Doug Bereuter
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| Doug Bereuter | |
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| In office January 3, 1979 – August 31, 2004 |
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| Preceded by | Charles Thone |
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| Succeeded by | Jeff Fortenberry |
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| Born | October 6, 1939 York, Nebraska |
| Political party | Republican |
Douglas Kent "Doug" Bereuter (born October 6, 1939) is a retired Republican politician from Nebraska. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 until 2004.
[edit] Early life
Born in York, Nebraska, he lived in Utica, Nebraska. He served as an infantry and intelligence officer in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1965. After discharge, he attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and later Harvard University, earning an M.P.A. Bereuter worked as an urban planner with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. He then worked for the state's Department of Economic Development, and in 1970 he became the director of Nebraska's Office of Planning and Programming.
[edit] Political career
Bereuter served in the Nebraska Legislature from 1974 to 1978, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was reelected 12 times without substantive opposition, and never won less than 58 percent of the vote. He served longer in the House than anyone in Nebraska's history, and only George Norris and Carl Curtis served in both chambers longer. He announced in late 2003 that he would not run for a 14th term in 2004, resigning on August 1, 2004 to become president of The Asia Foundation.
He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the Financial Services Committee, Committee on International Relations, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and was the Vice-Chairman on the Select Committee on Intelligence. He was also Chairman of the U.S. House Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Among the bills that Bereuter sponsored is the Bunning-Bereuter-Blumenauer Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004.
Bereuter generally had a moderate voting record; his lifetime American Conservative Union rating was 63. He was sometimes critical of the religious right's influence on the Republican Party. He endorsed Curt Bromm, speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, as his successor in 2004. However, Bromm lost to a considerably more conservative candidate, Jeff Fortenberry.
Shortly before he left Congress, Bereuter unexpectedly released a statement, calling the Iraq war (which he had previously supported) "a mistake," and strongly criticized a "massive failure" of pre-war intelligence.
[edit] External links
- Doug Bereuter at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Voting record maintained by the Washington Post
| Preceded by Walter Epke |
Nebraska state senator-district 24 1975 – 1979 |
Succeeded by Harold Sieck |
| Preceded by Charles Thone |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska's 1st congressional district 1979 – 2004 |
Succeeded by Jeff Fortenberry |
