Chaka Fattah

Congressman Chaka Fattah served as representative for Pennsylvania’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2016 (104th-114th Congress). Before Congress, Fattah served in the Pennsylvania Senate and the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. In Congress, Fattah served on several House committees, including the Committees on Appropriations, Economic and Educational Opportunities, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform and Oversight, House Administration, Small Business, Standards of Official Conduct, and the Joint Committee on Printing. Fattah’s primary legislative interest as a state legislator had been to open access to quality educational opportunities for minority students, and he continued that effort in the House. Early in his Congressional tenure, Fattah introduced and passed into law the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), a college awareness and preparedness program. Since its inception, more than $4 billion in federal funds have been distributed to assist 12 million students in 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. His most significant legislative success came in the 105th Congress when he submitted H.R. 777, the 21st Century Scholars Act, which directed federal funds to prepare low-income students to enter college through a competitive grant program that provided six to seven years of financial support. Fattah earned a bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his master’s degree in Governmental Administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government.