Sarbanes Retiring

Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., has announced that he will not run for re-election and will leave the Senate in January 2007 after completing his fifth term.The ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee served six years in the U.S. House of Representatives before winning election to the Senate in 1976. A strong defender of federal housing programs, the senator said he will continue to oppose the Bush administration's "tragic and misguided policies," including its "radical attempt to undermine Social Security," during his remaining 22 months in office. Sen. Sarbanes chaired the Senate Banking Committee in 2001 and 2002. He held extensive hearings on predatory lending in 2001 but never moved a bill out of committee. His biggest impact as a legislator may be on corporate governance and behavior. In response to Enron and other corporate scandals, the Maryland senator authored and pushed legislation through the Senate that became known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.