Rep. Amo Houghton and Senator Jack Reed
Monday, April 14, 2003
Rep. Amo Houghton and Senator Jack Reed
"A Window on Washington"
Amo Houghton has served since 1987 as the Representative of New York's 31st Congressional District, which covers parts of 10 counties from Lake Erie, along the Pennsylvania border to the Finger Lakes. He received an honorary degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1991.
Houghton is the fifth-ranking Republican and serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, chairing its oversight subcommittee. He is a member of the Trade Subcommittee, a member of the International Relations Committee and vice chairman of its subcommittee on Africa.
Politically, Houghton has built a reputation as a results-oriented Congressman who espouses moderate social programs and conservative fiscal policy. He has emerged as a leader of a core of moderate Republicans who have brokered key legislative successes. His bill to regulate secretive "stealth PACs" has been described as the most meaningful campaign finance reform since Watergate.
In 1998, the citizens´ group Common Cause named Houghton to its prestigious Public Integrity Honor Roll, citing his leadership in campaign finance reform. He was the founding co-chair of the House Centrist Coalition. He was a founder of the historic Bipartisan Congressional Retreats, which drew nearly 200 members of Congress and their families to Hershey, Pa. in 1997 and 1999.
He is the founder of the John Quincy Adams Society, an issues forum, which brings together moderate officeholders with top business leaders. He is also an active member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, which seeks to strengthen the political center.
The only former CEO of a Fortune 500 firm to serve in the House, Houghton joined Corning Glass Works (now Corning, Incorporated) in 1951, after serving as a PFC in the Marine Corps in 1945 and 1946.
Houghton is married to the former Priscilla B. Dewey.
Jack Reed was elected to the Senate in 1996. He has been a leader in the House and the Senate on education, health care and campaign finance reform, promoting and strengthening Rhode Island's economy and on defense, international affairs, child care and gun control issues.
Reed was born in 1949 in Providence, R. I. After graduating from LaSalle Academy in Providence, he attended the U. S. Military Academy at West Point where he received a bachelor's degree in 1971. Following his graduation from West Point and receiving an active duty commission in the United States Army, Reed attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he received a masters of public policy. Reed, an Army ranger and a paratrooper, served in the 82nd Airborne Division as an Infantry Platoon leader, a Company Commander and a Battalion Staff Officer. He returned to West Point in 1978 as an associate professor in the department of social sciences.
In 1982, he graduated from Harvard Law School and served a year as an associate with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Sutherland, Asbill, and Brennan. In 1983, he returned to Rhode Island and joined Edwards and Angell, a Providence law firm. Reed was elected to the Rhode Island State Senate in 1984 and served for three terms. In 1990, Reed was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1996, Reed campaigned for and was elected to the United States Senate.
Reed is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He is the senior Democratic member of the Joint Economic Committee. Reed also serves as Eastern Regional Ranking Member of the Democratic Policy Committee and serves as a Deputy Whip.
This information is accurate for the time period that this person(s) spoke at Hobart and William Smith.