WASHINGTON (TIP): Rep. Ro Khanna was featured on the 2017 Progressive Honor Roll by the Nation Magazine.
Khanna, who represents California’s 17th Congressional District, was chosen as the most valuable house newcomer by The Nation.
“Capitol Hill’s steadiest champion of congressional oversight on war-making, Representative Barbara Lee always needs allies. She got a great one when Khanna arrived in January,” said The Nation.
“Lee’s fellow California Democrat jumped into a leadership post with the Congressional Progressive Caucus (as did two other outstanding newcomers, Washington’s Pramila Jayapal and Maryland’s Jamie Raskin) and emerged as a savvy champion of net neutrality,” it added.
The list honors leaders who “refused to go backward,” and “challenged old orthodoxies.”
According to the magazine, the law-school instructor made his boldest mark as an advocate for the restoration of constitutional checks and balances.
The Nation praised Khanna’s efforts to end the military action in Yemen.
He beat veteran congressman Mike Honda last year in his second attempt after being lost in 2014 by just three points.
Khanna was born in 1975 in Philadelphia to Indian parents who immigrated to the US seeking better opportunities and life for their children.
Khanna took student loans to complete his university studies which, according to him, he is still paying off. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in B.A. Economics from the University of Chicago and received a law degree. He also attended Yale Law School and received his law degree in 2001, with his specialization being intellectual property law.
Khanna has worked with Milpitas Mayor Jose Esteves. He also worked with Santa Clara City Councilwoman Lisa Gillmor, and with environmentalists to stand up to Lehigh Cement Plant and insist that the plant is held to modern day environmental standards.
Former President Barak Obama in 2009 appointed Khanna as the Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Commerce. He has been a proponent of clean technology trade mission, expanding the Green Embassy program, giving an opportunity to US green energy companies to display their products in embassies abroad.
Khanna was also involved in the White House Business Council, maintaining a close relationship between both business and labor in an effort to bring back American manufacturing jobs. American exports grew and he received a letter of commendation from Frank Sanchez, Under Secretary for International Trade, for his services.