THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
                        (St. Louis, Missouri)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                   January 26, 1999

            PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES RUDY DE LEON AS A MEMBER
                  OF THE NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL

The President today announced his intent to appoint Rudy de Leon to serve as a member of the National Partnership Council.

Mr. Rudy de Leon, of Los Angeles, California, has served as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness since 1997. He is the Defense Secretary's senior policy advisor on recruitment, career development, pay and benefits. He also oversees the Defense Health Program, Defense Commissaries and Exchange, a Defense Education Activity that supports over 100,000 students, and the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, which is the nation's largest equal opportunity training program. From 1994 to 1997, he served as Under Secretary of the Air Force where he focused on maintaining high quality personnel, force readiness and an affordable modernization program that included the F-22 fighter and C-17 airlifter. He served as Special Assistant to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin from 1993 to 1994. He previously served as Staff Director of the House Committee on Armed Services where he worked on the Committee's consideration of annual defense budgets and helped draft the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act. He received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1994 and 1995 and the Department's Exceptional Civilian Service Award in 1997.

Mr. de Leon received a B.A. degree in history from Loyola University at Los Angeles.

The National Partnership Council, which was established by executive order on October 1, 1993, is charged with advising the President on matters involving labor-management relations in the executive branch and in promoting labor-management partnerships to deliver the highest quality services to the American people.

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