final years in office, as she grew older and her health declined, there were concerns about her mental acuity and fitness to serve.

Feinstein died on September 28, 2023, at the age of 90.

Early life and education

Feinstein was born Dianne Emiel Goldman in San Francisco to Leon Goldman, a surgeon; and his wife Betty (née Rosenburg), a former model. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Her maternal grandparents, the Rosenburgs, were from Saint Petersburg, Russia. While they were of German-Jewish ancestry, they practiced the Russian Orthodox (Christian) faith, as was required for Jews in Saint Petersburg. Christianity was passed down to Feinstein's mother, who insisted on her transferral from a Jewish day school to a prestigious local Catholic school, but Feinstein lists her religion as Judaism.

She graduated from Convent of the Sacred Heart High School in 1951 and from Stanford University in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. According to multiple sources, Feinstein's mother was abusive. Feinstein's sister, Yvonne Banks, said their mother had unpredictable moods. Later, Feinstein's mother received a brain scan that found that the part of her brain responsible for "judgment" had atrophied, "possibly because of complications from a severe illness as a child".

Early political career

Feinstein in the late 1970s. (Future husband Richard C. Blum is standing behind her.)

Feinstein was a fellow at the Coro Foundation in San Francisco from 1955 to 1956. Governor Pat Brown appointed her to the California Women's Parole Board in 1960. She served on the board until 1966.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors and assassination attempt

Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969. She remained on the board for nine years.

During her tenure on the Board of Supervisors, she unsuccessfully ran for mayor of San Francisco twice, in 1971 against Mayor Joseph Alioto, and in 1975, when she lost the contest for a runoff slot (against George Moscone) by one percentage point to Supervisor John Barbagelata.

Because of her position, Feinstein became a target of the New World Liberation Front, an anti-capitalist terrorist group that carried out bombings in California in the 1970s. In 1976 the NWLF placed a bomb on the windowsill of her home that failed to explode. The group later shot out the windows of a beach house she owned.

Feinstein was elected president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978.

Mayor of San Francisco

Main article: Mayoralty of Dianne Feinstein

Feinstein riding a cable car in San Francisco during her tenure as mayor, c.1978–1988

On November 27, 1978, Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White. Feinstein became acting mayor as she was president of the Board of Supervisors. Supervisors John Molinari, Ella Hill Hutch, Ron Pelosi, Robert Gonzales, and Gordon Lau endorsed Feinstein for an appointment as mayor by the Board of Supervisors. Gonzales initially ran to be appointed by the Board of Supervisors as mayor, but dropped out. The Board of Supervisors voted six to two to appoint Feinstein as mayor. She was inaugurated by Chief Justice Rose Bird of the Supreme Court of California on December 4, 1978, becoming San Francisco's first female mayor. Molinari was selected to replace Feinstein as president of the Board of Supervisors by a vote of eight to two.

One of Feinstein's first challenges as mayor was the state of the San Francisco cable car system, which was shut down for emergency repairs in 1979; an engineering study concluded that it needed comprehensive rebuilding at a cost of $60 million. Feinstein helped win federal funding for the bulk of the work. The system closed for rebuilding in 1982 and it was completed just in time for the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Feinstein also oversaw policies to increase the number of high-rise buildings in San Francisco.

Feinstein was seen as a relatively moderate Democrat in one of the country's most liberal cities. As a supervisor, she was considered part of the centrist bloc that included White and generally opposed Moscone. As mayor, Feinstein angered the city's large gay community by vetoing domestic partner legislation in 1982. In the 1980 presidential election, while a majority of Bay Area Democrats continued to support Senator Ted Kennedy's primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter even after it was clear Kennedy could not win, Feinstein strongly supported the Carter–Mondale ticket. She was given a high-profile speaking role on the opening night of the August Democratic National Convention, urging delegates to reject the Kennedy delegates' proposal to "open" the convention, thereby allowing delegates to ignore their states' popular vote, a proposal that was soundly defeated.

In the run-up to the 1984 Democratic National Convention, there was considerable media and public speculation that Mondale might pick Feinstein as his running mate. He chose Geraldine Ferraro instead. Also in 1984, Feinstein proposed banning handguns in San Francisco, and became subject to a recall attempt organized by the White Panther Party. She won the recall election and finished her second term as mayor on January 8, 1988.

