• Democratic Member of Congress
• Co-founder of the Progressive Caucus
• Marched alongside radical protesters in Seattle during the 1999 WTO conference

Peter DeFazio is a Democratic Member of Congress who represents the Fourth District of Oregon, centered on the University of Oregon town of Eugene. He is a member of the House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee, Natural Resources Committee, and Transportation & Infrastructure Committee; he also sits on several subcommittees.

Eugene, Oregon is home to the "Anarchist Action Collective" whose radical members smashed store windows in downtown Seattle during a November 30-December 3, 1999 World Trade Organization meeting there. DeFazio spent those same days marching with union, environmental, and other leftwing, anti-globalization, anti-business protesters in Seattle. During subsequent protests he blamed international corporations and financiers for the problems in developing countries.

Born in May 1947 in Needham, Massachusetts, DeFazio served in the U.S. Air Force from 1967 to 1971. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University in 1969 and a master’s degree from the University of Oregon in 1977, he took a job in gerontology. In 1977 he worked for the Fourth District's then-congressman Jim Weaver. In 1982 DeFazio was elected to the county commission from the Eugene suburb of Springfield. When Rep. Weaver retired in 1986, DeFazio won his seat in a three-way race.

As a congressman, DeFazio was one of the original 1992 co-founders of the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives. Eight years later he replaced Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders as leader of this Caucus.

In 1995 DeFazio ran for a U.S. Senate seat that Republican Robert Packwood had vacated amid scandal; Defazio was beaten by the better-funded Portland congressman Ron Wyden.

Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) has rated DeFazio's voting record as 95-100 percent on the Left. During his legislative career, DeFazio has voted:

• against the development of a national missile defense system;
• against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001;
• against the post-9/11 anti-terrorism measure known as the Patriot Act;
• against allowing the U.S. government to use electronic surveillance to investigate suspected terrorist operatives;
• against a bill permitting the government to combat potential terrorist threats by monitoring foreign electronic communications which are routed through the United States;
• against an October 2002 joint resolution authorizing U.S. military action in Iraq;
• against the establishment of military commissions to try enemy combatants captured in the war on terror;
• in favor of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq immediately and by a preordained date;
• against President Bush’s 2007 decision to deploy some 21,500 additional U.S. soldiers in an effort to quell the violent insurgents in Iraq;
• in favor of a proposal to expedite the transfer of all prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention center;
• against requiring hospitals to report (to the federal government) illegal aliens who receive emergency medical treatment;
• against major tax cut proposals in September 1998, March 2000, July 2000, May 2001, May 2003, October 2004, and May 2006;
• against separate welfare reform bills designed to move people off the welfare rolls and into paying jobs;
• in favor of prohibiting oil and gas exploration in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR); and
• against a proposal to fund offshore oil exploration along the Outer Continental Shelf.

Though he is a Roman Catholic, Defazio voted against legislation to ban the late-term abortion procedure commonly known as partial-birth abortion in November 1995, September 1996, March 1997, July 1998, June 2003, and October 2003.