Bruce Owens Jr.

**Bruce Owens Jr.** (born April 25, 1932) is an American politician who served the United States Secretary of Agriculture from 1993 to 2001 and the 35th Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1991.

## Early life and early career

Bruce Owens Jr. was born on April 25, 1932 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is a member of the Owens political family, the son of Bruce Owens Sr., a United States Senator from Nebraska from 1955 to 1979 and Mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska from 1947 to 1955. He is also the father of Bruce Owens III, the current senior United States Senator from Nebraska since 2003. He attended public schools, graduating from Lincoln Northeast High School. He went on to earn a bachelors degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1955 and a J.D. from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 1959. After several draft postponements to finish law school and take care of his young family, Owens served in the United States Navy as a SEAL officer from 1959 to 1969 during the Vietnam War. He remained a commissioned military officer until 1982 and retired with the rank of Rear Admiral.

## Legal and early political career

Upon his military retirement in 1969, Owens was a trial lawyer at the prestigious Omaha-based law firm, Sanders, Laughlin, & Gates. He worked at the firm for four years until 1973 when he left the firm to serve as staff counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for his father. Owens served in this capacity for six years until his father’s retirement from the Senate on January 3, 1979. Owens then briefly served for seven months as legislative counsel for U.S. Representative John Ottie (R–PA). He returned to Sanders, Laughlin, & Gates in July 1979 as Co-Chair of the firm's Government Investigations and White Collar Crime Group where he was the defense attorney for Republican Senator Bill Ingram of Maryland in 1980 when he was federally indicted on corruption charges and for conservative Democratic Governor of Kentucky, George L. Jones in 1981 when he was impeached and convicted for taking over $150,000 in bribe money in exchange for a political appointment.

## Governor of Nebraska

In 1982, Owens ran for Governor of Nebraska and defeated Cliff Larson, a Democratic state legislator from the 11th district. He served as governor from 1983 to 1991. In 1986, he served as the Chairman of the Midwestern Governors Association. During his tenure he was largely supported by rural conservatives and greatly increased the number of state-sponsored agricultural subsidies. He took a centrist approach to economics, declaring his governorship "The Age of Austerity" in his first State of the State Address and supporting dealing with the state budget deficit by increasing taxes and slashing state spending.

In the 1986 general election, he defeated former Nebraska Democratic Party Chair, Roland Collins by winning by 53%–47%. Collins centered his campaign around opposition to austerity and the Governor’s economic platform which caused Governor Owens to label him a “socialist”. In his second term, the governor balanced the state budget and helped bring AmerIT Systems, a large information technology company to Nebraska. Governor Owens also served as Chair of the Republican Governors Association from 1989 to 1990. He was supportive of a proposed low-level nuclear waste dump in the final year of his governorship which was heavily criticized. He was term-limited in 1990 and supported his Lieutenant Governor Martha Waters in that year’s gubernatorial election. Despite Owens’ efforts, Waters lost to Democratic Mayor of Lincoln, Bob Miller by 50%–49% as he was opposed to Owens’ tax increases and support for the proposed nuclear waste dump.

## Secretary of Agriculture

Following his gubernatorial tenure, Owens was nominated by President Pat Weil to be the Secretary of Agriculture, where his nomination was approved by the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on January 30, 1993 by a 19–1 voice vote and by the entire Senate in a vote of 87–11 on January 31. He served all eight years of the Weil administration from 1993 to 2001. During his tenure at USDA he greatly reduced regulatory enforcement for poultry and livestock. He opposed the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food, federal mandates on food options, menu labeling, and stricter nutritional guidelines for schools. He worked closely with the Secretary of Energy to implement programs for developing alternative sources of energy such as ethanol and wind energy; his home state of Nebraska has high levels of corn production and windy prairies to produce these forms of energy. When Weil's term ended, Owens’ career in government ended, but was followed by numerous leadership roles in related institutions and organizations.

## Post-government career

Following his departure from public office, Owens has served in a number of capacities including as the campaign manager for his son’s successful election in 2002 to the United States Senate seat once held by Owens’ father. He also served as a legal analyst and political commentator on various networks for a number of years. During the presidency of John Grady he was considered as a potential nominee for the post of Executive Director of the World Food Programme but declined when asked by the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He also served as a partner at Green, Gomez, Anderson, & Owens, a Washington law and lobbying firm that specializes in representing interests before the USDA and related federal agencies.