Feinstein revealed sensitive details about the hunt for serial killer Richard Ramirez at a 1985 press conference, antagonizing detectives by publicizing details of his crimes known only to law enforcement, and thus jeopardizing their investigation.

City & State magazine named Feinstein the nation's "Most Effective Mayor" in 1987. She was a member of the Trilateral Commission in 1988.

Gubernatorial election

Feinstein made an unsuccessful bid for governor of California in 1990. She won the Democratic Party's nomination, but lost the general election to Republican Senator Pete Wilson, who resigned from the Senate to assume the governorship. In 1992, Feinstein was fined $190,000 for failure to properly report campaign contributions and expenditures in that campaign.

U.S. Senate

Official senate portrait, 2004

Elections

See also: 1992 United States Senate special election in California, 2012 United States Senate election in California, and 2018 United States Senate election in California

In 1991, Wilson resigned from the Senate to take office as governor of California. Feinstein ran for U.S. Senate in a 1992 special election to complete Wilson's unexpired term. In the Democratic primary, she defeated California State Controller Gray Davis and Joseph Alioto. In November, she faced Republican John Seymour, whom Wilson had appointed to the Senate the previous year. Feinstein won the November 3 special election, 54.3%-38%.

Like Feinstein, Barbara Boxer was first elected to the Senate on November 3, 1992. Because Feinstein was elected to complete an unexpired term, she was sworn in as a senator in November 1992, while Boxer did not take office until January 1993; therefore, Feinstein became California's senior senator. Feinstein also became the first female Jewish U.S. senator, though Boxer is also Jewish. Feinstein and Boxer were also the first female pair of U.S. senators to represent any state at the same time.

Feinstein was reelected in 1994, 2000, 2006, and 2012.

In October 2017, Feinstein declared her intention to run for reelection in 2018. She lost the endorsement of the California Democratic Party's executive board, which opted to support State Senator Kevin de León. Nevertheless, Feinstein finished first in the state's "jungle primary" and was reelected in the November 6 general election, defeating de Leon, 54.2%-45.8%.

In February 2023, Feinstein announced that she would not seek reelection in 2024.

Tenure

Feinstein has been described as "a titan of US political history who notched countless legislative achievements" in her Senate career. She was known for her work on gun control issues. In 1994, she spearheaded the passage of a federal assault weapons ban. In the 2000s and 2010s, she investigated "the Central Intelligence Agency’s program of detention and interrogation after the Sept. 11 attacks".

In 2009, Feinstein chaired the first inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama. Feinstein is the first woman to have chaired the Senate Rules Committee (2007–2009) and the first woman to have chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence (2009–2015). Feinstein became the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, and is the first woman to hold that position. On March 28, 2021, she became the longest-serving U.S. senator from California in history, surpassing Hiram Johnson. On November 5, 2022, Feinstein became the longest-serving female senator in U.S. history.

In the fall of 2020, media reports indicated that Feinstein was experiencing cognitive decline and short-term memory loss. Feinstein responded that there was no cause for concern and that she had no plans to leave the Senate.

After her performance at Amy Coney Barrett's October 2020 Supreme Court nomination hearings was criticized, Feinstein announced that she would not seek to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee or serve as its ranking member in 2021. Articles in The New Yorker and The New York Times cited unnamed Democratic senators and aides expressing concern over her age and ability to lead the committee. In mid-2022, NPR and other outlets ran a series of stories questioning Feinstein's cognition. On October 22, 2022, Feinstein said that due to family matters, she was not interested in serving as president pro tempore in 2023; the position is traditionally held by the senior member of the Senate's majority party.

In February 2023, Feinstein announced that she would not seek reelection in 2024 and that she intended to retire upon the completion of her term.

File:Dianne Feinstein 2023.png

Feinstein in June 2023

On March 2, 2023, Feinstein announced that she had been diagnosed with shingles during the Senate's February recess. She added that she had been hospitalized, that she was receiving treatment in San Francisco, and that she expected to make a full recovery. In April 2023, media outlets, including the San Francisco Chronicle, reported that she had missed over 50 Senate votes. Feinstein's absence, combined with the absence of Senator John Fetterman, effectively stalled many of the Biden administration's judicial and executive nominees. Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN that Feinstein's absences were slowing down the committee, which was evenly split between Democrats and Republicans without her. Representatives Ro Khanna, Dean Phillips, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly urged Feinstein to resign. Feinstein requested temporary removal from the Judiciary Committee, but resisted calls to resign. On April 21, 2023, a group of progressive California organizations requested Feinstein's resignation. On May 5, The New York Times editorial board asserted that Feinstein should resign if she "cannot fulfill her obligations to the Senate and to her constituents". On May 18, the Times reported that her shingles infection had led to complications. Those complications included encephalitis, which caused swelling in her brain, and Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which caused paralysis on the left side of her face and problems with her balance and eyesight.

Feinstein returned to the Senate on May 10, 2023, amid continuing concern about her capacity to serve.

Committee assignments

Feinstein is the first woman to have chaired the Senate Rules Committee (2007–2009) and the first woman to have chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence (2009–2015). Feinstein became the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, and is the first woman to hold that position. Her committee assignments for the 118th Congress are as follows:

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Defense
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development (Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on the Constitution (Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism
  • Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights
  • Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law
• Committee on Rules and Administration
• Select Committee on Intelligence

She previously sat on the Foreign Relations committee (104th Congress) and Energy and Natural Resources committee (107th–109th Congress)

Caucus memberships

• Afterschool Caucuses
• Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus
• Senate New Democrat Coalition (defunct)

Political positions

Main article: Political positions of Dianne Feinstein

File:GW. Bush shakes hands with A. Schwarzenegger, Oct. 25, 2007.jpg

Feinstein with President George W. Bush and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, October 25, 2007

In 2018, the Los Angeles Times wrote that Feinstein had emphasized her centrism when she first ran for statewide offices in the 1990s (when California was more conservative than it became during Feinstein's later career). Over time, she moved leftward as California became one of the most Democratic states in the nation. In 2013, The New York Times called her a "liberal lioness". Feinstein is known for her advocacy for gun control, abortion access, environmental protection, and a strong national defense.

Abortion

Feinstein has supported abortion rights during her Senate career. In 2003, she voted against a proposal to ban a method of abortion referred to as partial-birth abortion. After the Supreme Court ruled against abortion rights in 2022, Feinstein called for congressional action to protect abortion rights and stated her support for lifting the Senate filibuster rule to allow such legislation to pass with a simple majority.

Capital punishment

Feinstein during the
108th Congress

When Feinstein first ran for statewide office in 1990, she favored capital punishment. In 2004, she called for the death penalty in the case of San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza, who was killed while on duty. By 2018, she opposed capital punishment.

Energy and environment

Feinstein co-sponsored (with Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn) an amendment through the Senate to the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011 that eliminated the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. The Senate passed the amendment on June 16, 2011. Introduced in 2004, the subsidy provided a 45-cent-per-gallon credit on pure ethanol, and a 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. These subsidies had resulted in an annual expenditure of $6 billion.

In February 2019, when youth associated with the Sunrise Movement confronted Feinstein about why she does not support the Green New Deal, she told them "there's no way to pay for it" and that it could not pass a Republican-controlled Senate. In a tweet following the confrontation, Feinstein said that she remains committed "to enact real, meaningful climate change legislation."

Foreign policy

China

Feinstein supported a conciliatory approach between China and Taiwan and fostered increased dialogue between high-level Chinese representatives and U.S. senators during her first term as senator. When asked about her relation with Beijing, Feinstein said, "I sometimes say that in my last life maybe I was Chinese."

Feinstein criticized Beijing's missile tests near Taiwan and called for dismantlement of missiles pointed at the island. She promoted stronger business ties between China and Taiwan over confrontation, and suggested that the U.S. patiently "use two-way trade across Taiwan Strait as a platform for more political dialogue and closer ties".

She believed that deeper cross-strait economic integration "will one day lead to political integration and will ultimately provide the solution" to the Taiwan issue.

On July 27, 2018, reports surfaced that a Chinese staff member who worked for 20 years as Feinstein's personal driver, gofer and liaison to the Asian-American community was caught reporting to China's Ministry of State Security. According to the reports, the FBI had contacted Feinstein five years earlier warning her about the employee. The employee was later interviewed by authorities and forced to retire by Feinstein. No criminal charges were filed against him.

Iran

Feinstein supported the Iran nuclear deal framework in July 2015, saying that it would usher in "unprecedented & intrusive inspections to verify cooperation" by Iran.

