The Members and staff of the HELP Commission are deeply saddened by the passing of our colleague, the Honorable Jennifer Dunn.  We were all touched by her dedication to make the world a better place.  This is truly a tragic loss for her family, her friends, and the nation.  We will all miss the compassion and grace which distinguished and defined her life.

Mrs. Dunn is a former Member of Congress from Washington State (1993 – 2005) where she served as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Joint Economic Committee, the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, and the Committee on House Administration, and became the highest ranking woman in the House of Representatives when she was elected Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference.

She served as the Washington State Republican Party Chairman, being re-elected five times by the Party's state committeemen and committeewomen from 1981 until she resigned in February of 1992. Her accomplishments with the state party led to her active involvement with the Republican National Committee, where she was elected Vice Chairman from the Western Region and served as Chairman of all the state party chairmen nationwide from 1988 to 1991.

Referred to as a “smart Conservative” by the Seattle Times, in the U.S. Congress she authored key legislation (from Megan’s Law and Welfare Reform to Estate Tax Repeal and Amber Alert), as well as served on the ten person transition team when the House of Representatives changed from Democratic to Republican control in 1994.

Most recently she was employed as a senior advisor in DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary’s Government Affairs practice group specializing in issues relating to tax, trade, and homeland security.

Her foreign travel, including early trips to Taiwan and Vienna, Austria where she represented both the Reagan and Bush Administrations at meetings of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, was augmented by many Congressional trips to countries around the world representing the United States of America in the areas of trade, international tax, and homeland security.

Mrs. Dunn is a graduate of Bellevue High School and holds a BA degree in English literature from Stanford University. She is the mother of two sons, Bryant, 35, and Reagan, 34, and was recently married to E. Keith Thomson, Assistant Commissioner of Customs for International Affairs.