Chief Deputy Whip Diana DeGette is serving her 6th term in Congress as the representative for the First District of Colorado. As the Vice Chair of the powerful Committee on Energy and Commerce, an exclusive congressional committee with vast jurisdiction over health care, trade, business, technology and consumer protection, she is one of the leading voices in the health care debate in this country. She played a vital role in the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program as the lead whip, has fought for tough food safety legislation, and is a key player in crafting comprehensive a consumer product safety bill.

U.S. Rep. DeGette is also the chief architect of legislation to expand stem cell research, which has been passed twice with broad, bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. The measure was vetoed twice by President George W. Bush - including his very first presidential veto. A life-long Coloradoan, U.S. Rep. DeGette is guided by traditional Western values. She is also the author of the landmark Colorado Wilderness Act, which protects and preserves 1.6 million acres of pristine land across Colorado for generations to come. She has fought to expand her constituents' access to affordable quality health care, expand mass transit, improve transportation in the Denver area, clean up environmental waste sites, and improve opportunities for small business. Finally, committed to common-sense fiscal responsibility, she is working with like-minded Members of Congress to reduce the national deficit.

Her upcoming book "Sex, Science, and Stem Cells: Inside the Right Wing Assault on Reason," will be released nationally in August - just in time for the Democratic National Convention and as the general election begins to heat up. Her book is an insider's expose on the Right Wing's politicization of sex, science and reproductive health. It explores the persistent, ill-conceived, and ultimately even dangerous influence conservatives wield over some of the country's highest-ranking officials over any policy relating to sex and science, including President Bush.