On June 7, 2017, Feinstein and Senator Bernie Sanders issued dual statements urging the Senate to forgo a vote for sanctions on Iran in response to the Tehran attacks that occurred earlier in the day.

In July 2017, Feinstein voted for the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that grouped together sanctions against Iran, Russia and North Korea.

Israel

In September 2016—in advance of UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories—Feinstein signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel.

Feinstein opposed President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying, "Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital—or relocating our embassy to Jerusalem—will spark violence and embolden extremists on both sides of the debate."

North Korea

Feinstein in 2010

During a July 2017 appearance on Face the Nation after North Korea conducted a second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, Feinstein said the country had proven itself a danger to the U.S. She also expressed her disappointment with China's lack of response.

Responding to reports that North Korea had achieved successful miniaturization of nuclear warheads, Feinstein issued an August 8, 2017, statement insisting that isolation of North Korea had proven ineffective and that Trump's rhetoric was not helping resolve potential conflict. She also called for the U.S. to "quickly engage North Korea in a high-level dialogue without any preconditions".

In September 2017, after Trump's first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, in which he threatened North Korea, Feinstein released a statement disagreeing with his remarks: "Trump's bombastic threat to destroy North Korea and his refusal to present any positive pathways forward on the many global challenges we face are severe disappointments."

Gun control

File:Brown, Feinstein, Newsome.JPG

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown (left) with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (middle) and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (right) in 2007

Feinstein introduced the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which became law in 1994 and expired in 2004. In January 2013, about a month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, she and Representative Carolyn McCarthy proposed a bill that would "ban the sale, transfer, manufacturing or importation of 150 specific firearms including semiautomatic rifles or pistols that can be used with a detachable or fixed ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and have specific military-style features, including pistol grips, grenade launchers or rocket launchers". The bill would have exempted 900 models of guns used for sport and hunting. Feinstein said of the bill, "The common thread in each of these shootings is the gunman used a semi-automatic assault weapon or large-capacity ammunition magazines. Military assault weapons only have one purpose, and in my opinion, it's for the military." The bill failed on a Senate vote of 60 to 40.

Health care

Feinstein supported the Affordable Care Act, repeatedly voting to defeat initiatives aimed against it. She has voted to regulate tobacco as a drug; expand the Children's Health Insurance Program; override the president's veto of adding 2 to 4 million children to SCHIP eligibility; increase Medicaid rebate for producing generic drugs; negotiate bulk purchases for Medicare prescription drugs; allow re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada; allow patients to sue HMOs and collect punitive damages; cover prescription drugs under Medicare, and means-test Medicare. She has voted against the Paul Ryan Budget's Medicare choice, tax and spending cuts; and allowing tribal Indians to opt out of federal healthcare. Feinstein's congressional voting record was rated as 88% by the American Public Health Association (APHA), the figure ostensibly reflecting the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.

At an April 2017 town hall meeting in San Francisco, Feinstein was booed when she stated that she did not support a proposal for single-payer health insurance. Feinstein said, "[i]f single-payer health care is going to mean the complete takeover by the government of all health care, I am not there." During a news conference at the University of California, San Diego in July 2017, she estimated that Democratic opposition would prove sufficient to defeat Republican attempts to repeal the ACA. Feinstein wrote in an August 2017 op-ed that Trump could secure health-care reform if he compromised with Democrats: "We now know that such a closed process on a major issue like health care doesn't work. The only path forward is a transparent process that allows every senator to bring their ideas to the table."

Immigration

In September 2017, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Feinstein admitted the legality of the program was questionable while citing this as a reason for why a law should be passed. In her opening remarks at a January 2018 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, she said she was concerned the Trump administration's decision to terminate temporary protected status might be racially motivated, based on comments Trump made denigrating African countries, Haiti, and El Salvador.

Marijuana

Feinstein opposed a number of reforms to cannabis laws at the state and federal level. In 2016 she opposed Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, to legalize recreational cannabis in California. In 1996 she opposed Proposition 215 to legalize the medical use of cannabis in California. In 2015 she was the only Democrat at a Senate hearing to vote against the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment, legislation that limits the enforcement of federal law in states that have legalized medical cannabis. Feinstein cited her belief that cannabis is a gateway drug in voting against the amendment.

