Introduction
Richard Hudson Bryan (born July 16, 1937) is an American attorney and politician. He served as the 25th Governor of the U.S. state of Nevada from 1983-89, and as a United States Senator from Nevada from 1989 to 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Early life
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.
Political career
1972–1989
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 from 1983 to 1989.
U.S. Senate (1989–2001)
After that, he represented Nevada in the U.S. Senate from 1989 until 2001. Bryan served on the following Senate Committees: Finance, Banking, Vice Chairman-U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Commerce. He chose not to run for re-election in 2000.
Bryan was an opponent of SETI and introduced an amendment to the 1994 budget that secured the cancellation of the High Resolution Microwave Survey and terminated NASA's SETI efforts.
NASA criticized Bryan for his opposition to its SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program, especially because Bryan ignored the meeting requests from NASA staff.