David Scott was elected to the United States Congress in 2002 and served in that capacity. He is currently in his eighth term as the representative for Georgia’s Thirteenth Congressional District. This district is Atlanta and metropolitan area. His first election to the Georgia General Assembly occurred in 1974.
David Scott is a powerful advocate in the United States Congress for a variety of causes, including farmers, workers, veterans, children, and roads. He is a member of the Agriculture, Financial Services, and NATO Parliamentary Assembly Committees. He has drafted and introduced a number of pieces of legislation, including one that offers debt forgiveness to law school graduates who work as public prosecutors or public defenders, with the goal of luring the most qualified attorneys into public service. Congressman Scott successfully lobbied for eighty million in funding to be included in the 2018 Farm Bill to support agricultural scholarship programs at the nineteen historically black colleges and universities founded as land-grant institutions. In another show of respect for fathers, he included Father’s Day as a significant holiday in the United States Flag Code. He needed to devise a strategy that would allow members of opposing political parties to work together to achieve his goal of having the Arabia Mountain area of metro Atlanta designated as a National Heritage Area.
Representative Scott places a high value on honoring those who have served our country in the armed forces. After learning of problems at the VA hospital in Atlanta, Congressman Scott was the first Democrat to call for the VA Secretary’s resignation. He led a bipartisan effort to bring about significant changes at the VA and was the first to advocate for them. He drafted legislation that became law, ensuring that veterans and their dependents could receive in-state tuition rates. In addition, he was a co-author of legislation that would forgive student loans for Veterans Affairs employees who work in mental health-related fields and pursue careers in those fields.
Rep. Scott, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has stated that he is unable to adequately emphasize the importance of the farming and ranching industries to the economies of the United States and Georgia. In addition, he works hard to maintain American agriculture’s growth and international competitiveness. He helped draft legislation that would restructure the federal dairy program while keeping consumer prices reasonable.
During the financial crisis, as a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Scott advocated for the protection of homeowners and communities. He was a strong supporter of the law that now allows low-income homeowners who have lost their jobs to receive up to 18 months of mortgage payment assistance. He played a critical role in the development of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the Making Home Affordable Program, and the Home Assistance Mortgage Program (HAMP). Representative Scott has proposed legislation that would allow insurance agents and brokers to hold licenses in more than one state in order to provide customers with more options. Following the devastating floods that struck Atlanta in 2009, he was successful in securing funding for his district and drafting legislation that would allow flood insurance premiums to be paid over time rather than all at once. To compensate for the fact that the majority of people in the United States could only obtain one free credit report per year, he allowed Georgia residents to obtain two.
Congressman Scott, a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, has demonstrated his commitment to the United States’ international partnerships, particularly with Israel and our NATO allies, by advocating for a strong military and an active foreign policy. During the NATO summit in 2012, 27 more countries agreed to back the United States of America and Israel in their efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Congressman Scott spearheaded this agreement.
David Scott and his family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, when he was five years old, to live with his paternal grandparents, Minnie and Charles Scott. He attended Scranton’s Washington Street Elementary School for his primary education. David spent a year on the family farm in South Carolina with his maternal grandmother after his paternal grandmother died when he was ten years old. His paternal grandmother had died.
When David was 13 years old, his family uprooted and relocated to Daytona Beach, Florida. His father started a trash collection business, and his mother worked as a waitress. David helped his father drive a garbage truck and put himself through college by working as a busboy, waiter, and dishwasher at a variety of businesses along Daytona Beach’s tourist corridor. David Scott graduated first in his class from Campbell High School in Daytona Beach, Florida, with the highest grade point average.
David Scott received several scholarships to help pay for his education at Florida A&M University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1967. David worked as a management intern at the Department of Labor’s Assistant Secretary for Labor Management Relations in Washington, DC, between his junior and senior years at Florida A&M University. He received a full scholarship to study business administration at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance after graduating from high school. After completing the MBA program, he graduated with highest honors in 1969.
After earning an MBA from Wharton Business School, David Scott founded Dayn-Mark Advertising in Atlanta, Georgia. He worked as an attorney for a number of powerful corporations and organizations. He wrote and starred in the Emmy-winning television production “Langston!” about the life and work of African-American poet and playwright Langston Hughes. The Georgia Public Broadcasting Service aired “Langston!” He was also the producer and narrator of the nationally syndicated radio show “Inside Black America,” which has received numerous awards and is broadcast on stations across the country.
David Scott’s political career began in 1972, when he became involved in Andrew Young’s successful campaign for the House of Representatives. In 1974, he was elected to the House of Representatives of the state of Georgia, where he served until 1982. As a state representative, he was in charge of drafting legislation to protect the safety of gun owners, such as requiring criminal records checks before purchasing a gun. He also made it illegal to give or sell a firearm to a minor, and he made it the responsibility of adults to keep their weapons in a secure location out of reach of children. Peachcare is a government-funded health insurance program for low-income children that was heavily influenced by Rep. Scott’s efforts.
David Scott was elected to the Georgia State Senate for the first time in 1982, and he served in that capacity until his retirement in 2002. The President of the United States has signed a number of his key legislative initiatives into law, including a statute requiring a daily minute of silence in Georgia public schools for the purpose of contemplation or prayer. Instead of allowing insurance companies to make such important decisions about patients’ health, he drafted legislation in Georgia that allows women who have had breast cancer surgery to decide how long they will need to stay in the hospital and how intensively they will be treated, in consultation with their physician. This is in contrast to the previous practice of delegating such decisions to insurance companies. He was the primary author of legislation that prohibits dumping garbage in residential areas, requires river and stream cleanup, and protects aquifers deep within the earth. Furthermore, he was successful in getting a bill passed in Georgia that requires public schools in the state to teach students about sexual health and how to reduce their risk of contracting HIV.