Performance is better than promise. That's the creed by which U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings has modeled his lifetime of public service -- a lifetime of working to make government fiscally accountable to the people.

A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Hollings graduated from the Citadel in 1942. He then served in World War II as a U.S. Army officer in North Africa and Europe. He was decorated with the Bronze Star Medal and received six other campaign ribbons. When Hollings returned as a captain from the war, he attended the University of South Carolina School of Law from which he graduated in 1947.

The following year, Hollings started his career of public service when he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. In his second term in 1951, he was elected Speaker Pro Tempore of the South Carolina House, a position to which he was re-elected in 1953. Two years later, he became South Carolina's lieutenant governor. In 1958, his leadership, public record, service and popularity launched him into the highest office in the state. At age 36, he is the youngest man this century to be elected governor of South Carolina.

In 1966, Hollings was elected to the untied States Senate, an office he has been re-elected to five times. Currently, he is the sixth-ranking senior member of the Senate and is the fifth-leading senior Democrat.

Hollings is the ranking Democrat of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and is the senior member of the Senate Budget Committee. He also is the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and Judiciary and is on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Today, Senator Hollings continues his well-known fights to cut the federal deficit, debt and wasteful spending. A long-time advocate of the balance budget amendment and line-item veto, he was the proponent of the "Fritz Freeze" to put the federal government on a pay-as-you-go basis. He also fought to cut spending across the board with the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act.

Hollings remains the leading supporter for a competitive trade policy in his battle to keep American jobs in America and he continues to push for a sweeping rewrite to the Communications Act of 1934. He believes that new, innovative technologies need a new framework to be able to blossom in the next century. To contact Senator Hollings by electronic mail -

Senator Hollings' Home Page

ADDRESS:

The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings

125 Russell Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510-4002

PHONE:

(202)224-6121

FAX:

(202)224-4293