In 2018, Feinstein softened her views on marijuana and cosponsored the STATES Act, legislation that would protect states from federal interference regarding both medical and recreational use. She also supported legislation in 2015 to allow medical cannabis to be recommended to veterans in states where its use is legal.

Marriage

In 1996, Feinstein voted against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage as an opposite-sex union for purposes of federal law. In 2011, she introduced a bill to repeal DOMA. In 2022, she co-sponsored the Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed DOMA and required the federal government and all state governments to recognize same-sex marriages and interracial marriages.

Military and national security

While delivering the commencement address at Stanford Stadium on June 13, 1994, Feinstein said:

It is time for a rational plan for defense conversion instead of the random closing of bases and the piecemeal cancellation of defense contracts. Otherwise, we risk losing, for both state and nation, the greatest resources of scientific, technical and human capital ever gathered together in human history.

In 2017, she criticized the banning of transgender enlistments in the military under the Trump administration.

Feinstein voted for Trump's $675-billion defense budget bill for FY 2019.

Feinstein has been described as having a "hawkish" stance on matters of national security.

Feinstein voted for the extension of the Patriot Act and the FISA provisions in 2012.

Mass surveillance; citizens' privacy

Feinstein co-sponsored PIPA on May 12, 2011. She met with representatives of technology companies, including Google and Facebook, in January 2012. A Feinstein spokesperson said she "is doing all she can to ensure that the bill is balanced and protects the intellectual property concerns of the content community without unfairly burdening legitimate businesses such as Internet search engines".

Following her 2012 vote to extend the Patriot Act and the FISA provisions, and after the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures involving the National Security Agency (NSA), Feinstein promoted and supported measures to continue the information collection programs. Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss also defended the NSA's request to Verizon for all the metadata about phone calls made within the U.S. and from the U.S. to other countries. They said the information gathered by intelligence on the phone communications is used to connect phone lines to terrorists and that it did not contain the content of the phone calls or messages. Foreign Policy wrote that she had a "reputation as a staunch defender of NSA practices and [of] the White House's refusal to stand by collection activities targeting foreign leaders".

In October 2013, Feinstein criticized the NSA for monitoring telephone calls of foreign leaders friendly to the U.S. In November 2013, she promoted the FISA Improvements Act bill, which included a "backdoor search provision" that allows intelligence agencies to continue certain warrantless searches as long as they are logged and "available for review" to various agencies.

In June 2013, Feinstein called Edward Snowden a "traitor" after his leaks went public. In October 2013, she said she stood by that.

While praising the NSA, Feinstein had accused the CIA of snooping and removing files through Congress members' computers, saying, "[t]he CIA did not ask the committee or its staff if the committee had access to the internal review or how we obtained it. Instead, the CIA just went and searched the committee's computer." She claimed the "CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution".

After the 2016 FBI–Apple encryption dispute, Feinstein and Richard Burr sponsored a bill that would likely have criminalized all forms of strong encryption in electronic communication between citizens. The bill would have required technology companies to design their encryption so that they can provide law enforcement with user data in an "intelligible format" when required to do so by court order.

In 2020, Feinstein co sponsored the EARN IT Act, which seeks to create a 19-member committee to decide a list of best practices websites must follow to be protected by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The EARN IT Act effectively outlaws end-to-end encryption, depriving the world of secure, private communications tools.

Presidential politics

During the 1980 presidential election, Feinstein served on President Jimmy Carter's steering committee in California and as a Carter delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She was selected to serve as one of the four chairs of the 1980 Democratic National Convention.

Feinstein endorsed former Vice President Walter Mondale during the 1984 presidential election. She and Democratic National Committee chairman Charles Manatt signed a contract in 1983, making San Francisco the host of the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

As a superdelegate in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, Feinstein said she would support Clinton for the nomination. But after Barack Obama became the presumptive nominee, she fully backed his candidacy. Days after Obama amassed enough delegates to win the nomination, Feinstein lent her Washington, D.C., home to Clinton and Obama for a private one-on-one meeting. She did not attend the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver because she had fallen and broken her ankle earlier in the month.

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Feinstein (white coat) and Kamala Harris in 2017

Feinstein chaired the United States Congress Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and acted as mistress of ceremonies, introducing each participant at the 2009 presidential inauguration. She was the first woman to have presided over a U.S. presidential inauguration.

Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Feinstein was one of 16 female Democratic senators to sign an October 20, 2013, letter endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.

At an August 29, 2017 event in San Francisco, Feinstein expressed hope that Trump could become a good president. "The question is whether he can learn and change", she said. "If so, I believe he can be a good president". The next day, Feinstein released a clarifying statement: "I’ve been strongly critical of President Trump when I disagree on policy and with his behavior... While I’m under no illusion that it’s likely to happen and will continue to oppose his policies, I want President Trump to change for the good of the country".

On January 9, 2018, Feinstein caused a stir when, as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she released a transcript of its August 2017 interview with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson about the dossier regarding connections between Trump's campaign and the Russian government. She did this unilaterally after the committee's chairman, Chuck Grassley, refused to release the transcript.

As the 2020 presidential election approached, Feinstein indicated her support for former Vice President Joe Biden. This came as a surprise to many pundits, due to the potential candidacy of fellow U.S. Senator from California Kamala Harris, of whom Feinstein said "I'm a big fan of Sen. Harris, and I work with her. But she's brand-new here, so it takes a little bit of time to get to know somebody."

Supreme Court nominations

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President Barack Obama signs the New START in the Oval Office, February 2, 2011. Feinstein is standing fourth from right.

In September 2005, Feinstein was one of five Democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote against Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, saying that Roberts had "failed to state his positions on such social controversies as abortion and the right to die".

In January 2006, Feinstein said she would vote against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, but expressed disapproval of a filibuster: "When it comes to filibustering a Supreme Court appointment, you really have to have something out there, whether it's gross moral turpitude or something that comes to the surface. This is a man I might disagree with, [but] that doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the court."

On July 12, 2009, Feinstein said the Senate would confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, praising her for her experience and for overcoming "adversity and disadvantage".

After President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in March 2016, Feinstein met with Garland on April 6 and later called on Republicans to do "this institution the credit of sitting down and meeting with him".

In February 2017, Feinstein requested that Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch provide information on cases in which he had assisted with decision-making. In mid-March, she sent him a letter saying her request had not been met. Feinstein stated her opposition to Gorsuch's nomination on April 3.

After Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court, Feinstein received a July 30, 2018, letter from Christine Blasey Ford in which Ford accused Kavanaugh of having sexually assaulted her in the 1980s. Ford requested that her allegation be kept confidential. Feinstein did not refer the allegation to the FBI until September 14, 2018, after the Senate Judiciary Committee had completed its hearings on Kavanaugh's nomination and "after leaks to the media about [the Ford allegation] had reached a 'fever pitch'". She faced "sharp scrutiny" for her decision to keep quiet about the Ford allegation for several weeks; she responded that she kept the letter and Ford's identity confidential because Ford had requested it. Feinstein opposed Kavanaugh's nomination. After an additional hearing and a supplemental FBI investigation, Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court on October 6, 2018.

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Feinstein with President Donald Trump, John Cornyn, and Marco Rubio to discuss school and community safety in the Cabinet Room at the White House, February 28, 2018

In the fall of 2020, in her capacity as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Feinstein participated the confirmation hearings for President Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Shortly before the 2020 presidential election, Barrett was nominated to the Court following Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, and the nomination was intensely controversial. Feinstein opposed Barrett's nomination, but at the conclusion of the hearings, she hugged Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, saying, "this has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in". Outraged progressives responded by calling for Feinstein to step down from her leadership role on the committee. Barrett was confirmed to the Court. After the hearings, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he had had a "long and serious" talk with Feinstein. After the 2020 election, Feinstein announced that she would not seek to serve as chair or as ranking member of the Judiciary Committee in 2021.

Torture

Feinstein served on the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, her time on the committee coinciding with the Senate Report on Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq and the debates on the torture/"enhanced interrogation" of terrorists and alleged terrorists. On the Senate floor on December 9, 2014, the day parts of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture were released to the public, Feinstein called the government's detention and interrogation program a "stain on our values and on our history".

Awards and honors

Feinstein was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Golden Gate University in San Francisco on June 4, 1977. She was awarded the Legion of Honour by France in 1984. Feinstein received with the Woodrow Wilson Award for public service from the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution on November 3, 2001, in Los Angeles. In 2002, Feinstein won the American Medical Association's Nathan Davis Award for "the Betterment of the Public Health". She was named as one of The Forward 50 in 2015.

