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“HONORING JEFF FAUX” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E489 on March 18, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
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.
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