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THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                       (The Hamptons, New York)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                      July 31, 1998
                           PRESIDENT CLINTON 
          NAMES CLAIBORNE PELL AS AN ALTERNATE REPRESENTATIVE
       OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE FIFTY-THIRD SESSION 
            OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS

The President today announced the nomination of former United States Senator Claiborne Pell to be an Alternate Representative of the United States of America to the Fifty-Third Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Senator Claiborne Pell, of Newport, Rhode Island, served in the U.S. Senate from 1961 to 1997, the longest serving Senator in Rhode Island history. During his tenure, he held the posts of Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations; Chairman of the Subcommittee on Education, Arts and Humanities; and Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Administration. His legislative accomplishments include sponsoring the law establishing the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, helping secure ratification for a treaty to reduce nuclear weapons, and taking a leading role in eliminating financial barriers to higher education. Additional accomplishments include his participation in the San Francisco Conference that created the United Nations and seven years as a Foreign Service Officer. He also served the in U.S. Coast Guard during World War II and retired with the rank of Captain in 1978. Senator Pell has been appointed to serve on numerous Presidential and Congressional delegations, including the 25th and 51st U.N. General Assemblies, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, and the first World Environmental Conference in Stockholm in 1972.

Mr. Pell received his A.B. degree in History (cum laude) from Princeton in 1940, and his M.A. from Columbia University. He has received honorary doctorates from 50 colleges and universities.

The 53rd Session of the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly is scheduled to begin September 8, 1998 and will be in full session until December 1998. The principal functions of the public delegates to the U.N. General Assembly are to sit in the chair of the U.S. U.N. Representative when they are unavailable and to represent the Representative at committee meetings and conferences.

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