Patricia Schroeder

Patricia Schroeder

Patricia Scott Schroeder is a former Congressmember from Colorado.

Positions held

Former Democratic Party Rep. Patricia Scott Schroeder is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), a post she has held since 1997.

Mrs Schroeder left Congress undefeatedin 1996 after representing Colorado’s First Congressional District (Denver) in the United States House of Representatives for 24 years. For a brief period of time in 1986, she considered running for President but withdrew for lack of funds despite the fact that she ranked third in a Time magazine poll.

From January to June 1997, she held the rank of Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. In addition to heading the AAP, Mrs. Schroeder also serves on the Marguerite Casey Foundation Board of Directors, the American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights Executive Committee and is the Chair of the Council for a Livable World PeacePAC.

Early life

Born in Portland, Oregon in 1940, Mrs. Schroeder graduated magna cum laude in 1961 from the University of Minnesota while working as an insurance claims adjuster to support herself through college. Mrs. Schroeder went on to Harvard Law School. She earned her J.D. in 1964 and moved to Denver, Colorado with her husband, James, who in 1972 encouraged her to challenge an incumbent Republican for the House seat representing Colorado's First Congressional District.

Strong feminists

Patricia Schroeder came to Congress in 1973 when only 16 women (3.2 percent) were in the House of Representatives. Joining the ranks of a small band of strong feminists—including Bella Abzug, Cardiss Collins, Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Holtzman, Barbara Jordan and Patsy Mink—together they carried forth the work of retiring Martha Griffiths, who spearheaded Congress’ passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972. She stayed longer than all of these, except Patsy Mink.

IPS 20th Anniversary Committee

According to Information Digestthe Institute for Policy Studies celebrated its 20th anniversary with an April 5, 1983, reception at the National Building Museum attended by approximately 1,000 IPS staffers and former staff.

The Congressional IPS comittee members included Les Aspin {D. WI}, George Brown, Jr. (D.CA}, Philip Burton (D.CA), George Crockett (D-MI}, Ron Dellums (D.CA}, former Texas Congressman Robert Eckhardt, Don Edwards {D.CA}, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, Tom Harkin {D-IA}, Robert Kastenmeier (D. WI}, Chairman of the Subcomittee on Courts, Civil Liberties and the Administration of Justice, George Miller (D-CA}, Richard Ottinger {D-NY}, Leon Panetta (D-CA}, Henry Reuss (D.WI}, Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, Patricia Schroeder {D.CO}, John Seiberling (D.OH} and Ted Weiss {D.NY}.

Meeting Dorfman

As a briefing paper for the Congress, "Widows" is not of the common mold. Nor is its author, Ariel Dorfman, the standard special-interest pleader. "Widows" is a political novel set in a Greek village in 1940 that describes in polished and unlabored prose the effects on families when husbands, sons and brothers are abducted by a military government and listed as disappeared.

Dorfman is an exiled Chilean writer who fled his homeland in 1973 when his beliefs in human rights and democracy were seen as subversive by the Pinochet dictatorship.

In May 1983, Dorfman, wearing sturdy walking shoes and accompanied by his son, delivered copies of his novel to each senator and representative. A foundation bought 535 of the books from Pantheon, the New York publisher, and Dorfman, going office to office through the Dirksen, Russell, Hart, Cannon and Rayburn buildings, has been a personal delivery service.

Dorfman gave his novel to Congress to help broaden the discussion about the United States' country's involvement with the dictators and the secret polices of Latin America. His claim that the voices of the missing and their relatives are left out of the military aid dialogue is not unfounded.

Dorfman gave the first copies of his book to Reps. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). The two congresswomen, both of whom are bywords for attentiveness to human rights, had come to a lunch in Washington that Dorfman hosted on May 5 for several mothers of the missing. By coincidence, that was the day when thousands of demonstrators marched in the streets of Buenos Aires to protest the military government's report that tried to justify the massive abductions from 1975 and 1979.

After Schroeder praised the mothers for their courage and Mikulski recounted her recent journey to hear the poor's side in Central America, women from Argentina, Chile and El Salvador were asked to tell of their suffering.

