FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Alia Diamond, FMC Communications Associate – Adiamond@usafmc.org

FMC Selects New Leadership

Bipartisan group of Former Members elected to serve as President and Executive Committee. 

(Tuesday, June 26, 2018) – Tuesday, during their annual report to Congress, FMC, the Association of Former Members of Congress, officially elected four former members of the U.S. Congress to lead the Association.

Former Rep. Martin Frost (D-Tex.), who served the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex from 1979 to 2005, was elected President, succeeding former Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who served the Gainesville-Ocala region from 1989 to 2013. During his career in Congress, Frost was the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, as well as serving on the Budget Committee. Frost served from 2013 to 2017 as Chair of the National Endowment for Democracy and is an adjunct professor at George Washington University. He graduated from University of Missouri, with a law degree from Georgetown.

Frost will be replaced as Vice-President of FMC by former Rep. Dr. Charles Boustany (R-Louisiana), who served the Lafyette/Lake Charles region of Louisiana from 2005 to 2017. Boustany served on the House Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure; Education and Labor; and Agriculture during his time in Congress. Since leaving Congress, Boustany has featured in several FMC events as an expert on international trade and trade agreements. He attended the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and became a cardiovascular surgeon after earning his doctorate at LSU.

Former Rep. L. F. Payne (D-Va.) will become FMC Secretary. Payne represented southern Virginia from 1988 until 1997, and was a co-founder of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate, primarily southern Democrats. Payne served on the House Ways and Means Committee. Payne served in the U.S. Army from 1967 until 1969, following his graduation from Virginia Military Institute. He also earned an M.B.A. from University of Virginia.

Former Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) will serve as FMC Treasurer. Buerkle served for one term, representing upstate New York between 2011 and 2013. She served on the Oversight and Government Reform; Veterans Affairs and Foreign Affairs Committees. Buerkle was a registered nurse after graduating from St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing and earning a B.S. from Le Moyne College. In 1991, after years as a nurse, she earned her J.D. from Syracuse. Buerkle is now Chair of the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

President Martin Frost and Vice President Charles Boustany will serve one two-year term each, while Buerkle and Payne serve one-year terms which can be extended an additional year. Stearns will serve on the FMC Board as Immediate Past President.

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