[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 18, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E489]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HONORING JEFF FAUX

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 18, 2003

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor 
Jeff Faux, who is the founder of the nationally respected Economic 
Policy Institute. During his long career, he as been a merchant 
mariner, railroad worker, blueberry farmer, antipoverty official, Labor 
Department statistician, and instructor at Harvard University.
  Jeff Faux used these work experiences to his advantage when 
undertaking the great task of founding and building the Economic Policy 
Institute, the nation's only think tank expressly dedicated to 
examining economic issues from the vantage point of how they affect 
working families.
  Named after the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, Faux grew up in Queens, New 
York, as an avid reader but an apathetic student. Dropping out of high 
school, he joined the merchant marine and shipped out to the Caribbean, 
before realizing that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life that 
way.
  Completing high school years before open enrollment at New York's 
City University, his wide-ranging reading stood him in good stead when 
he aced an examination that qualified him for Queens College, in spite 
of his uneven record in high school. On evenings, weekends, and summers 
while in college, he worked as a bartender (following his father who 
had been a charter member of Bartenders Local 164), on a railroad, and 
in an American Can Factory in Brooklyn.
  After he severely injured his back, Faux was treated in Queens 
General Hospital, sparing him from what might have been a lifetime 
disability. While hospitalized, he mused that he was, in a sense, the 
product of public programs--born in a public hospital, educated in 
public schools, and put back together again in another public hospital. 
Faux traces lifelong commitment to progressive politics to this period 
of recuperation and reflection.
  Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's New Frontier, Faux moved to 
Washington, D.C., where he worked, first, for the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics and, then, for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. 
Meanwhile, he enrolled as a graduate student at George Washington 
University, doing graduate work in economics.
  Moving to the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), Faux became one 
of the originators of a new kind of anti-poverty program: the Community 
Development Corporation. Modeled after a project initiated by Senator 
Robert F. Kennedy in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, 
community development corporations promote economic development in low-
income areas, from the inner cities to rural America.
  Traveling throughout the country, and briefly living with migrant 
farm workers in Colorado and New Mexico, Faux helped to turn the 
concept of community development corporations into a national program. 
He also found the time to participate in the historic Selma-to-
Montgomery march for voting rights and to register black voters in 
Virginia.
  In the 1980's, Jeff returned to Washington, D.C. and set about a new 
mission: founding a progressive think tank that would focus on economic 
issues. Others involved in the project included Barry Bluestone, Robert 
Kuttner, Ray Marshall, Robert Reich, and Lester Thurow.
  In 1986, the Economic Policy Institute opened its doors, with a staff 
of Faux, communications director Roger Hickey, an administrative 
assistant and a graduate research assistant. Originally commissioning 
papers by academics, EPI build its own capacity with the hiring in 1987 
of Larry Mishel as research director. A year later, EPI published the 
first biennial edition of its signature publication, The State of 
Working America, which would be researched and written by Mishel and 
many of the economists who later joined the staff of EPI.
  In the later eighties, as a wave of deindustrialization swept over 
the U.S., EPI helped build the case for plant closing legislation, work 
that bore fruit in the WARN Act of 1988. A few years later, EPI shaped 
the debate on the minimum wage, showing that the benefits of raising 
wages for the poorest workers far outweighed the potential cost in 
terms of inflation or job loss.
  Joining the debate about the North American Free Trade Agreement, EPI 
explored international issues as well, pioneering the proposal that 
labor standards be included in trade agreements. On domestic issues, 
EPI developed a trademark tactic, releasing statements signed by 
prominent economists supporting increased public investment, opposing 
the balanced budget amendment, endorsing President Bill Clinton's first 
budget plan, and opposing President George W. Bush's tax cuts for the 
very wealthy. Surveys continuously find that EPI is the most widely 
quoted progressive think tank in the nation's news media.
  In 2002, Faux stepped down as president of EPI and assumed a new role 
as EPI's first Distinguished Fellow. He has begun work on a book about 
the North American economy.
  Today, we thank Jeff for his enormous contribution in improving the 
well being of working families all across the world.

                          ____________________