[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 102 (Friday, July 28, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1573-E1574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING BOB BRAUER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 28, 2006

  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary life 
and work of Robert Brauer of Berkeley, CA. A visionary and courageous 
public servant, Bob has dedicated his life to serving his community and 
his country. Bob's unwavering commitment to social justice has inspired 
me and many others to dedicate our lives to this struggle, and has 
impacted the lives of countless others in California's 9th 
Congressional District and across our country. This month Bob 
``retires'' after a lifetime of working for the advancement of a more 
just and equitable society for us all, and today I join our entire 
community in saluting him for his public exemplary service.
  Bob's dedication to public service has been evident since he was a 
young adult. After graduating in 1960 from the University of 
California, Berkeley, where he met his wife Penny, Bob was commissioned 
as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. He was stationed 
in El Paso, TX, in the Strategic Air Command, and served there until 
1963 when he left the Air Force as a Captain.
  Upon completion of his service in the Air Force, Bob and his family, 
which by then included his wife, a son, and two young daughters, 
returned to Berkeley, CA, where he began a new job as an Assistant 
Personnel

[[Page E1574]]

 Officer at Wells Fargo Bank, where he was an integral part of Wells 
Fargo's participation in the industry-wide effort in California to 
integrate women and minorities into parts of the workforce in which 
they were dramatically underrepresented.
  Following that job, Bob became the Skills Bank Director for the Bay 
Area Urban League, a role in which he was responsible for creating job 
opportunities for and placing minorities in jobs that had historically 
been inaccessible to them. During this time, Bob was also very active 
in civic and political affairs, serving in leadership positions in a 
number of local organizations, and with his wife Penny, he was very 
active in local political campaigns. Bob was appointed to the 
Recreation and Parks Commission by then-Berkeley City Council member 
Ron Dellums, and around that time he was also named as President of the 
Catholic Interracial Council of the Diocese of Oakland. He and his wife 
continued their activism in the farm workers' and civil rights 
struggles, the anti-Vietnam War movement and other local issues related 
to the ongoing fight for social justice.
  In 1969, Bob became the Regional Director of the Office of Federal 
Contract Compliance (OFCC), Department of Labor, and soon became the 
OFCC Assistant Director in Washington, DC. In this role he helped to 
develop the national plan to integrate the construction trades, as well 
as the Philadelphia Plan's goals and timetables for women and 
minorities. Bob and his family, which by that time had grown 
considerably, moved to Bethesda, MD.
  In 1971, the Secretary of Labor nominated Bob and the American 
Political Science Association (APSA) selected him to be an APSA 
Congressional Fellow, and he spent the next year working in the office 
of his friend, the newly elected Congressman Ron Dellums of 
California's then 7th District. At the end of his fellowship he left 
the Department of Labor and joined Mr. Dellums' staff.
  This marked the beginning of what would become more than two decades 
of distinguished service to California's now-9th Congressional District 
and to our country. Bob would serve as Special Counsel to Congressman 
Dellums and for the House District of Columbia Committee during Mr. 
Dellums chairmanship. In 1993, Bob became a Senior Professional Staff 
Member on the House Armed Services Committee when Mr. Dellums became 
the HASC Chairman.
  Bob was an integral part not only of the personal office and 
Committee staffs, but he played a major role in supporting Mr. Dellums' 
many policy initiatives during those years. At the DC Committee, Bob 
helped implement bold initiatives to use the Committee as a vehicle for 
promulgating solutions to some of the District's, and the Nation's, 
most important urban problems: mass transportation, pension reform, 
health care and infant mortality and education reform, among others. 
Among his most notable activities were his work on the investigation of 
the U.S. Intelligence Community undertaken by the Pike Select 
Committee, the successful authorization of the 50-foot federal channel 
dredging project at the Port of Oakland, and the construction of the 
Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland. Bob was also centrally 
involved in the drafting and passage of Mr. Dellums' incredibly 
important anti-apartheid bill in the House of Representatives in the 
1980s, a bill which became law over the veto of then-President Reagan. 
Throughout his time in Washington, Bob was also actively involved in 
international human rights issues, traveling as a peace observer 
several times to wartorn countries in Central America in the 1970s and 
1980s, at the risk of his own life. On the HASC staff he played a 
significant role in maintaining Mr. Dellums' excellent working 
relationships with both sides of the aisle and assisting Mr. Dellums to 
accomplish one of the House's most exemplary chairmanships.
  I met Bob during his early years in Congressman Dellums' personal 
office. I was then an intern for Congressman Dellums. I will never 
forget the way he supported and guided me, and helped me to not only 
become engaged in politics and policy, but also to become an effective 
advocate for social justice. For over 30 years, Bob has been a willing 
mentor, an advisor, a teacher and a friend, and serving the 9th 
Congressional District and our country alongside him has been and 
continues to be a great honor.
  Bob worked for Congressman Dellums until the end of 1996. In 1997, 
Bob became Special Assistant to the President of California State 
University, Hayward, where he played a crucial role in the sizeable 
structural improvements, enrollment increases, and expansion of that 
campus into a leading institution in our state. During that time he has 
also continued to serve our community in numerous other roles, such as 
a volunteer Board member of the Chabot Observatory and Science Center, 
where he was responsible for raising close to $60 million to build a 
new facility in Oakland.
  Bob recently retired from the renamed CSU East Bay, and today I would 
like to add my voice to the countless others that are expressing their 
congratulations and their gratitude to this extraordinary individual 
for his tireless work and ceaseless advocacy for social justice and 
equality of opportunity in the United States and around the world. On 
behalf of California's 9th Congressional District, I am humbled to 
honor Bob Brauer for his extraordinary service to our community, and to 
wish him the very best as he begins the next chapter in his life of 
conviction, character, and integrity.

                          ____________________