Julia Butler Hansen (1907-1988) was a Washington state politician who served in the Washington State House of Representatives and in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first woman to serve on the House Appropriations Committee and the first woman to head a major appropriations subcommittee.

Julia Butler Hansen was born in Portland, Oregon, on June 14, 1907, the daughter of Donald C. and Maude (Kimball) Butler. She grew up and spent much of her life in Cathamet, Washington, a small town in the southeast of the state where her father had settled in 1891. She attended Oregon State College from 1924 to 1926 and received her B.A. in home economics from the University of Washington in 1930.

After graduation she returned to Cathamet, where she worked for a title company, wrote children's literature, and became involved in local politics. In 1935 she published Singing Paddles which won the Julia Ellsworth Ford...