A frequent visitor to UCLA (which is located in his district), U.S. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) is a seasoned politician who served in municipal and state government in California before being elected to Congress.

UCLA International Institute, May 23, 2022 — Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-CA), who represents California’s 33rd district in the U.S. House of Representatives, will deliver the keynote address at the International Institute’s commencement ceremony in Royce Hall on Saturday, June 11, at 6:30 p.m.

For the first time in three years, the institute’s global studies, international development studies and area studies students will participate in an official ceremony at the time of their graduation. Enthusiasm for in-person commencement ceremonies is running high among graduating Bruins, most of whom spent a year and half taking classes remotely earlier in the pandemic.

Lieu was first elected to Congress in 2014 and took office in January 2015, succeeding Henry Waxman as representative for his district. Like many UCLA students, he is the son of immigrants (from Taiwan) and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where his parents operated gift stores in which he and his brother worked as teenagers.

As a young man, Lieu earned a B.S. in computer science and a B.A. in political science at Stanford University (1991), followed by a J.D. at Georgetown University (1994), where he was editor-in-chief of the law review and won four American Jurisprudence awards. Upon graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Thomas Tang of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The congressman then joined the U.S. Air Force, serving on active duty for four years (1995–1999) in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. He retired in 2021 after serving as a colonel in the USAF Reserve Command.

Now in his fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Lieu is a member of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees. In addition, he is the whip of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, vice chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus and co-chair of the Cloud Computing Caucus. Within the Democratic Party, Lieu also holds the position of co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, to which he has been elected three times by his fellow Democrats.

Lieu is active on environmental, cybersecurity, civil liberties, government ethics, veterans issues and effective government oversight. He has repeatedly sought to pass the Climate Solutions Act in the House, which seeks to make California’s renewable energy and climate emissions reduction goals a national model. Lieu is also founder and co-chair of the California Coastal Caucus.

Following the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Lieu co-authored the Article of Impeachment advanced by the House of Representatives and subsequently served as an impeachment manager for the second Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

Lieu’s expertise in technology — he is only one of only four members of Congress with B.S. in computer science — has made him a valued colleague on issues of cybersecurity, cloud computing and innovation. He is well-known in Congress for his advocacy against ethnic and racial profiling, Asian American hate and anti-LGBT discrimination.

Prior to becoming a Congressman, Lieu served as a Democratic California State Senator (2011–2014), a California State Assemblyman (2005–2010), a member of the Torrance City Council (2002) and an environmental quality commission for the City of Torrance.

Lieu is married and has two sons, Brennan and Austin. He lives with his family in Torrance, where his wife Betty is a member of the Torrance Board of Education and a former California Deputy Attorney General.

Published: Monday, May 23, 2022