United States California Members of the United States House of Representatives Congressperson Doris Matsui

Following redistricting brought about by the 2020 United States census, the newly drawn lines for California’s 7th District meant that a veteran of Capitol Hill would be taking over.

Rep. Doris Matsui, a Democrat, has served in Congress since 2005, when she won a special election to fill the 5th District that had been held by her late husband, Bob Matsui. Doris Matsui served in this seat until redistricting following the 2010 census moved her to the 6th District.

The 77-year-old Matsui is serving her now 10th term in the House in District 7, which comprises downtown Sacramento, southern parts of the city and Elk Grove. The district also includes part of Yolo County around West Sacramento and Ryer Island.

Matsui, who is considered one of the most reliable Democratic votes in the House, has been a popular representative, never receiving less than 68 percent of the vote in a general election. This could be helped in part by name recognition: Her late husband served 16 years in Congress and has a federal courthouse in downtown Sacramento named in his honor.

Doris Matsui’s congressional bio notes that she was instrumental through her role with the Energy and Commerce Committee in helping to craft the Affordable Care Act.

Background

Prior to her election to Congress, Matsui volunteered on Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, served on his transition team, and later was deputy special assistant to the president. She subsequently worked as a lobbyist.

She met her late husband while they were both attending University of California, Berkeley. Married for almost 40 years, they raised a son, Brian. Though Matsui remarried in 2020 to Roger Sant, she shares her late husband’s love of Vic’s Ice Cream in Sacramento’s Land Park, where she lives.

Committee Assignments
House Energy and Commerce Committee
Communications & Technology subcommittee (ranking member)
Energy, Climate & Grid Security subcommittee

Select Legislation

In her time in Congress, Matsui has had six bills or resolutions that she sponsored become law and another 204 that she cosponsored that have attained this status. Some of her sponsored legislation that is now law includes the following:

●  H.R. 941 (117th): Matsui’s most recent piece of sponsored legislation to become a law as of this writing, the TRANSPLANT Act of 2021 became effective May 26 of that year. With TRANSPLANT standing for “Timely ReAuthorization of Necessary Stem-cell Programs Lends Access to Needed Therapies,” according to text of the law, it was only Matsui’s latest effort to promote stem cell research. Since the law passed, she also attended the February 2022 groundbreaking for UC Davis’s Aggie Square in Sacramento, where work on stem cells might occur in the future.

●  H.J. Res. 60 (116th): This joint resolution, passed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon, requested authorization from the U.S. Secretary of the Interior for “unique and one-time arrangements for displays on the National Mall and the Washington Monument during the period beginning on July 16, 2019 and ending on July 20, 2019.”

●  H.R. 3360 (111th): Matsui’s first sponsored legislation, the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010, introduced a broad range of regulations related to safety and security onboard. Matsui has kept up her cruise safety advocacy during the COVID-19 pandemic, co-authoring a letter with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in April 2021. “We write today with significant concern about the prospect of premature resumption of cruise ship operations that could threaten public safety and increase the spread of the coronavirus,” the two wrote.

Offices

●  DC office: 2311 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515. Ph: (202) 225-7163 | F: (202) 225-0566

●  District office: 501 I St, Suite 12-600, Sacramento, CA 95814. Ph : (916) 498-5600

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