William J. Hughes

Hughes' South Jersey congressional district encompassed much of New Jersey's 130 mi of coastline and 1792 mi of tidal coastline, as well significant portions of the environmentally sensitive New Jersey Pinelands, the Maurice River and its tributaries, Cape May and Atlantic City beaches, and local agriculture, fishing and tourism areas.

As a member of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Hughes became deeply involved in ocean protection and environmental legislation.

Hughes also served on the House Select Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), an important assignment because the ocean waters off the coast of New Jersey and other mid-Atlantic states have often been looked to as future potential oil drilling sites.

One area known as the New York Bight, some 12 mi off the coast of New Jersey and Long Island, had been used by 25 municipalities and sewerage authorities in the New York City/Northern New Jersey area for sewage sludge disposal since 1924.

New York dumpers accounted for more than half of the 5.5 million tons dumped annually in the Bight and Northern N.J. dumpers accounted for 34 percent.

William John "Jack" Hughes (October 17, 1932 – October 30, 2019) was an American politician and diplomat who served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1995, representing New Jersey's Second Congressional District which includes major portions of the Jersey Shore and Pine Barrens, the cities of Vineland and Atlantic City, and the counties of Salem, Cumberland, Atlantic, Cape May and part of Gloucester.

He graduated from Penns Grove High School in 1950.

He attended Rutgers University, graduating in 1955 and earned his law degree from Rutgers Law School in 1958.

Hughes was married to the former Nancy L. Gibson of Moorestown from 1956 until her death in 2018.

The couple had four children.

Following his return from Panama, Hughes taught for several years at Stockton State College in Pomona, New Jersey.

He was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1959 and commenced practice in Ocean City; served as township solicitor for Upper Township, 1959–1961; appointed assistant prosecutor for Cape May County in 1960; reappointed as first assistant prosecutor in 1961 and served until the spring of 1970; appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court to the Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, 1972.

Before being elected to Congress, Hughes served for 10 years as First Assistant Prosecutor in Cape May County from 1960 to 1970.

His Congressional Papers are housed at the Rutgers University Libraries Special Collections and University Archives.

Hughes was born in Salem, New Jersey, the son of Pauline Mehaffey and William W. Hughes.

In 1970, the President's Council on Environmental Quality issued a landmark report concluding that ocean dumping and other forms of marine pollution had resulted in serious environmental damage and posed a threat to human health.

The report found that marine pollution had forced the closure of at least one-fifth of the Nation's commercial shellfish beds, beaches and bays had been closed to swimming and heavy fish kills had occurred.

Prior to his election to Congress in 1974, Hughes was President of the law firm of Loveland, Hughes and Garrett in Ocean City.

Hughes served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 until 1995.

The bill was signed into law by President Carter in November, 1977.

Although the sludge dumping ban was opposed by Congressman John M. Murphy of New York, who was Chairman of the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, Hughes was successful in getting enough votes in the Committee to defeat legislative efforts to delay the effective date.

Under this law, more than 300 industries and municipalities, including New York City and Philadelphia, which had permits or were seeking permits to dump their wastes in the ocean, were required to switch to land-based disposal alternatives.

During his tenure in Congress, Hughes was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Crime (1981–1990) and the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration (1991–1994).

Hughes also served on the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, which had jurisdiction over numerous issues of importance to his coastal district.

During his tenure in Congress, Hughes served as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Crime (1981–1990).

During that time, Hughes sponsored numerous anti-crime bills that became law including, three that became the government's principal weapons in the war against drugs and other illegal activity.

They are:

In addition to the foregoing, under Hughes' chairmanship, the Crime Subcommittee also produced a number of other significant initiatives including

In 1975, Hughes successfully offered the amendment for which he is perhaps best known, which banned the dumping of harmful sewage sludge and chemicals in the ocean after December 31, 1981.

In 1981, New York City and several other municipalities sued the EPA and were successful in obtaining a court ruling that ocean dumping of sewage sludge could not be banned without full consideration of the costs and environmental consequences of alternative disposal methods.

EPA did not appeal the court's ruling and, as a result, ocean dumping was allowed to continue.

Hughes was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1986 to conduct impeachment proceedings against District Court Judge Harry E. Claiborne of Nevada.

the Major Fraud Act of 1988, the Child Sexual Abuse and Pornography Act, the Antiterrorism Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Federal Anti-Tampering Act which authorized the federal government to investigate incidents involving tampering with drugs or consumer products and imposed criminal penalties for such acts, the Justice Assistance Act (H.R. 2175), which provided federal matching grants to state and local governments to carry out innovative and effective anti-crime programs, the Contract Services for Drug Dependent Federal Offenders Authorization Act of 1983 (H.R. 2173) which authorized funds to monitor and test federal drug offenders to keep them from going back to drugs, the Anti-Arson Act of 1982 (H.R. 6454) which expanded federal jurisdiction to include all major interstate arson cases, the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material Implementation Act of 1982 (H.R. 5228) which imposed fines and prison terms for the illegal diversion or use of nuclear materials and authorized improved nuclear safeguards, the Pretrial Services Act (H.R. 3481), which implemented a nationwide system to provide judges with better information about defendants before setting bail, and for monitoring defendants awaiting trial, the Dangerous Drug Diversion Control Act of 1984 (H.R. 5656) which strengthened federal authority to prevent the diversion of legal prescription drugs into the illicit market, the Computer Trespass Act of 1984 (H.R. 5616) which provided criminal penalties for counterfeiting access devices and for the illegal entry into federal interest computers, and the Trademark Counterfeiting Act (H.R. 6071) which strengthened federal laws against the counterfeiting of trademarked products.

Because the Subcommittee on Crime had jurisdiction over Federal firearms laws as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Hughes was involved in a number of gun-related issues during his chairmanship.

These include:

After retiring from Congress in 1995, Hughes was appointed by President Bill Clinton as United States Ambassador to Panama, a post he held until October, 1998 leading up to the historic turnover of the Panama Canal to Panamanian control.

In 1997, he was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

His work at Stockton led to the founding of a Public Policy Center which in 2008 was named the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy.

Hughes also received honorary degrees from Rutgers University, Glassboro State (now Rowan University), Stockton College, Mount Vernon College for Women, Cumberland County College and Atlantic Cape Community College.

Hughes was a longtime resident of Ocean City, where he died on October 30, 2019, at age 87.