Claudine Schneider


Claudine Schneider is a former Republican U.S. representative from Rhode Island. She was the first, and to date only, woman elected to Congress from Rhode Island. She is founder of , which describes itself as a network of "Republican former Members of Congress who feel compelled to remind Republican voters about the fundamentals of our party and to provide the facts about incumbents' voting records."

Life and career

Schneider was born Claudine Cmarada in Clairton, Pennsylvania. On her father's side, she is of Slovak descent. Schneider attended parochial schools. She studied at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and Rosemont College.
She obtained a B.A. degree from Windham College in 1969. She also attended the University of Rhode Island School of Community Planning.
She was the founder of the Rhode Island Committee on Energy in 1973, and was appointed executive director of the Conservation Law Foundation in 1974. She became Federal coordinator of Rhode Island Coastal Zone Management Program in 1978. She worked as a producer and host of a public affairs television program in Providence from 1978 to 1979.
Schneider was elected as a Republican to the 97th Congress and was re-elected to the four succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1981 to January 3, 1991 for Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district.
She did not stand for re-election in 1990 to the 102nd Congress but was an unsuccessful nominee for the United States Senate in challenging incumbent Claiborne Pell.
After leaving Congress, she served as a member of the faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University.
She is a resident of Boulder, Colorado, where she works as an independent consultant, specializing in environmental matters and ecological economics.