Grover Joseph Rees

Former General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization, Former United States Ambassador to East Timor

Biography

Grover Joseph Rees is a Louisiana native whose family has lived in the Breaux Bridge/Lafayette area since the 1700s.

His first job after college was as an assistant to Congressman Dave Treen (R-LA3), who had just been elected as the first Republican Congressman from Louisiana since Reconstruction.

Rees graduated with honors from LSU Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Louisiana Law Review. While in law school he worked on Ronald Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign and was a Reagan delegate from Louisiana to the Republican National Convention. He also served as a member of the Lafayette Parish Republican Executive Committee and as a board member of Acadiana Right to Life.

In 1979, when Congressman Treen ran successfully for Governor, he asked Rees to write his authorized biography. The book, Dave Treen of Louisiana, was read and discussed widely during the campaign and after Treen’s election.

In 1985-86 Rees served as Special Counsel for Judicial Selection in President Reagan’s Justice Department, working closely with Attorney General Ed Meese to reorganize the judicial selection process to make it more philosophically oriented. These efforts resulted in the appointment of over 100 federal judges and were widely credited with transforming the federal judiciary.

From 1986 through 1991 Rees served as Chief Justice of the High Court of American Samoa, an Article I federal judicial position.

From 1991 through 1993 he was General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

In 1995 Rees went to work for the new Republican Congress as staff director and chief counsel of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. He worked with subcommittee chairman Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) to cut U.S. funding for the International Planned Parenthood Federation and other organizations that perform and promote abortions overseas. Rees also worked on the drafting and enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and other legislation that has helped to bring U.S. foreign policy into closer alignment not only with our national interests but also with our values.

In 2001-2002 Rees worked for Congressman Henry Hyde (R.-Ill.), who was then serving as Chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

From 2002 until 2006 Rees served as the first United States Ambassador to newly independent East Timor.

From 2006 until 2009 Ambassador Rees was the United States Special Representative for Social Issues, responsible for representing the United States on issues relating to vulnerable persons and the family within the United Nations system.

Ambassador Rees retired from government service in January 2009 and returned to Lafayette. He is married to Lan Dai Nguyen Rees and is a member of St. Genevieve’s Catholic parish in Lafayette. He was recently elected to serve as a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee.