Bruce Frank Vento (October 7, 1940 – October 10, 2000) was an American politician, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

from 1977 until his death in 2000, representing .

Early life

Vento was born in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...

, and was educated at the

University of Minnesota Twin Cities The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. T ...

in Minneapolis, where he received his BA in 1961. He later, in 1965, received a B.S with honors, from the University of Wisconsin River Falls. He was a public school teacher in St. Paul, Minnesota prior to entering politics.

Career

Vento served in the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint Pa ...

from 1971 until 1976 before entering the House. Vento is recognized for his efforts in cleaning the environment and promoting affordable housing. He is also widely known for the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1986, which provides federal money for shelter programs.

Honors

The

Bruce Vento Regional Trail The Bruce Vento Regional Trail is a rail trail in the cities of Vadnais Heights, Gem Lake, Maplewood, and Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. The trail occupies an abandoned Burlington Northern Railroad corridor and intersects with the Gateway St ...

runs through St. Paul, Minnesota. Along this path, by the Johnson Parkway just north of Phalen Avenue, a memorial grove has also been named in his honor. The Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, a former railroad yard and informal trash dumping area in Lowertown St. Paul is also named for the Congressman, who lived nearby and supported this model reclamation project. East Consolidated Elementary School in St. Paul was renamed Bruce Vento Elementary School in 2000.

Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act

Vento introduced the first bill in the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washingto ...

to grant honorary U.S. citizenship to Laotian and Hmong veterans who served in the "U.S. Secret Army" in Laos during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. The legislation, the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000 was passed by the House and Senate following his death and signed into law by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

. Vento worked with the

Lao Veterans of America The Lao Veterans of America, Inc., describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental, veterans organization that represents Lao- and Hmong-American veterans who served in the U.S. clandestine war in the Kingdom of Laos during the Vie ...

, the Lao Veterans of America Institute,

the Center for Public Policy Analysis The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), or Centre for Public Policy Analysis, was established in Washington, D.C., in 1988 and describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan, think tank and research organization. The CPPA is a non-govern ...

and others to research and advance the legislation in Congress, Washington, D.C., and the Lao- and Hmong-American community. Vento worked with Hmong elders and community leaders in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...

and across the United States, including

Cherzong Vang Cherzong Vang (April 13, 1943 – November 10, 2012) was an American community leader from St. Paul, Minnesota. He was an elder of the Hmong people in Laos and the Lao-American community in the Twin Cities of the United States. Cherzong worked wi ...

, Colonel

Wangyee Vang Wangyee Vang is a Hmong-American community leader, educator and elder from Fresno, and the Central Valley, of California. Veterans' assistance Vang is the founder and National President of the Lao Veterans of America Institute, a national no ...

and others to build support for the legislation which took over 10 years to gain the bipartisan support for passage on

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

, Congress and the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

Death

Vento died in 2000 while still a member of Congress from

pleural The pleural cavity, pleural space, or interpleural space is the potential space between the pleurae of the pleural sac that surrounds each lung. A small amount of serous pleural fluid is maintained in the pleural cavity to enable lubrication bet ...

mesothelioma, a rare form of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

, as a result of exposure to

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

. He died shortly before the 2000 election, in which he was not running for another term, so no special election or new candidates were needed to replace him.

References

External links

Minnesota Legislators Past and Present
* The Bruce Vent
Papers
including extensive records of his congressional service, are available for research use at th
Minnesota Historical Society.Bruce Vento Elementary School History
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vento, Bruce 1940 births 2000 deaths Catholics from Minnesota Deaths from cancer in Minnesota Deaths from mesothelioma American politicians of Italian descent Democratic Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives University of Wisconsin–River Falls alumni Politicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota University of Minnesota alumni Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota Hmong people 20th-century American politicians