Dick Lugar has served in the U.S. Senate longer than any other Hoosier. He is the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and member and former Chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.
Senator Lugar won his first U.S. Senate election in 1976, and in 2000, he was re-elected to his fifth term in the Senate. No other Hoosier has been a U.S. Senator for more than three terms. Lugar won his last three elections with a two-thirds majority.
Education and Family
Richard Green Lugar was born April 4, 1932, in Indianapolis. He is the oldest of three children of Marvin and Bertha Lugar. An Eagle Scout, Lugar graduated first in his class at both Shortridge High School in Indianapolis and Denison University in Granville, Ohio. While at Denison, he was co-president of the student government with his future wife, Charlene Smeltzer.
In 1954, he went to Pembroke College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where he received an honors degree in politics, philosophy and economics. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he has been awarded 40 honorary degrees from 14 states and the District of Columbia.
The Lugars were married on September 8, 1956. They have four sons and thirteen grandchildren, and are members of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis.
Early Career
After finishing two years at Oxford, Lugar went to the U.S. Embassy in London, volunteered for the United States Navy in 1956, and served as an officer beginning 1957. He ultimately served as the intelligence briefer for Admiral Arleigh Burke, Chief of Naval Operations. Upon leaving the Navy in 1960, Lugar returned to Indianapolis where he and his brother Tom managed the family's food machinery manufacturing business.
Lugar was elected to the Indianapolis School Board in 1963, where he worked for voluntary public school desegregation and promoted the Shortridge Plan, a forerunner of the magnet school concept. In 1967, he was elected Mayor of Indianapolis. As a two-term mayor (1968-75), he envisioned the unification of the city and surrounding Marion County into one government. Lugar's plan, Unigov, revitalized the downtown area and set Indianapolis on a path of uninterrupted economic growth. In 1971, he was elected to a term as President of the National League of Cities. Lugar is one of only two current Senators to have served on a school board, and he is the only Senator with experience both as a school board member and as a mayor.
National Security Leader
Lugar has gained wide recognition as a leader on national security policy. Foremost among his initiatives is the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Lugar saw the grave proliferation risk presented by the Soviet Union's vast arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Working with former Senator Sam Nunn (a Democrat from Georgia), Lugar created an ambitious program to safeguard and dismantle weapons of mass destruction cooperatively in the former Soviet Union.
The Nunn-Lugar program has dismantled a huge array of bombers, missiles, submarines and other launch vehicles. As of December 2005, Nunn-Lugar has destroyed approximately 6,828 nuclear warheads. More than 45,000 scientists formerly engaged in research on weapons of mass destruction have been employed in cooperative pursuits under Nunn-Lugar. It also facilitated the safe removal of all nuclear weapons from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus, thereby turning the countries with the third, fourth, and eighth largest nuclear arsenals into nuclear weapons-free nations. In 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Senators Nunn and Lugar received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their disarmament efforts.
During his first Chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from1985 to 1986, Lugar was instrumental in promoting democracy around the world. He played a pivotal role in the 1986 Philippines election that brought Corazon Aquino to power. As the head of an American election observer team, he recognized Corazon Aquino as the legitimate winner and spotlighted corrupt activities of supporters of former President Ferdinand Marcos -- ultimately convincing President Reagan to back Aquino. He also led the effort in the Senate to secure passage of the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, which imposed economic and political sanctions on South Africa. More recently, Lugar was the original author of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which promotes trade and encourages African countries to integrate into the global economy. He also pressed for and won passage of AGOA II and III, which extend the incredible progress of the first round of AGOA legislaltion.
Lugar played key roles in Senate ratification of the START I, START II, and Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaties and the Chemical Weapons Convention. He was an early supporter of NATO enlargement, and he helped usher in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as new members in 1998. He was one of the leading supporters of a second round of NATO expansion in 2002.
Letters to the Next President, which Lugar authored a book in 1988, remains a primer of basic principles of presidential leadership in foreign policy. This is one of the few first-hand accounts of the Philippines elections, the South Africa sanctions debate, and the implementation of the Reagan Doctrine. Letters to the Next President has been republished by AuthorHouse with an updated chapter for the 2004 Presidential election. For more information on purchasing a hard cover, paperback or electronic version, visit AuthorHouse's website.
Agricultural Leader
Lugar has been involved in agriculture since he worked on his family's 604-acre farm in Marion County, Indiana as a boy. He continues to manage the family farm, where he grows corn, soybeans and walnut trees. As a life-long family farmer, Lugar believes that the best course for rural prosperity exists in planting flexibility, tax relief, an aggressive export policy, conservation incentives and less regulation for farmers.
As Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee (1995-2001), he built bipartisan support for federal farm program reforms and passed the 1996 Farm Bill. During the 2002 Farm Bill debate, he was the leading proponent for restraining agriculture subsidies and administering farm programs more equitably within the American farm community. He has promoted broader risk management options for farmers, research advancements, increased export opportunities and higher net farm income. He was also the leader of initiatives to streamline the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reform the food stamp program and require daily price reporting by packers.
