Department of Labor Nomination of Xavier M. Vela To Be Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division.

The President today announced that he will nominate Xavier M. Vela, of Washington, D.C., to be Administrator of the Wage and Hour Administration, Department of Labor. Vela is housing director with the National Council of La Raza in Washington.

He was born October 23, 1937, in Albuquerque, N. Mex. He received a B.A. in philosophy in 1960 and an M.A. in 1963 in international relations from the University of California at Berkeley.

In 1963 and 1964, Vela worked in the Latin American office of the Retail Clerks International Association in Lima, Peru. From 1964 to 1966, he was a regional director in the Washington office of the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) supervising programs in six South American countries which assisted in the organization of housing, consumer, and credit cooperatives. From 1966 to 1968, he was director of the AIFLD program for Brazil.

In 1968 and 1969, Vela was Acting Director of the Division of Special Projects of the Office of Economic Opportunity. From 1969 to 1973, he was a regional housing officer in the Latin American Operations Division of the Agency for International Development, and in 1973 and 1974, he was chief of the Latin American Operations Division Office of Housing.

Vela spent 1974-75 studying and practice teaching for an elementary teaching credential at the University of Maryland. In 1975-76 he was a classroom teacher of third and fourth grade in the Montgomery County (Md.) Public Schools. He has been housing director for the National Council of La Raza since 1976.

Vela is a member of the board of directors of the Ontario Housing Cooperative in Washington. He has been president of the local unions of the American Federation of Government Employees at OEO and AID.