[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 277]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING THE LIFE AND DEDICATED SERVICE OF FORMER CONGRESSMAN WAYNE 
                             OWENS OF UTAH

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 7, 2003

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I join my distinguished colleague from Utah, 
Mr. Matheson, the other members of the Utah delegation, and all of my 
colleagues in this body in mourning the passing of our former 
colleague, Congressman Wayne Owens of Utah. I consider it an honor to 
have known him and to have served with him.
  Wayne and I served on the International Relations Committee during 
his second term of service in this House from 1987 until 1993. I 
visited Wayne's congressional district in Salt Lake City at his request 
to assist with his reelection.
  My relationship with Wayne, however, went back much further than our 
association here in this House. In the 1960s he served as a legislative 
aide to Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah, and later he was the 
Administrative Assistant to Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. 
I also served on the staff of other members of the Senate while Wayne 
was working there.
  Mr. Speaker, Wayne and I stood together on many issues before the 
International Relations Committee--from seeking to bring peace in the 
Middle East to dealing with the momentous changes taking place in 
Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. We also worked together on 
many other issues that were before the Congress--from protecting our 
nation's fragile environment to seeking the welfare of the working men 
and women of our country.
  Mr. Speaker, Wayne Owens was a man of conviction, who took action 
that he thought was right despite the personal consequences. During his 
first term in the House of Representatives, he served on the Judiciary 
Committee and cast his vote for the impeachment of then-President 
Richard M. Nixon. Not long after that important vote, he ran for an 
open seat in the United States Senate but lost. He blamed his defeat on 
that Judiciary Committee vote because President Nixon remained popular 
in Utah. Wayne also worked on environmental legislation to protect the 
incomparable Utah wilderness and to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone 
National Park--issues that many in his home state did not support. He 
voted against authorizing the use of military force against Iraq in 
1991. I greatly admire Wayne for his determination to act as he thought 
right, despite the personal consequences.
  Mr. Speaker, both before and after his congressional service, Wayne 
was committed to working for peace and reconciliation in the Middle 
East. In 1989 he joined my friend S. Daniel Abraham, the former 
Chairman of Slim Fast Foods, to establish the Center for Middle East 
Peace and Economic Cooperation. After his loss in the Utah Senate 
election in 1992, Wayne devoted a great deal of his time to the Center, 
and he was a frequent visitor to Arab States and Israel. On many 
occasions he traveled with Members of Congress to that region in an 
effort to increase understanding of regional problems and to seek 
solutions through economic cooperation.
  Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in acknowledging the contributions 
of Wayne Owens to our nation, to this House, and to the cause of better 
understanding between peoples of the world. He was a remarkable and a 
dedicated man, and we all join in expressing our condolences to 
Marlene, his devoted wife of 41 years, and to his five children and 14 
grandchildren.

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