After being nominated by President George W. Bush, Mauricio J. Tamargo took over as chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission on February 6, 2002. Bush nominated him for a full three-year term in 2003 and another in 2006. Born in Cuba, Tamargo came to the United States with his family at the age of four, and went on to get a BA in History from The University of Miami and a JD from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. While he was in law school, he was a clerk to the Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. Then he was an Administrative Assistant for Florida State Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and a Staff Assistant for Senator Paula Hawkins. After that, he served as Staff Director and Counsel for two Subcommittees of the House International Relations Committee: the Subcommittee on Africa, and the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade. Tamargo was also the Staff Director for the International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee, and Chief of Staff and Legal Counsel to Ros-Lehtinen when she was a Congresswoman. Tamargo is a member of the Federalist Society, and in 2004 he made financial contributions to the George W. Bush for President campaign, the Bush-Cheney Compliance Committee, and Florida Republican Mel Martinez’s Campaign for Senate.