Research!America Chair
The Honorable John Edward Porter is a partner in Hogan & Hartson's Washington, DC, office and a member of the firm's Health Practice Group. Porter concentrates his practice on health law and education matters, including administrative and regulatory, international, legislative strategy, and education and health policy.
Prior to joining Hogan and Hartson, Porter served 21 years as Congressman from Illinois' 10th District. In Congress he served on the Appropriations Committee, and as chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education; as vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations; and as vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Construction. Porter has been honored by many organizations for his work to balance the federal budget, protect the environment, promote human rights and secure unprecedented funding increases for biomedical research through the National Institutes of Health.
Porter was founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, a voluntary association of more than 250 Members of Congress working to identify, monitor and end human rights violations worldwide. He sponsored the legislation creating Radio Free Asia. He served as Chairman of the Global Legislators Organized for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE USA), a part of a worldwide network of parliamentarians (GLOBE International) working to coordinate efforts to protect the environment. He also served for 10 years as a member of the Commission on Security and Co-operation in Europe (Helsinki Commission).
Before his election to Congress, Porter served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1973 through 1979. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University. Following service in the U.S. Army, he graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an editor of the law review, and then went on to serve as an Honor Law Graduate Attorney with the U.S. Dept. of Justice during the Kennedy administration. From 1963 to 1980, Porter practiced law in Evanston, Ill.
Porter is a member of a number of other boards, including those of the Rand Corporation, PBS, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, the Kemper Insurance Companies, the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and the Population Resource Center in Princeton, N.J. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Inter-American Dialogue and a trustee emeritus of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.