Richard Bryan

Richard Hudson Bryan (born July 16, 1937) was Governor of the U.S. state of Nevada and a United States Senator from Nevada. He is a member of the Democratic Party. After retiring from the senate, he became a lobbyist with the law firm of Lionel, Sawyer & Collins. Clients he has represented include Fidelity Investments, BellSouth, the city of Las Vegas, and the manufacturers of perchlorate, a rocket-fuel additive.

Biography
Bryan was born in Washington, D.C. and graduated from the University of Nevada at Reno in 1959 where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega. He earned his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law. In 1963 he was admitted to the Nevada Bar.

Bryan served as a member of the Nevada Senate from 1972 to 1978. In 1979 Bryan became the Nevada Attorney General, and served in the position until 1983.

Bryan was the Governor of Nevada between 1983 and 1989. After that, he represented Nevada in the U.S. Senate from 1989 until 2001. He chose not to run for re-election in 2000. The seat was won by John Ensign.

Senator Bryan managed to kill NASA's SETI project for the scientific search of extraterrestrial civilizations against the opinion of thousands of scientists, including Dr. Carl Sagan, and several Nobel prize winners. "The Great Martian Chase," he said, "may finally come to an end. As of today millions have been spent and we have yet to bag a single little green fellow. Not a single Martian has said take me to your leader, and not a single flying saucer has applied for FAA approval."

A Bryan campaign sign briefly appeared in the movie Rain Man.

Lobbyist for perchlorate makers
Bryan has represented companies involved in the manufacture and use of perchlorate including:
 * Aerojet, which makes missiles
 * Alliant Techsystems, an aerospace conglomerate that has Utah facilities linked to perchlorate contamination
 * American Pacific Corporation, a major producer of perchlorate for space and defense programs
 * Tronox, a chemical company spun off from Kerr-McGee

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Alliant Techsystems
 * Lobbying
 * Perchlorate Study Group

External resources

 * How Richard Bryan destroyed the NASA's SETI project
 * Richard H Bryan's current professional page