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California Rep. Tom Lantos To Retire Due To Cancer

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Jan 2, 2008 7:00 am US/Pacific

California Rep. Tom Lantos To Retire Due To Cancer

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., was elected to Congress in 1980. (File)
AP

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Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election this year because he has cancer of the esophagus.

Lantos, 79, is the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress and is known for his dedication to human rights issues. He is serving his 14th term as a House member.

"It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a member of Congress," Lantos said in a statement. "I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."

Lantos was born in Budapest, Hungary. In 1944, as a teenager, he was sent to a labor camp but eventually escaped.

The congressman from San Mateo, Calif., was elected to head the House Foreign Affairs Committe in January 2007.