Nominee's Background:
Senator Edward M. Kennedy has represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate since he was first elected in 1962 to finish the term of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. Since then, he has been re-elected seven times, and he is now the second most senior member of the Senate.
Throughout his career, Kennedy has fought for issues that benefit the people of Massachusetts and the nation. The effort to bring quality health care to every American is a battle that Kennedy has been waging ever since he arrived in the Senate. Recent achievements include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which makes it easier for those who change their jobs or lose their jobs to keep their health insurance, and the law that created the Children's Health Insurance Program 1997, which makes health insurance more widely available to children in all 50 states. Kennedy is currently a leader in the Senate in the effort to amend Medicare to include a prescription drug benefit for senior citizens.
In addition, Kennedy is active on a wide range of other issues, including all aspects of homeland security and national defense, restoring economic growth and helping the unemployed, improving elementary and secondary schools and making colleges more affordable, raising the minimum wage, defending the rights of workers and their families, strengthening civil rights laws, protecting a womans right to choose, assisting individuals with disabilities, improving the fairness of our immigration laws, fighting for cleaner water and cleaner air, protecting and strengthening Social Security, and dealing with judicial nominations.
Kennedy is the senior Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Senate. He also serves on the Judiciary Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Immigration Subcommittee, and the Armed Services Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Seapower Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, a founder of the Congressional Friends of Ireland, and a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC
Kennedy is the youngest of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and is a graduate of Harvard and the University of Virginia Law School. His home is in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and children, Curran and Caroline. He also has three grown children, Kara, Edward Jr., and Patrick, and four grandchildren.
Nominating Speech:
Nominated by: The Last of the Red Hot Mamas
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Progressive Criteria:
The Transportation Department will
Initiate a comprehensive review of the nation's transportation system, looking into coordination of the various elements, comprehensiveness and efficiency;
Engage in long-term infrastructure planning with emphasis on sustainability and preservation of our environment;
Protect and promote Amtrak - particularly where it is a reasonable alternative to car or air transportation;
Enforce rigorous safety and fuel efficiency standards;
Work to even the playing field for public transportation.
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