Harley Orrin Staggers

Harley Orrin Staggers (1977)

Harley Orrin Staggers (born August 3, 1907 in Keyser , Mineral County , West Virginia , † August 20, 1991 in Cumberland , Maryland ) was an American politician . Between 1949 and 1981 he represented the second constituency of the state of West Virginia in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Harley Staggers attended Mineral County's public schools. He was then at Emory and Henry College in Emory ( Virginia ) until 1931 , before completing his training with a correspondence course at Duke University in 1935 . Between 1931 and 1933 he was a teacher of science and sports at Norton High School in Virginia. He then did the same job at Potomac State College until 1935 . From 1937 to 1941 he served as sheriff chief of police in Mineral County. In 1941 and 1942 he was a member of the West Virginia State Road Committee; In 1942 he headed the Office Government Reports in West Virginia for some time, which published information on the course of the Second World War . Between 1942 and 1946, Staggers served with the US Navy Air Corps . He was used in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Staggers was a member of the Democratic Party and was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in 1948 as its candidate in the second district of West Virginia . There he took over on January 3, 1949, succeeding the Republican Melvin C. Snyder , whom he had defeated in the election. After he was confirmed in office in the following 15 elections, Harley Stagers could complete 16 consecutive terms in Congress until January 3, 1981 . Between 1965 and 1981 he was chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce . During his time in Congress, there were discussions about the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War , the Cold War , the Watergate affair and the assassination attempt on US President John F. Kennedy . In addition, amendments 22 to 26 of the Constitution were discussed and passed in Congress.

Staggers introduced the draft of the Staggers Rail Act , a federal law signed by President Jimmy Carter in October 1980 to comprehensively deregulate the American railroad industry. This marked the first time in American history that the name of the sponsor of the law had been placed in the name.

In 1980, Staggers renounced another candidacy. He retired from politics and died in August 1991. His son Harley Jr. was also a Congressman for the West Virginia Second Constituency from 1983 to 1993. In total, the elder Staggart had six children with his wife, Mary Casey.

Web links

• Harley Orrin Staggers in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)