Barney Frank

Barney Frank is a former politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. A Democrat, Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011. Frank was known as a superb legislator and a pragmatic politician whose sharp intellect and sense of humor made him one of the most influential and colorful figures in Washington. He is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States during his time in Congress.

After graduating from Harvard and Harvard Law, Frank began working as a political aide before winning election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1972. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 with 52 percent of the vote and was re-elected every term thereafter by wide margins. In 1987, Frank became the first member of Congress to come out as gay voluntarily, and in 2012, he married his longtime partner, becoming the first congressman in a same-sex marriage while in office. Frank's autobiography, "A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage," was published in 2015.

As chair of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011, Frank was instrumental in crafting a compromise bill to stem the tide of home mortgage foreclosures, as well as the subsequent $550 billion rescue plan. He worked to adopt a sweeping set of financial regulations aimed at preventing a recurrence of this crisis and was a key author of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the regulatory overhaul signed into law in July 2010.

While in Congress, Frank worked to adjust America's spending priorities to reduce the deficit and provide less funding for the military and more for important quality-of-life needs at home. In particular, he focused on providing aid to local communities and building and preserving affordable rental housing for low-income people. He has also been a leader in the fight against discrimination of various sorts. He championed the interests of the poor, the underprivileged, and the vulnerable.