Bobby Jindal was sworn in as Governor of Louisiana
on January 14, 2008.
He was elected Governor of Louisiana on
October 20, 2007, with 54 percent of the
vote in the primary, winning 60 of 64
parishes. Shortly after taking office,
Governor Jindal called a Special Session
to address comprehensive ethics reform,
the cornerstone of his election
platform. After the conclusion of the
successful session, the Center for
Public Integrity deemed Louisiana's new
financial disclosure law as the
strongest in the nation - giving
Louisiana a score of 99 out of 100.
Additionally, the Governor’s second
Special Session eliminated burdensome
taxes that deterred investment in
Louisiana and limited the growth of
existing Louisiana businesses.
Governor Jindal has also put forth
detailed plans for reforming our state’s
health care, education, and
transportation systems, as well as for
encouraging workforce development and
continuing recovery efforts in those
areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita.
Jindal was born in Baton Rouge on June
10, 1971. He graduated from Baton Rouge
High School in 1988 and went on to
attend Brown University where he
graduated with honors in biology and
public policy. Following his graduation
from Brown he attended Oxford University
in England as a Rhodes Scholar, having
turned down admissions to medical and
law schools at both Harvard and Yale.
In 1994, Jindal went to work for
McKinsey and Company as a consultant for
Fortune 500 companies before entering
public service. In 1996, he was
appointed Secretary of the Louisiana
Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH).
There were many issues that needed
resolving during his tenure, not the
least of which was the growing deficit
in Louisiana's Medicaid program. During
Jindal’s tenure as DHH Secretary, he
rescued Louisiana's Medicaid program
from bankruptcy, childhood immunizations
increased, Louisiana ranked third best
nationally in health care screenings for
children, and new and expanded services
for elderly and disabled persons were
offered.
In 1998, Jindal was appointed
Executive Director of the National
Bipartisan Commission on the Future of
Medicare. As Executive Director, he was
responsible for the day-to-day
operations of the Commission, whose work
continue to be the driving force behind
much of the ongoing debate on how to
strengthen and improve Medicare.
At the conclusion of the Commission’s
work, Jindal was appointed President of
the University of Louisiana System, the
16th largest higher education system in
the country. While serving as President,
Jindal worked to establish areas of
excellence at each individual
institution.
President George W. Bush appointed
Jindal to serve as Assistant Secretary
for the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services in 2001. In that
position, he served as the principal
policy advisor to the Secretary of
Health and Human Services. He later
resigned from the position in 2003 to
return to Louisiana and run for elected
office for the first time. In that
race, Jindal went from being a
relatively unknown candidate for
Governor, to receiving the most votes in
the primary election and eventually 48
percent of the vote in runoff.
In 2004 he was elected to the 109th
United States Congress representing the
First District of Louisiana. In
Congress he was elected Freshman Class
President and served on the House
Committee on Education and the
Workforce, the House Committee on
Homeland Security, and the House
Committee on Resources. Bobby also
served as Assistant Majority Whip. In
his first term he passed a number of
notable pieces of legislation and played
an instrumental role in Louisiana’s
recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita. His noteworthy accomplishments
include the passage of legislation to
bring significant offshore energy
revenues to Louisiana for the first time
and legislation that keeps Federal
Emergency Management Agency from taxing
certain recovery grants as income.
Jindal was re-elected to Congress in
2006 with 88 percent of the vote
majority.
Jindal and his wife Supriya have three
young children.
