Congressman Alan Grayson is a Democrat serving Florida’s 9th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was sworn in to office on January 3, 2013. Congressman Grayson serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as the Science and Technology Committee. Alan previously represented Florida’s 8th District in the 111th Congress. During his first term, he served on the Financial Services and the Science and Technology Committees, as well as the Subcommittees on Capital Markets and on Oversight and Investigations.
Alan currently serves on two House Committees: Foreign Affairs and Science, Space, and Technology. For the Foreign Affairs Committee, Alan serves on the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee and the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee. For Science, Space, and Technology, Alan serves on the Energy and Environment Subcommittees.
Alan grew up in public housing in the Bronx. His parents, a public school teacher and a principal, instilled in him a lifelong passion for learning. Alan graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree with high honors from Harvard in only three years. While working his way through college as a janitor and a night watchman, Alan graduated in the top two percent of his class. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Alan worked as an economist for two years following graduation. He then decided to continue his education, returning to Harvard to pursue a law degree. Alan simultaneously received a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School and a Masters of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. After law school, he clerked for two judges who would later join the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.
In the early 1990s, Alan co-founded an internet/telecom company that pioneered discount pricing in the long-distance telecommunications industry. He became the first President of IDT Corporation, which operated from the second floor of a funeral home. The small company grew in to a $2 billion-a-year business. IDT Corporation is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and appeared on the Fortune 1000 list.
After several years in the telecommunications industry, Alan returned to the practice of law. At his firm, Grayson & Kubli, Alan specialized in whistleblower fraud cases aimed at Iraq war contractors. Alan is the only attorney to successfully bring a fraud case to trial against those who illegally profited from the war in Iraq.
Alan lives in Orlando, Florida, and has five children: Skye, Star, Sage, Storm and Stone.
