Representative Zoe Lofgren

Zoe Lofgren is serving her thirteenth term in Congress representing the 19th District of California, based in the “Capital of Silicon Valley,” San Jose, and the Santa Clara Valley. A lifelong Bay Area resident and the daughter of a truck driver and a cafeteria cook, Zoe attended public primary and secondary schools, Stanford University, and the Santa Clara University School of Law. Prior to being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, she served as a member of Congressman Don Edwards’ staff, she practiced and taught immigration law, and she served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Zoe is the elected Chair of the 45-member California Democratic Congressional Delegation and is the Chair of the Committee on House Administration. She also serves as the Chair of the House Judiciary Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee, and as a Member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Zoe is known for her work on patent reform, copyright issues, digital rights, privacy, and net neutrality. She successfully fought to initiate the “e-rate” that provides affordable internet access for schools, libraries, and rural health centers, and she led a bipartisan effort in the House to decontrol encryption technology. A staunch advocate for digital rights, Zoe was the lead early opponent of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and led a successful fight to stop the bill in the House Judiciary Committee. In 2014, Zoe successfully spearheaded a bipartisan effort to close backdoor loopholes on unwarranted government surveillance, and in early 2020, she led bicameral reform efforts to protect Americans’ civil liberties during FISA reauthorization negotiations. In the 116th Congress, along with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, Zoe introduced the 132-page Online Privacy Act, sweeping legislation that creates user rights, places obligations on companies to protect users’ data, establishes a new federal agency to enforce privacy protections, and strengthens enforcement of privacy law violations. Zoe served as a House Manager in the 2020 impeachment trial of Donald Trump and is the first woman in U.S. history to ever present a presidential case to the Senate. She is also the only Member of Congress to have participated as part of the Judiciary Committee in all three modern impeachment proceedings. Zoe is married to John Marshall Collins, is the mother of two, and the grandmother of two.