Since her election to the Senate in 1992, Senator Feinstein has built a significant record of legislative achievements across a wide range of issues.

Senator Feinstein led a bipartisan group of senators in passing legislation to drastically increase the fuel efficiency of cars. She was a leading voice in the effort to legalize gay marriage and ensure rights for LGBT Americans. She's a champion for the preservation of the Mojave Desert, Lake Tahoe and California's forests. She helped create the nationwide AMBER Alert network, passed bills to criminalize border drug tunnels and has long focused on improving California's water infrastructure and reducing the threat of wildfires. She also continues to advocate for commonsense gun laws.

Among her most notable achievements are the enactment of the federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, a law that prohibited the sale, manufacture and import of military-style assault weapons that expired in 2014 and the six-year review of the CIA's detention and interrogation program that culminated in the 2014 release of the report's executive summary and passage of legislation ensuring that certain post-9/11 interrogation methods are never used again.

Senator Feinstein authored the first major cybersecurity bill to be signed into law in years. She has been an aggressive opponent of sex trafficking and authored legislation to help prevent sex abuse of amateur athletes. And she is a vocal advocate for consumers, authoring bills to review chemicals in personal care products, ban chemicals in toys, crack down on rogue pharmacies and strengthen food safety.

In 2017, Senator Feinstein became the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee - the first woman to assume that role - where she helped shape policy on criminal law, national security, immigration, civil rights and the courts. She held that position until 2021.

Senator Feinstein was the first woman to chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, a position she held for six years beginning in 2009. During her tenure as chairman, Senator Feinstein oversaw the passage of six intelligence authorization bills - after five years without a single bill - and the release of a key bipartisan report on the Benghazi terrorist attacks. She remains a senior member of the committee.

Senator Feinstein is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee where she serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. She has secured billions of dollars for California communities, including critical transportation, water supply and federal building projects. She has worked with members of both parties to secure and safeguard spent nuclear waste and has used her seniority to oppose the development of new nuclear weapons and hold down the rapidly increasing costs of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Two of Senator Feinstein's consistent priorities have been combating wildfire and drought. She was a key figure in securing higher salaries for federal wildland firefighters to help with recruitment and retention and played a central role in securing additional aerial firefighting resources. She has also been very active in helping prepare for and alleviate drought, including securing passage of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act in 2016 that devoted significant federal resources to help modernize California's water infrastructure and assist with ecosystem restoration and preservation of endangered fish species.

Her fourth committee assignment is on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which she chaired during the 110th Congress. In that capacity, Senator Feinstein was the first woman to chair the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and presided over the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009.

In addition to her committee assignments, Senator Feinstein is co-chairman of the National Security Working Group, co-chairman of the Senate Cancer Coalition and co-chairman of the Senate Women's Caucus on Burma. Senator Feinstein also served as co-Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control until 2021. She is also a member of the Anti-Meth Caucus, the Congressional Dairy Caucus and the Congressional Former Mayors Caucus. She has served as a member of the Aspen Strategy Group since 1997.

Senator Feinstein's career has been one of firsts. She was the first woman president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the first woman mayor of San Francisco, the first woman elected Senator of California, the first woman member and first woman ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the first woman to chair the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and the first woman to chair the Senate Intelligence Committee.

A native of San Francisco, Senator Feinstein served for nine years as a San Francisco County Supervisor, starting in 1969. She became mayor of San Francisco in 1978 following the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

The following year she was elected to the first of two four-year terms. As mayor, Dianne Feinstein managed the city's finances with a firm hand, balancing nine budgets in a row. In 1987, City and State Magazine named her the nation's "Most Effective Mayor."