Lynne Weil was tapped late last month as district communications director for Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House International Relations Committee. She will also take on communications responsibilities for the committee’s minority staff.

Weil, a Bay area native, worked as press secretary for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from July 2001 to January 2003. She first came to the Hill with the Congressional Fellowship Program of the American Political Science Association. workers Benjamin Cardenas and Brenda Flores. [IMGCAP(1)]

Weil also has substantial experience in broadcast and print media. She has written several articles for The New York Times and freelanced for National Public Radio and The Boston Globe. She was also a reporter and producer at the California Public Radio Network and covered the Los Angeles police beat for United Press International.

A 1985 graduate from the University of California at Los Angeles, Weil also holds a master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University.

More Golden State Pick-Ups. Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.) has a few new faces in both her district and Washington office. The four recent additions are Legislative Assistant Jeffrey Cruz, Legislative Correspondent and Staff Assistant Kenneth Reyes and field representatives and case

Cruz, 24, will now work with the International Relations Committee and as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus liaison. He previously taught elementary students in the America Reads program. He also has experience on the Hill working as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute fellow with Rep. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

A Lombard, Ill., native, Cruz holds a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He is working on completing his thesis for a master’s in international relations from Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland.

Reyes’ new responsibilities will include constituent correspondence and greeting guests as well as working with such issues as education, veterans affairs and housing. The Camden, N.J., native previously worked as a CHCI fellow with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Reyes, 25, attended Dartmouth College and holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish literature.

Cardenas, 24, will be working in Norwalk and Pico Rivera, Calif., covering veterans issues, labor, grants assistance and military academy appointments. A former CHCI fellow with Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), Cardenas is from East Los Angeles. He graduated in 2002 from the University of California at Los Angeles and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science.

Covering the cities of Santa Fe Springs, Industry, La Puente and East Los Angeles is Flores, 23. He will work for the Congresswoman as a liaison for the Congressional Awards program and will handle tour requests. Flores has held two internships through the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and was also a CHCI fellow with Napolitano. The East Los Angeles native attended the University of California at Berkeley and graduated with a degree in history.