Recognizing that trade expansion is the key to the agricultural economy, Lugar continuously works to improve trade opportunities for farmers. He has been a leader of the movement to limit counterproductive unilateral sanctions and exempt food and medicine from sanctions. He has supported trade promotion authority (fast-track) for the President and aggressive negotiating to knock down foreign barriers to our farm products.
Former Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole described Lugar's influence on American agriculture policy by saying: "When Dick speaks, people listen -- and they get results."
Outstanding Legislator
Beyond agriculture and foreign policy, Lugar has been the author of a wide array of successful legislative initiatives.
Considered one of the foremost advocates of scientific research in the Senate, he authored a law that provided funding for competitive agricultural research grants in 1998. He also authored the National Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals Act of 2000, a law designed to jump start research toward the production of cost-effective biofuels made from anything that grows, including weeds and agricultural wastes.
In 1996, Lugar led the successful opposition of replacing the school lunch program with block grants in the welfare reform bill. He has been a strong advocate of literacy and school reform efforts, too. He aggressively promotes the research-based "Success for All" reform plan, which has boosted reading skills academic achievement in schools in Indiana and throughout the nation. He authored and passed the S-CHIP Improvement Act of 1999, which facilitated sign-ups for the Children's Health Insurance Program.
In 1985, Senator Lugar authored the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which became arguably the most successful soil erosion control program in history. Lugar complimented this legislation with the1996 Farm Bill, which extended the CRP and added a provision to improve rural water quality. He was also a lead co-sponsor of the Acid Rain Title of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. As the co-author of the 1998 Tropical Forest Conservation Act and the 1989 Global Environmental Protection Assistance Act, he has been an active advocate of debt-for-nature swaps.
Lugar was the co-author of the 1996 Nunn-Lugar-Domenici program, which facilitates the training of first responders in more than 120 cities for the possibility of an attack by nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.
While serving on the Banking Committee from 1977 to 1982, Lugar earned recognition for his leadership on the Chrysler and New York City loan programs. In both situations, he helped create a compromise to bridge the differences between supporters of expensive bailout programs and Senators who opposed any federal help. His proposals, ultimately approved by Congress, required Chrysler, New York City, and their employees to make sacrifices in exchange for federal loan guarantees.
Lugar, who served as a member of the 1993 Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress, also advocates strongly for improving the legislative process. He has been a leader of efforts to streamline appointment procedures, adopt a two-year budget and limit the use of Senate "holds."
Senator Lugar was the fourth person awarded the prestigious "Outstanding Legislator" award by the American Political Science Association.
Community Endeavors
Since 1977, Lugar has hosted the annual "Lugar Symposium for Tomorrow's Leaders." The Lugar Symposium brings together two juniors from each high school in Indiana for a day of dialogue and examination of current issues. More than 10,000 Hoosier high school students have attended a Dick Lugar symposium.
Lugar also has hosted the Dick Lugar Health Fair and Fitness Festival every year since 1979. This two-day family event, held in Indianapolis, brings participants together with nearly 60 healthcare and fitness representatives. The events include running and walk races on the Butler University campus. Senator Lugar has served as a co-chair of the Advisory Committee for the annual Capitol Challenge road race benefiting the D.C. Special Olympics. An avid runner, he is the only legislator to finish this race every year it has been held.
In 1983, Lugar established the Fund for Hoosier Excellence with private resources. The fund provides scholarships to minority students who pursue their college education in Indiana. He also is the founder of the annual Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series, which encourages Hoosier Republican women to pursue leadership positions in government. He serves on the Board of Trustees for both Denison University and the University of Indianapolis.
As a member and as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Lugar has been an advocate for international educational exchange programs. He has been involved in the development of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program, which allows German and American students to engage in cultural exchanges. He also serves on the board of Youth for Understanding, the parent group for a host of international scholarship programs.
In 2002, Lugar launched the Veterans History Project in Indiana in cooperation with the Library of Congress. The Project seeks to record the remembrances of Hoosier veterans on audio or videotape to ensure that their experiences are preserved for history. The material is provided to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and will be catalogued and stored for use by historians, students and researchers in perpetuity.
Charlene Lugar, a former member of the national board of directors of the March of Dimes, has established an endowed fund for fighting birth defects and infant deaths. The fund includes support for prenatal care provided aboard the "Mom-mobile," which tours Indianapolis neighborhoods.
Republican Party Leader
Lugar has been an active Republican since his youth. He was the keynote speaker at the 1972 Republican National Convention, and served in the Senate as an Assistant Republican Whip. He was also on President Ronald Reagan's final list of vice-presidential possibilities in 1980, and chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1983-84 election cycle where he successfully maintained a Republican majority of the Senate in the 1984 election.
Lugar ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 on a platform of prosperity, national security and integrity. He continues to work closely with party leaders in promoting the Republican agenda of economic growth, strong national security and U.S. leadership in the world. He is constantly honored with a perfect 100 percent rating from both the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Business.
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