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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Patricia Coen (609) 258-5764
Date: March 28, 1997
Congressman Owens of N.Y. Speaks on Corporate Power and Congress
Princeton, N.J. -- Congressman Major R. Owens of New York's 11th Congressional District will give a lecture entitled "The Consolidation of Corporate Power in the 105th Congress" at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs on Thursday, April 10, in Robertson Hall, Bowl 6, at 4:30 p.m.
Congressman Owens was elected to the 98th Congress in 1982 and is now serving his seventh consecutive term. In Congress, as well as in his district, Owens has been an advocate for a better-educated American public. To that end, as chair of the Subcommittee on Select Education and Civil Rights, he has authored legislation to reorganize the Office of Educational Research and Improvement to ensure that research responds to the most pressing needs of parents and educators. Supporters in his district dubbed Owens the "Education Congressman" in recognition of his strong stance on national education reform.
As a senior member of the Economic and Education Opportunities Committee, Owens has dedicated much time and effort to the expansion of the rights of workers. He pushed for the passage of legislation on plant-closing notification, extended employment benefits, and an increase of the minimum wage. He is a leader in the current move to pass "right to strike" legislation, which would prohibit employers from displacing strikers and hiring permanent replacements.
Owens entered public service and politics in the 1960s, partially as a result of his work as chair of the Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality, as vice president of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, and as commissioner of the New York City Community Development Agency. In 1974 he became the first New York state senator to be elected from Brooklyn's newly created 17th Senatorial District. His election to Congress followed in 1982.
The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.