Personal life

Feinstein was married three times. She married Jack Berman (d. 2002), who was then working in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, in 1956. She and Berman divorced three years later. Their daughter, Katherine Feinstein Mariano (b. 1957), was the presiding judge of the San Francisco Superior Court for 12 years, through 2012. In 1962, shortly after beginning her career in politics, Feinstein married her second husband, neurosurgeon Bertram Feinstein, who died of colon cancer in 1978. Feinstein was then married to investment banker Richard C. Blum from 1980 until his death from cancer in 2022.

In 2003, Feinstein was ranked the fifth-wealthiest senator, with an estimated net worth of $26 million. Her net worth increased to between $43 and $99 million by 2005. Her 347-page financial-disclosure statement, characterized by the San Francisco Chronicle as "nearly the size of a phone book", claimed to draw clear lines between her assets and her husband's, with many of her assets in blind trusts.

On July 17, 2023, Feinstein ceded power of attorney to her daughter, Katherine.

Health

Feinstein had an artificial cardiac pacemaker inserted at George Washington University Hospital in January 2017.

On May 2, 2022, The New York Times reported that Feinstein had been struggling to remember her colleagues' names, meetings she had attended, and phone calls she had received.

In March 2023, Feinstein was diagnosed with shingles and hospitalized. On May 18, the Times reported that her shingles infection led to complications. Those complications included encephalitis, which caused swelling in her brain, and Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which caused paralysis on the left side of her face and problems with her balance and eyesight. Health issues relating to the shingles diagnosis necessitated Feinstein's absence from the Senate.

On May 17, 2023, when she returned to Congress, Feinstein told reporters she had not been away from her office when asked about her three-month absence.

On August 8, 2023, Feinstein was hospitalized after falling at her home in San Francisco. A spokesperson said it was "a minor fall" and Feinstein was subsequently cleared to return home.

Death

Feinstein died on September 28, 2023, at the age of 90.

In mass media

The 2019 film The Report, about the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the CIA's use of torture, extensively features Feinstein, portrayed by Annette Bening.

Electoral history

Main article: Electoral history of Dianne Feinstein

See also

• Rosalind Wiener Wyman, co-chair of Feinstein political campaigns
• Women in the United States Senate
• 2020 congressional insider trading scandal

Additional sources

• Roberts, Jerry (1994). Dianne Feinstein: Never Let Them See You Cry, Harpercollins. ISBN 0-06-258508-8
• Talbot, David (2012). Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love, New York: Simon and Schuster. 480 p. ISBN 978-1-4391-0821-5.

External links

• Senator Dianne Feinstein official U.S. Senate website
• Campaign website
• Dianne Feinstein at DMOZ
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress

Statements

• Op-ed archives at Project Syndicate
• Dianne Feinstein's Opening Remarks at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration at AmericanRhetoric.com, video, audio and text

Political offices
Preceded by George Moscone	Mayor of San Francisco 1978–1988	Succeeded by Art Agnos
Party political offices
Preceded by Tom Bradley	Democratic nominee for Governor of California 1990	Succeeded by Kathleen Brown
Preceded by Leo McCarthy	Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from California (Class 1) 1992, 1994, 2000, 2006, 2012	Most recent
United States Senate
Preceded by John Seymour	U.S. Senator (Class 1) from California 1992–present Served alongside: Alan Cranston, Barbara Boxer, Kamala Harris	Incumbent
Preceded by Vern Ehlers	Chair of the Joint Library Committee 2007–2009	Succeeded by Bob Brady
Preceded by Trent Lott	Chair of the Senate Rules Committee 2007–2009	Succeeded by Chuck Schumer
	Chair of the Joint Inaugural Ceremonies Committee 2008–2009
Preceded by Jay Rockefeller	Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee 2009–2015	Succeeded by Richard Burr
Preceded by Joe Biden	Chair of the Senate Narcotics Caucus 2009–2015	Succeeded by Chuck Grassley
Preceded by Saxby Chambliss	Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee 2015–2017	Succeeded by Mark Warner
Preceded by Chuck Grassley	Ranking Member of the Senate Narcotics Caucus 2015–present	Incumbent
Preceded by Patrick Leahy	Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee 2017–present
United States order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by John McCain	United States Senators by seniority 7th	Succeeded by Patty Murray