Meeting Gorbachev

In Geneva, Switzerland, in November 1985, the late President Ronald Reagan and then-Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, met to hold their first face to face talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, and members of Women for a Meaningful Summit were at the event and participated in a "peace march". Marching were now-Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA).and Bella Abzug 0f New York.

The marchers made their way to the hotel where the summit conference was being held. When they arrived, Bella Abzug greeted a German woman using fluent German. The woman held a seat in the German parliament, and was a member of the German Green Party. Abzug told the woman that she had a “big surprise”: a private meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev. Bella Abzug, Barbara Boxer, Jesse Jackson and Rep. Patricia Schroeder all met with Gorbachev.

Voted against support for "Contras"

The Congressional Record of February 3, 1988 shows that the following leading Democratic Party Congressmen voted against aid to the Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters - the "Contras"- then fighting against the Marxist-Leninist Sandinista government of Nicaragua:

• Les Aspin
• Les AuCoin
• Ed Boland
• David Bonior
• Don Bonker
• Barbara Boxer
• George Brown
• John Conyers
• George Crockett
• Ron Dellums
• Tom Downey
• Mervyn Dymally
• Don Edwards
• Mike Espy
• Barney Frank
• Sam Gejdenson
• Richard Gephardt
• William Gray
• Lee Hamilton
• Charles Hayes
• Robert Kastenmeier
• Joseph Kennedy
• Pete Kostmayer
• James Leach
• Ed Markey
• Nancy Pelosi
• J. J. Pickle
• Charles Rangel
• Peter Rodino
• Dan Rostenkowski
• Gus Savage
• Patricia Schroeder
• Steven Solarz
• Gerry Studds
• Morris Udall
• Ted Weiss
• Howard Wolpe
• Sidney Yates

Colorado Coalition Against Apartheid

Colorado Coalition Against Apartheid, Denver, Colorado, issued a pamphlet circa 1988. .

The brochure was issued as part of a campaign to get the Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) to divest from companies doing business in apartheid South Africa. The brochure says PERA Campaign endorsers are: Sisters of Loretto, Denver Peace & Justice Committee; Bishop Roy Sano, United Methodist Church; Free South Africa Committee, CU-Boulder; Weld County Rainbow Coalition; Colorado AFL-CIO; Bishop William Frey, Episcopal Diocese of Colorado; Rocky Mountain Peace Center; National Namibia Concerns; Amalgamated Transit Workers - Local1563; Church World Service/Crop; The Greater East Denver Ministerial Alliance; New Jewish Agenda; Regis Groff, State Senator; Pikes Peak Justice & Peace Commission, Colorado Springs; Bill Roberts, Denver City Councilman; Norman S. Early, Jr., Denver District Attorney; Mary DeGroot, Denver City Councilwoman; Colorado Muslim Society; Colorado National Lawyers Guild; Justice & Peace Office, Catholic Archdiocese of Denver; Ramona Martinez, Denver City Councilwoman; Urban League of Metropolitan Denver; Richard Castro; Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, Greeley; Colorado Peace Council;United Church of Christ, Rocky Mountain Conference; American Friends Service Committee; Students of Color, IILIFF School of Theology; American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees; Coalition of 100 Black Women; Patricia Schroeder, U.S. Congresswoman; Citizens Action for Peace, Grand Junction; Wellington Webb, Denver City Auditor; Wilma Webb, Colorado State Representative; and Akbarali Thobhani, Director, Institute for Intercultural Studies.

Anti Clarence Thomas delegation

In October 1991 Patricia Schroeder led a delegation of fellow congresswomen, including Louise Slaughter, Barbara Boxer, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Nita Lowey, Patsy Mink and Jolene Unsoeld to the Senate to urge a delay of the vote on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the supreme court.

Writing

Mrs. Schroeder is the author of two books: "Champion of the Great American Family" (Random House, 1989) and "24 Years of House Work...and the Place Is Still a Mess" (Andrews McMeel, 1998).

