President George W. Bush
Wendy Figueroa
presidential facts
1994-2000 - Governor of Texas.
November 7, 2000 - The presidential election takes place, but is too close to call.
November 3, 1998 - Is elected to second term as governor of Texas with 68.8% of the vote. The first governor in Texas history to be elected to consecutive four-year terms.
January 20, 2001 - Sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States.
September 14, 2001 - Tours Ground Zero and gives a speech to firemen, police, and other rescue workers.
September 12, 2001 - Tours the Pentagon after terrorist attacks of 9-11.
May 16, 2003 - Files papers with the Federal Election Commission as a candidate for the 2004 presidential election; officially starting his re-election bid.
December 14, 2003 - Addresses the nation on the capture of Saddam Hussein.
November 27, 2003 - Bush surprises U.S. troops in Baghdad by joining them for Thanksgiving Day. It is the first visit by a U.S. president to Iraq.
September 23, 2003 - Addresses the United Nations on Iraq, Afghanistan, and weapons of mass destruction.
His Presidency
The airborne terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the thwarted flight against the White House or Capitol on September 11, 2001, in which nearly 3,000 Americans were killed, transformed George W. Bush into a wartime president. The attacks put on hold many of Bush’s hopes and plans, and Bush’s father, George Bush, the 41st president, declared that his son “faced the greatest challenge of any president since Abraham Lincoln.”
In response, Bush formed a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, sent American forces into Afghanistan to break up the Taliban, a movement under Osama bin Laden that trained financed and exported terrorist teams. The Taliban was successfully disrupted but Bin Laden was not captured and was still on the loose as Bush began his second term. Following the attacks, the president also recast the nation’s intelligence gathering and analysis services, and ordered reform of the military forces to meet the new enemy. At the same time he delivered major tax cuts which had been a campaign pledge. His most controversial act was the invasion of Iraq on the belief that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein posed a grave threat to the United States. Saddam was captured, but the disruption of Iraq and the killing of American servicemen and friendly Iraqis by insurgents became the challenge of Bush’s government as he began his second term. President Bush pledged during his 2005 State of the Union Address that the United States would help the Iraqi people establish a fully democratic government because the victory of freedom in Iraq would strengthen a new ally in the war on terror, bring hope to a troubled region, and lift a threat from the lives of future generations.
No Children Left Behind Act
GINA
Genetic Non-Discrimination Act
President George W. Bush signed into law the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). The bill protects Americans against discrimination based on their genetic information when it comes to health insurance and employment. The issue had been debated for 13 years before becoming law. It is designed to protect citizens while not hindering genetic research.