Elected to his seventh term by an 83 to 17 percent margin in November 2004, Congressman Xavier Becerra has proudly served the good folks of the 31st Congressional District (formally, the 30th District until the decennial census in 2000) since January 1993.

Located entirely in the City of Los Angeles, the 31st District is home to just over 640,000 residents and spans part of or all the neighborhoods of Atwater Village, Eagle Rock, Lincoln Heights, Glassell Park, Echo Park, South Los Angeles, Mt. Washington, Silver Lake, Pico-Union, Solano Canyon, and Elysian Park.

As the only congressional member from Southern California who is part of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, Xavier is in a unique position to exert an enormous amount of influence over a host of issues that are of paramount importance to not just Los Angelenos, but indeed, all Americans. Those issues include, but are certainly not limited to, helping ensure Social Security remains a strong, solvent entitlement program without falling victim to privatization plans; continuing efforts to promote free and fair trade; making the tax code work for all Americans; improving and expanding our nation's Medicare system; and fighting for an equitable welfare system that gives folks all the relevant tools needed to lead productive lives.

Xavier is the author of a number of bills currently working their way through the rigorous congressional system of checks and balances. The various pieces of legislation include building on and expanding the ways in which families can take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit; providing educational loan assistance to folks who choose to be a librarian in low-income, underserved areas; providing reparations to Japanese Latin Americans who were taken from their countries and interred in American concentration camps in World War II; and establishing a commission to explore the possibility of building the National Museum of the American Latino, among others.

The first in his family to attend college, Xavier graduated from Stanford University in 1980, soon after returning to his alma mater to attend law school, completing his juris doctorate in 1984.

Following law school, Xavier worked for a legal services agency that represented the mentally ill in Connecticut. He would soon find his way back to his home state where he served as Deputy Attorney General for California. In 1990, he was elected to the California State Assembly.

Xavier is married to Dr. Carolina Reyes, a Harvard Medical School graduate who currently serves as the Executive Director for the Center for Healthy Births at the California Hospital Medical Center.

Xavier and Carolina are the proud parents of three beautiful girls: Clarissa, Olivia and Natalia. The Becerra Family live in Eagle Rock, a Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood.