LOS ANGELES–The nation’s largest and most active Armenian American political action committee, the Armenian National Committee-Political Action Committee (ANC-PAC) has endorsed Congressman Jim Costa (D-CA). Costa represents California’s 20th Congressional District, which is nestled in California’s San Joaquin Valley and includes all of Kings County, part of Fresno and Kern Counties. The Congressman, who serves as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been a staunch supporter of his Armenian American constituents since his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005.
"Our community in the 20th Congressional District is proud to be represented in Washington, DC by Jim Costa," remarked ANC-PAC supporter Hilda Santikian. "The Congressman is a man of his word and a true friend, in every sense of the word. The fact that Congressman Costa scored an A in the Armenian National Committee of America’s annual Report Card says it all for thousands of Armenian American voters in his district," she added.
As a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, Costa has led the charge to ensure that America be represented in Armenia by an ambassador who does not deny the Armenian Genocide. In a May 8, 2008 letter to Ambassador designate Marie Yovanovitch, Costa shared that "it is, by any reasonable standard, established history that between 1915 and 1923 the Ottoman Empire systematically killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenia’s and drove hundreds of thousands of others into exile from their ancestral homeland." The Congressman has also been aggressively in support of legislative efforts to end Turkey’s blockade of Armenia and to encourage freedom for the people of Nagorno-Karabagh.
Prior to his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Costa enjoyed a near ly quarter century career as a member of the California State Legislature. He is the gran’son of Portuguese immigran’s and has had a lifelong long history of friendship with Armenian Americans in California’s Central Valley. The Congressman has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from California State University, Fresno.
In the current 110th Congress, Costa serves as a member of two influential subcommittees of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; the subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia and the subcommittee on Europe. On these subcommittees and on the House floor, Costa has energetically worked to counteract the anti-Armenian agenda being advanced by the multimillion dollar lobbyists employed by Turkey and Azerbaijan on Capitol Hill.
The ANC-PAC is a non-partisan federally registered political action committee established to support campaign committees for Members of Congress who share the values of the Armenian American community. The ANC-PAC is at the forefront of efforts to ensure that the voice of the Armenian American community is clearly heard in our nation’s capital. The ANC-PAC continues a century old tradition of Armenian American engagement on the public policy issues facing national political leaders, both in the U.S. Congress and the White House. For more information, you may logon to www.ancpac.org.