On March 5, 2002, Lieu was elected to the Torrance City Council alongside Mike Mauno and Pat McIntyre. On April 9, they were sworn in to replace outgoing members Marcia Cribb, Jack Messerlian, and Dan Walker, who had been elected mayor. Lieu served until his election to the state assembly, and was succeeded by Rod Guyton via appointment.[6][7]
Lieu won a September 13, 2005, special election to fill the 53rd Assembly district following the death of incumbent Mike Gordon. Lieu defeated three Republicans, including physician Mary Jo Ford and fellow Torrance city councilman Paul Nowatka.[8]
Lieu was chair of the Assembly Rules Committee. He was a member of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee, Assembly Judiciary Committee and Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee. Lieu was also chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus and chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Aerospace.[10] In 2014 he joined the newly founded Friends of Wales Caucus.
In 2008, in a surprising turn of events in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) English language controversy, Lieu and state senator Leland Yee of San Francisco were able to help rescind the LPGA Tour Commission's suspension-penalty policy for players who failed to learn enough English to speak to sponsors and at award ceremonies. Both officials publicly challenged the legality and galvanized community attention to the LPGA's policy in August 2008 when it was released, which resulted in revision of the policy by the end of 2008.[11][12]
Lieu is a strong supporter of expansion of public transit in West Los Angeles, LAX, and the South Bay.[13]
Lieu coauthored a successful bill to bypass environmental quality regulations to build a football stadium in Los Angeles. The bill was intended to help the efforts of developer Edward P. Roski persuade the National Football League to return to the city, and was controversial among many environmentalists and legislators.[14] Further controversy ensued when it was announced that Roski had given over $500,000 to political campaigns, including $13,000 to Lieu's.[15]
Legislation
As an assemblyman, Lieu authored laws in the areas of public safety, child sex offenders, domestic violence, the environment, education, health care, veterans' issues and transportation.
Some of his legislative actions include the following:
AB 1900 helps prevent convicted child sex offenders from working with children (Chapter 340, Statutes of 2006)[16]
ABx2 7, the California Foreclosure Prevention Act,[17] requires lenders to operate a comprehensive home loan modification program or face a 90-day foreclosure moratorium. This is the first law of its kind in the nation (Chapter 5, Statutes of 2009)
AB 2052 allows a victim of domestic violence to break a rental lease if the victim provides a police report or temporary restraining order to the landlord (Chapter 440, Statutes of 2008)
AB 86 gives school districts the ability to discipline students who engage in cyberbullying (Chapter 646, Statutes of 2008)[18]
AB 800 requires reporting of sewage spills, thereby allowing the local public safety officials to close down beaches and public areas affected by such spills (Chapter 371, Statutes of 2007)[19]
AB 236 mandates the state to prioritize the purchase of fleet cars to enhance fuel efficiency and carbon reduction, and requires alternative-fuel-capable vehicles to use alternative fuels (Chapter 593, Statutes of 2007)[20]
AB 392 requires employers to give spouses of Armed Forces members returning from deployment two weeks of unpaid leave if requested by the spouse (Chapter 361, Statutes of 2007)[21] and
AB 1150 bans health insurance companies from providing financial incentives to their employees for terminating health care coverage of patients (Chapter 188, Statutes of 2008).[22]
Lieu won a February 15, 2011, special election to fill the 28th Senate district following the death of incumbent Jenny Oropeza. He defeated four Republicans, one Democrat, and two independents.[23]
On January 30, 2014, Lieu voted in favor of California Senate Constitutional Amendment 5.[24] The proposed bill asked California voters to repeal provisions of Proposition 209 and permit state universities to consider an applicant's race, ethnicity or national origin in making admissions decisions. After hearing strong opposition to the bill from the Asian-American community, Lieu, along with senators Leland Yee and Carol Liu, who had also voted for the bill, jointly issued a statement on February 27 calling for the bill to be withheld pending further consultations with the "affected communities".[25]
Lieu was the Democratic candidate for the 33rd congressional district, formerly represented by Henry Waxman, who retired in 2014 after 40 years in Congress.[26] The 2010 redistricting placed a portion of Torrance, including Lieu's home, in the 33rd.
Lieu placed second in the June primary, but defeated Republican Elan Carr in the general election. He and Waxman are the only persons to represent this district since its creation in 1974 (it was the 24th from 1975 to 1993, the 29th from 1993 to 2003, the 30th from 2003 to 2013, and has been the 33rd since 2013).
