Breakdown: Lessons For A Congress In Crisis
SFWAF program with Jeff Bingaman, former US Senator, New Mexico discussing his new book “BREAKDOWN: LESSONS FOR A CONGRESS IN CRISIS”.
“I will explain the main points I make in the book, both about the problems I saw develop in the workings of Congress, and about the increased pressures members of Congress face as they try to act in the public interest. I will also discuss eight of the challenges Congress tried to deal with—where we succeeded and where we failed.”
Jeff Bingaman was born on October 3, 1943. He grew up in the southwestern New Mexico community of Silver City. His father was a chemistry professor and chair of the science department at Western New Mexico University. His mother taught in the public schools.
After graduating from Western (now Silver) High School in 1961, Jeff attended Harvard College and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government in 1965. He then entered Stanford Law School where he met, and later married, fellow law student Anne Kovacovich.
Upon earning his law degree from Stanford in 1968, Jeff and Anne returned to New Mexico. They have one son, John.
After law school, Jeff spent one year as a New Mexico Assistant Attorney General and eight years in private law practice in Santa Fe. He ran for Attorney General of New Mexico in 1978 and served four years in that position. In 1982 voters elected him to the United States Senate. At the end of his fifth term, he chose not to seek re-election and completed his service in the Senate on January 3, 2013.
At the time of his retirement from the Senate, he was chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He also served on the Finance Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Joint Economic Committee.
Beginning In April 2013, he spent a year as a Distinguished Fellow with the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford Law School.
In 2015, he taught a seminar on the functioning of Congress in the Honors College at the University of New Mexico. In 2022, the University of New Mexico Press published his book, BREAKDOWN: Lessons for a Congress in Crisis.
Jeff and Anne live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Location:
SFCC Board Room (#223) is in the West Wing (Administration Building). The college is located at 6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87508. Enter through the building’s main entrance (on the left side of the building behind the flag poles). The Board Room is on the corridor to the left of the Campus Center.
Directions:
From Rodeo Road turn south onto Richards Avenue. Turn into the campus main drive. Parking lots are in front of the building. From I-25 take the Cerrillos Road exit, turn east onto Governor Miles Road and then right onto Richards Avenue. Then follow directions above.
The SFWAF program is from 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm.
Cost for the SFWAF lunch event is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers.
Registration: This SFWAF lunch is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers. You may pay by check made out to SFWAF and mailed to The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum, Santa Fe, PO Box 31965, NM 87594 or with a credit card using our Paypal account. Please indicate on your check or if using Paypal please note in “add special instructions to the seller” that your payment is for the Thursday, February 23, 2023 program. If you are not a member please also include your best contact information. If you are interested in membership, please email us.
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The Speaker
After graduating from Western (now Silver) High School in 1961, Jeff attended Harvard College and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government in 1965. He then entered Stanford Law School where he met and later married, fellow law student Anne Kovacovich.
Upon earning his law degree from Stanford in 1968, Jeff and Anne returned to New Mexico. They have one son, John.
After law school, Jeff spent one year as a New Mexico Assistant Attorney General and eight years in private law practice in Santa Fe. He ran for Attorney General of New Mexico in 1978 and served four years in that position. In 1982 voters elected him to the United States Senate. At the end of his fifth term, he chose not to seek re-election and completed his service in the Senate on January 3, 2013.
At the time of his retirement from the Senate, he was chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He also served on the Finance Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Joint Economic Committee.
Beginning In April 2013, he spent a year as a Distinguished Fellow with the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford Law School.
In 2015, he taught a seminar on the functioning of Congress in the Honors College at the University of New Mexico. In 2022, the University of New Mexico Press published his book, BREAKDOWN: Lessons for a Congress in Crisis.
Jeff and Anne live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In her recent book Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Castro’s Cuba Vicki Huddleston, one of America’s top Cuba-hands and Chief of the US Interests Section in Havana from 2000-2002 who later served as Ambassador to Madagascar and Mali, discusses her experiences as America’s de facto Ambassador to the island nation during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W Bush and assesses the changes she has witnessed over the past 18 years in the island’s history, economics and politics as well as the continuing troubled relationships between Washington and this island only 90 miles off the US coast.
Former Secretary of State Elihu Root called for citizens to take a concerted interest in international relations in his article entitled,” A Requisite for the Success of Popular Diplomacy,” published in the first issue of Foreign Affairs (September 1922). This article prompts reflection on essential questions affecting the U.S. image abroad.