Third-Ranking U.S. House Democrat to Speak at Williams

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Nov. 4, 2003 — U.S. Congressman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the House of Representative’s Democratic Caucus, will speak Friday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. in Griffin Hall, room 3 on the Williams College campus. The talk, titled “Presidential Election 2004: Challenges and Choices,” is free and open to the public.

Menendez is the only Hispanic ever elected to a leadership position by either party in either chamber of Congress.

He has served as chairman of both the Democratic Task Force on Education and the Democratic Task Force on Homeland Security. He was instrumental in passing the Bioterrorism Protection Act and the United States Security Act. He served on the Select Committee on Homeland Security, which created the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His district is situated across the Hudson River from Manhattan’s Ground Zero.

For his work on international human rights Menendez was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1998. He currently serves as the ranking Democratic member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee.

The talk is sponsored by the college’s Leadership Studies Program.

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