January 2, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD

RE: DUGGAN NAMED NMB CHAIRMAN

Francis J. Duggan is the new chairman of the National Mediation Board (NMB) effective January 1, 2001. Mr. Duggan was first appointed to the NMB by President Clinton and was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on November 19, 1999. He subsequently was confirmed for a new three-year term on September 8, 2000.

The NMB is an independent Federal agency established by the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline and railroad labor-management relations. Board members serve three-year terms. No more than two of the three members may be from the same political party and the chair rotates among the members. The other members of the Board are Magdalena G. Jacobsen and Ernest W. DuBester.

Mr. Duggan was a Presidential appointee at the Labor Department during the Ford and Reagan Administrations, serving as assistant secretary in the Reagan administration. He worked in the Senate on the Labor Committee and in the office of former Senator Charles Mathias (R-MD), and in the House for Rep. William Steiger (R-WI). He was also the Director of Operations of the Legal Services Program in the former Office of Economic Opportunity.

Prior to joining the board, Member Duggan was an attorney with the Washington law firm of Mullenholz, Brimsek and Belair. He has extensive experience in both the rail and air transportation industries. For ten years he was an assistant vice president of the Association of American Railroads and served as Family Liaison with President George Bush's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism between 1989-90. Duggan has represented the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, as a pro bono advisor and attorney. He is a member of the Transportation Section of the Federal Bar Association and serves as the editor of Translaw. He is also an active member of the Washington Foreign Law Society, having served as an officer and board member.

He is an alumnus of St. John's college and law school in New York, and received two graduate political science fellowships and a research grant from Harvard University. Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., he lives in Alexandria, VA, with his wife Faye Padgett, a retired Capitol Hill staffer. He has three grown children.