Legislation
Lieu successfully passed three laws in the 114th Congress, securing $35 million in funding to the West Los Angeles VA for seismic retrofits; reauthorizing the Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans; and restoring the Quarterly Financial Report. Lieu also introduced the Climate Solutions Act in the 114th Congress, which aimed to model national energy goals and climate emissions reduction targets after the state of California.[27]
In the 115th Congress, Lieu introduced H.R. 669 – Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, which would prohibit the president from using the Armed Forces to conduct a first-use nuclear strike unless such strike is conducted pursuant to a congressional declaration of war expressly authorizing such strike.[28]
On March 8, 2017, Lieu introduced H.R. 1437 – No Money Bail Act of 2017. The bill proposes eliminating the money bail system for holding suspects in pretrial proceedings.[29]
Lieu received praise from the online privacy community when he introduced bipartisan legislation to prevent states from forcing companies to weaken encryption for law enforcement purposes.[32]
On September 16, 2015, Lieu and Justin Amash introduced a bill[33] to reduce funding for the Drug Enforcement Administration's Cannabis Eradication Program,[34] under which real estate and chattels can be seized if they have been used for marijuana trafficking and abuse.[35]
On November 6, 2017, while the House of Representatives chambers was holding a moment of silence was held for the 26 victims of a church shooting in Texas, Lieu filmed and posted a video message calling for gun law reform. Lieu said, "I’ve been to too many moments of silences. In just my short career in Congress, three of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history have occurred. I will not be silent. What we need is we need action. We need to pass gun safety legislation now."[36]
In 2019, Lieu signed a letter led by Representative Ro Khanna and Senator Rand Paul to President Trump asserting that it is "long past time to rein in the use of force that goes beyond congressional authorization" and that they hoped this would "serve as a model for ending hostilities in the future—in particular, as you and your administration seek a political solution to our involvement in Afghanistan."[40][41]
In December 2019, an attorney for congressman Devin Nunes sent a letter to Lieu threatening to sue over Lieu's comments about Nunes's relationship with Ukrainian-born American businessman Lev Parnas. In response, Lieu wrote, "I welcome any lawsuit from your client and look forward to taking discovery of Congressman Nunes. Or, you can take your letter and shove it."[42]
Lieu voted in favor of three military aid package supplementals for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan respectively in April 2024, along with most Democrats.[45][46][47]
From 2016 to 2018, Lieu made four donations totaling $51,046 from his campaign account to his alma mater, Stanford University.[58] In 2020 Stanford admitted Lieu's eldest son, Brennan.[59]National Review and The Washington Examiner raised questions about the propriety of the donations.[60] An opinion writer for The Examiner noted that other members of Congress have donated to universities and asserted, "Lieu's $50,000 to Stanford is the second-largest contribution on record from an active congressional candidate to a college or university."[61] Former FEC chairman Bradley Smith told the Review that donations to universities from campaign funds were not improper and "It's actually relatively common for congressmen, especially senators who might have big campaign funds built up, to give a bunch of money to their alma mater."[62] In 2012–13, parental donations needed to be at least $500,000 (nearly ten times the amount of Lieu's donations) before a student would appear on the list the Office of Development provided to the Stanford admission office.[63][64]
Political positions
Lieu voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.[65]
In 2012, Lieu authored a bill[70] that bans the provision of sexual orientation change efforts (including conversion therapy) to minors. This bill passed both the State Assembly and Senate with substantial support, and was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in 2012.[71] This made California the first U.S. state to have such a ban. Several other states and the District of Columbia have followed in enacting bans on sexual orientation change efforts with minors.[72] As U.S. representative, Lieu has introduced the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act, a bill for a federal ban on conversion therapy, following statements by President Obama opposing the practice.[73]
Environment
Banning hydrofluoric acid at oil refineries
Lieu supports banning hydrofluoric acid (HF) at oil refineries, where it is often the chemical used for producing the high octane alkylate component of gasoline. He has pointed out the danger of storing the volatile chemical on site at refineries, where explosions are not uncommon, where there are limited safeguards against natural disasters and terrorist incidents, and where many plants already have long histories of limited accidental HF release incidents.[74] A larger release could cause a toxic ground hugging cloud leading to a mass casualty event in the vicinity of the release site.[75]
Immigration
ProPublica recording of crying children separated from their families played by Lieu on the House floor
On June 22, 2018, Lieu played an audio clip of children taken from their parents under the Trump administration family separation policy crying and calling for their parents. Karen Handel, Republican representative from Georgia, who was presiding over the session, called on Lieu to stop playing the clip, citing a rule (House Rule 17) that prohibits persons on the floor of the House from using "a mobile electronic device that impairs decorum."[76] Lieu responded, "Why are we hiding this from the American people? I think the American people need to hear this."[76]
Lieu has been publicly raising concerns over U.S. support for Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. In March 2016 he sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. Lieu wrote in the letter that the "apparent indiscriminate airstrikes on civilian targets in Yemen seem to suggest that either the coalition is grossly negligent in its targeting or is intentionally targeting innocent civilians. ... Some of these strikes look like war crimes to me, and I want to get answers as to why the U.S. appears to be assisting in the execution of war crimes in Yemen."[77]
In April 2017 Lieu again criticized U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabian military campaign in Yemen, highlighting that Al Qaeda in Yemen "has emerged as a de facto ally of the Saudi-led militaries with whom [Trump] administration aims to partner more closely."[78]
In 2015, Lieu called for a Justice Department investigation into the arrests of several Chinese-American scientists for espionage.[79] On February 13, 2018, in a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing focused on Chinese espionage in the United States, Senator Marco Rubio asked FBI director Christopher A. Wray about the risk posed by China's students in advanced science and mathematics programs.[80][81] Lieu criticized Wray's response as "irresponsible generalizations" implying that all Chinese students and scholars were spies.[82]
Artificial Intelligence
In 2023, after the release of ChatGPT, Lieu wrote in the New York Times to call for regulation of artificial intelligence, arguing that "Failure to do so could lead to a future where the risks of AI far outweigh its benefits."[83] Later the same year, Lieu signed an open letter from the Center for AI Safety, which stated "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."[84]
Personal life
Ted Lieu and his family, 2014
Lieu and his wife Betty Lieu (a former California deputy attorney general) reside in Torrance, California, with their two sons, Brennan and Austin.[85] Lieu is Catholic.[86][87]
During the first presidency of Donald Trump, Lieu was known for rebutting Trump's tweets on his personal account, @tedlieu. Lieu said "I just decided that if Donald Trump was going to say 27 crazy, misleading things a week, I am going to point out that he said 27 crazy, misleading things, and to not allow him to get away with it".[88]
^"Open hearing on worldwide threats". U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. February 13, 2018. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2019. Sequence commences at video timestamp 01:15:38.
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