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Contact: Patricia Coen (609) 258-5764
Date: March 28, 1997
Senator Torricelli to Speak at the Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton, N.J. -- Senator Robert G. Torricelli, D-N.J., will give a lecture entitled "The American Community in the 21st Century" at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs on Monday, April 14, in Robertson Hall, Dodds Auditorium, at 4:15 p.m.
Torricelli was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, after a 14-year career in Congress. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, Torricelli co-authored the House resolution that authorized the use of force in the Gulf War. As a member of the International Relations Committee, Torricelli authored the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, which became the first cohesive policy toward Cuba in 30 years. Named by Newsweek a House leader on issues concerning the Middle East and Israeli security, he sits on the Select Committee on Intelligence. He has gained attention for his controverisal decision to expose activities by CIA informants in Guatemala that he believed constituted criminal activity.
On the domestic side, Torricelli is particularly concerned with issues of environmental preservation, gun control, and education. As a senior member of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, he wrote the bill that created the Superfund Innovative Technologies (SITE) program, which is helping to clean Superfund sites both in his former New Jersey congressional district, the 9th District in Bergen County, and nationwide. He also wrote the law requiring double hulls on oil tankers in response to the Exxon-Valdez oil spill and led efforts to preserve Sterling Forest, which is the watershed for much of northern New Jersey.
Senator Torricelli also has worked to pass new legislation regarding crime and has led state and national efforts to ban military-style assault weapons. He amended the 1986 and 1994 crime bills, adding stricter legislation, for the 1986 bill, to outlaw weapons that are easily convertible into machine guns, and, for the 1994 bill, to prohibit the possession of a firearm by those under a court restraining order in a domestic-violence dispute.
On the education front, Torricelli is a strong advocate of school reform. He wrote the recent legislation that offers demonstration grants to public schools that implement a longer school day or year.
His lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.