Patrick J. Kennedy is serving his seventh term in Congress as
the representative from the First District of Rhode Island.
Congressman Kennedy is serving his seventh
year on the House Appropriations Committee. He is a member of the
Subcommittee on the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,
Education, and Related Agencies, the Subcommittee on the Departments
of Commerce, Justice and Science and the Subcommittee on Military
Construction, Veterans Administration and Related Agencies. As
members of these subcommittees, Congressman Kennedy and his colleagues
examine the impact of federal programs at the state and local level
and then determine how best to shape the federal budget based on
community needs.
Health Care
As nearly one-sixth of the nation’s economy, the largest
employer in Rhode Island, a major cost to businesses, and a basic
human right, health care has been one of Kennedy’s top priorities.
He has spoken out strongly in support of adding a comprehensive
prescription drug benefit plan to the Medicare program and has
introduced a bill to reduce drug costs. He has fought Republican
attempts to privatize Medicare and push Seniors into private drug
plans. Kennedy has been a vocal proponent of health care reform,
including calling for universal coverage and re-orienting the system
towards preventive care. He has led Congress in efforts to reduce
asthma and improve asthma care for children, including cosponsorship
of the Asthmatic Schoolchildren's Treatment and Health Management
Act of 2003. He also has been particularly active in the effort
to conquer lymphoma and leukemia and was named the recipient of
the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s Paul E. Tsongas Memorial
Award as well as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation Congressional
Honors Award. In 2003, Kennedy also introduced HR 3359, the Prevention,
Awareness, and Research of Auto-Immune Diseases Act aimed at improving
research and outreach for the estimated 14 to 22 million people
affected by autoimmune diseases, most of whom are women.
Appropriations
As a Member of the House Appropriations Committee,
Kennedy works closely with his House and Senate colleagues and
has successfully obtained funding for many important projects
in Rhode Island in the Fiscal Year 2004 federal budget. In recent
years, some of these projects have included funds for children’s
mental health programs and early intervention support at Meeting
Street and for Asthma Outreach at Neighborhood Health Plan of
Rhode Island.
Through his role on the Committee he has been
a leading advocate of funding for several important national
programs, particularly in health care, education, and small business
outreach. These include a $14 million increase to the Administration
on Aging’s Caregiver
Initiative for the caregivers of family members with long term
care needs, $12 million increase for the Vocational Education basic
grant program, $1 million for the new Foundations for Learning
Act to provide grants for the promotion of emotional and social
development in young children, and $5 million for a new project
at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
to provide evidence-based mental health outreach and treatment
services to the elderly. He has also been an advocate for funding
of Small Business Administration (SBA) programs such as the 7(a)
and 8(a) loan programs, Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs)
and the PRIME and MICROLOAN training and technical assistance programs.
Mental Health
Kennedy has placed improvement of the nation’s mental health
at the top of his legislative agenda. Working with Senator Pete
Domenici (R-NM) and others, he has led the fight to pass mental
health parity in the House, ending discrimination in health insurance.
He has introduced legislation to help states respond to the psychological
effects of terrorism, to address crisis shortages of children’s
mental health providers, and to keep families with severely mentally
ill children from being broken up. He has used his position on
the Appropriations Committee to push successfully for increased
spending on community mental health and mental healthcare for seniors.
In April 2001, he hosted Surgeon General David Satcher and others
for a hearing on children’s mental health at the Rhode Island
State House. Recognized as a national leader in mental health,
Kennedy has received numerous awards for his advocacy on behalf
of the mentally ill. He also has received the Society for Neuroscience
- Public Service Award (2002), Eli Lilly & Co. 2003 Helping
Move Lives Forward Reintegration Awards, American Psychoanalytic
Association 2003 President’s Award, American Psychiatric
Association Alliance award (2003), Depression and Bipolar Support
Alliance - Paul Wellstone Mental Health Award (2003), and many
other honors from professional organizations in this area.
Defense and Veterans
As a member of the House Armed Services Committee
for six years before taking his Appropriations Committee seat,
Kennedy worked to expand the workforce at the Naval Undersea
Warfare Center in Newport, resulting in the relocation of about
800 employees to NUWC. Kennedy was successful in allocating over
$68 million in the federal budget for defense related projects
in the 2004 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill benefiting
numerous contractors in the state. Kennedy has been an outspoken
advocate on behalf of veterans in a number of causes, including
increasing the level of health care benefits to veterans suffering
from smoking-related illnesses, and extending medical benefits
and prescription drug coverage to all military retirees over
the age of 65. He has cosponsored legislation to repeal the “Disabled
Veterans Tax,” so
that retired veterans will not have their retiree and disability
pay unfairly reduced. He has also co-sponsored legislation to allow
Medicare-eligible veterans to fill prescriptions ordered by non-VA
physicians in VA medical care facilities. Realizing that many of
our nation’s veterans have deferred their education in service
to our country, Kennedy supports legislation that increases and
improves the educational benefits of veterans under the Montgomery
G.I. Bill and the Selected Reserve Educational Assistance program.