Public "wants test ban"

April 17, 1986, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy said a poll it commissioned with Opinion Research Corp. of Princeton, N.J., also showed that 60 percent of U.S. citizens believe the United States should halt nuclear weapons testing as long as the Soviet Union stops its tests.

The poll shows beyond a doubt that the vast majority of Americans want President Reagan to stop nuclear testing, especially before any second summit meeting, said David Cortright, executive director of the group.

The poll results were announced as several members of Congress pushed for House consideration of an amendment to cut off money for nuclear weapons testing until the president certifies that the Soviet Union has conducted another test.

The House Rules Committee agreed Thursday to allow consideration of the amendment in conjunction with a $1.7 billion supplemental spending bill scheduled to come up next Tuesday. The committee said debate and amendments to the testing cutoff would be limited to two hours.

What we're trying to do is break the administration's testing habit - cold turkey, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said at a news conference with officials from the anti-nuclear group.

Markey said he and Reps. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., and Tom Downey, D-N.Y., had planned to offer their amendment cutting off nuclear test funds Thursday on the House floor. But their vehicle, the supplemental appropriations bill, was pulled off the floor Wednesday after an unusual parliamentary maneuver.

According to the organization, governors or legislatures in five states - Washington, New York, Hawaii, Ohio and Rhode Island - have adopted test ban resolutions. More than 60 communities in 13 states have passed similar resolutions, the group said, while 25 Nobel laureates signed an April 8 letter to Reagan urging him to stop testing until a summit or until the Soviet Union resumed testing.

SANE also released a nuclear test ban endorsement signed by five former high-ranking government officials including former CIA director William Colby; former arms control negotiator Paul Warnke; former scientific director Jerome Weisner; former deputy secretary of the Air Force Townsend Hoopes; and former deputy assistant defense secretary Adam Yarmolinsky.

Council for a Livable World

As at March 12, 2010, Patricia Schroeder, a Peace PAC Chair served on the board of the Council for a Livable World. The Council was founded in 1962 by nuclear physicist Leo Szilard and other scientists. Its purpose is to campaign against the proliferation of nuclear weapons through lobbying and by supporting candidates who share their vision. She has also been previously supported by the Council.

In response to the news that former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder died March 13 2023, the Council for a Livable World, with which Schroeder was long involved, released the following statement on behalf of Executive Director and former Congressman John Tierney:

“We were saddened to hear the news of former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder’s passing,” said Tierney. “While she was known for being a feminist icon, she was also a great champion for nuclear arms control and non-proliferation issues. She was the first woman to serve on the House Armed Services Committee and used her platform to consistently call for increased arms control and decreased Pentagon spending. Those of us who entered Congress after her remained in her shadow throughout our own service. She was – and is – deeply missed.”

The Council endorsed her numerous times as a staunch advocate of nuclear threat reduction, and in 2007, she was named Chair of its PeacePAC, a fund used to elect Members of Congress who support policies to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear threats. In her time as Chair of the PeacePAC, she oversaw the endorsements of 31 House candidates from both sides of the aisle and led supporters to raise more than $600,000.

Support from socialist Millie Jeffrey

Democratic Socialists of America member Millie Jeffrey was active in the elections of U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and Michigan's first female governor, Jennifer Granholm.

After helping create the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971, Jeffrey became a leader on the Democratic Party committee that ensured that half the delegates to its 1980 convention were women. She helped propel the careers of many women in politics, including the governor of Michigan, Jennifer M. Granholm, a Democrat.

Patricia Schroeder, a former United States representative from Colorado, said, "Millie is the political godmother for many of us."

Vietnam conference

Vietnam - The Power of Protest - Telling the Truth - Learning the Lessons was held Friday and Saturday, May 1-2, in Washington, D.C.

The conference "has a star-studded program of progressive leaders of the past half century": Dolores Huerta, Danny Glover, Daniel Ellsberg, Phil Donahue, former Congresspersons Patricia Schroeder, Ron Dellums and current Reps. Barbara Lee and John Conyers, singer Holly Near, and more.