Public Safety
Kennedy has introduced several bills which would strengthen our
laws regarding handguns, including legislation that would require
the gun industry to comply with the same health and safety regulation
as other products. He cosponsored successful legislation providing
matching grants to all law enforcement agencies seeking bulletproof
vests, and introduced a similar bill to provide matching grants
for gun buy-back programs. He has been a leading advocate for
the strengthening and reauthorization of the assault weapons
ban.
Legislation he sponsored to help clear up the
tremendous backlog in the DNA national data base was signed into
law in 2000. The legislation authorizes federal grants of $170
million over five years, to be awarded to states for eliminating
the backlog of hundreds of thousands of DNA samples from convicted
offenders that are unanalyzed due to a lack of funding. He was
the author of important legislation in support of law enforcement
officers that was included in the antiterrorism law signed by
the President in October 2001. The USA-PATRIOT Act included Kennedy’s
proposal to increase the death benefit for Public Safety Officers
from $100,000 to $250,000. He was honored by the International
Brotherhood of Police Officers and the International Association
of Firefighters for his efforts.
Education
In the information age, a good education beginning
in early childhood through higher education and beyond, is central
to prosperity. Recognizing this, Kennedy authored the Foundations
for Learning Act, a bill to promote the emotional and social
development of young children, which became law in January 2002.
He has also written legislation to strengthen special education
for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, and to improve the quality
of early education programs. He has led efforts in the House
of Representatives to ensure that new assessments in Head Start
are consistent with research on early childhood learning. Kennedy
has also worked in Congress to make college tuition more affordable,
reduce class sizes in early elementary grades, provide greater
technology in the classrooms, increase funding for school construction
projects and bolster early childhood education and Head Start
funding. He has been a steadfast supporter of the full funding
of the “No Child Left Behind” Act
which has placed numerous mandates on states without the subsequent
provision of adequate funding.
Environment
Kennedy has used his position on the Appropriations Committee to
deliver valuable funding to Rhode Island to improve the environment.
He has secured funding to help spearhead improvements to the
Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, bringing $2 million
home to both beautify the state while protecting habitat important
to plants and wildlife. He secured another $2 million for Save
the Bay’s Explore the Bay program. It will allow generations
of Rhode Island students to take advantage of hands-on research
and exploration of Narragansett Bay. He has also worked for the
successful passage of the Estuary Habitat Restoration Partnership
Act, which provided $275 million for local projects, such as
the restoration and protection of estuaries of Narragansett Bay.
Joining with members of the Rhode Island and Massachusetts delegations,
he also fought for the successful inclusion of $2 million in
the Fiscal Year 2003 budget for the John H. Chafee Blackstone
River Valley National Heritage Corridor, which preserves historic
buildings and the environment in 25 communities in the two states.
Kennedy has also stood firm against the Republicans’ attempts
to weaken key environmental laws like the Clean Air Act, Clean
Water Act, Endangered Species Act and the Superfund program.
International Human Rights
Kennedy, co-founder of the Native American
Caucus in the House, is a leader on civil rights and human rights
issues. He sponsored the Hate Crimes Prevention Act and legislation
to repeal some of the unfair immigration and deportation policies
enacted by the 1996 Omnibus Immigration Bill. As the co-chairman
and co-founder of the House Portuguese-American Caucus, Kennedy
was also a successful sponsor of an amendment which allowed Portugal
to be part of the Visa Waiver Program, enabling Portugal’s
citizens to enter the United States for 90 days or less without
a visa. He has been one of the strongest Congressional advocates
for the people of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony. Kennedy
has been a champion for the people of the war-torn African nation
of Liberia, a nation founded by freed slaves from the United
States that has spent the past decade mired in a brutal civil
war. Kennedy has worked on behalf of both international involvement
in Liberia, and for granting citizenship to those Liberians who
escaped the war and made it to the safety of America because
of the dangers they face if forced to return to their homeland.
Kennedy has also supported programs at the Department of State
that promote international human rights for women and has worked
hard at increasing funding for various vital international programs
through his work on the Departments of Commerce, Justice and
State Appropriations Subcommittee.
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