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| Arlen Specter demonstrates the bullet's path during a reenactment of the Kennedy assassination. |
Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania's senior U.S. Senator, was elected to the Senate in 1980 and is currently serving his fifth term. In 2005, Senator Specter became Pennsylvania's longest serving U.S. Senator. He is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a senior member of the Appropriations and Veterans Affairs committees.
Senator Specter has been a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee since he came to the Senate. Now the Committee's Chairman, he has played an instrumental role in many of the Senate's most important issues, including the confirmations of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. In early 2006, he presided over the nomination hearings of Judge Samuel Alito to serve as Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Senator Specter has also shepherded through the Judiciary Committee legislation on asbestos litigation reform to absolve what the Supreme Court once called an "elephantine mass" clogging our judicial system. Senator Specter has worked in a bi-partisan fashion to reauthorize key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, an important tool in United States' war on terror. He has also authored legislation to help consumers better protect the privacy of their personal information in the face of recurrent data security breaches across the country.
As Chairman, Senator Specter continues to build on his foundation as a lawyer and former district attorney. He is the author of the Armed Career Criminal Act, which has been praised for long prison terms for repeat offenders, and the Terrorist Prosecution Act, which authorizes criminal actions in U.S. Courts for assaulting, maiming or murdering Americans anywhere in the world.
As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Specter also plays a key role as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, which oversees federal funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and educational programs like Head Start, Pell grants, and GEAR-UP. Under his leadership, funding for education has increased by more than 130%. The budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which has made major advances in curing Parkinson's, cancer, heart disease and delaying the onset of Alzheimer's, has more than doubled.
Strengthening our nation's security has been a long-standing priority of Senator Specter's. Thirty days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Senator Specter drafted the legislation that established the Department of Homeland Security. While serving as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the 104th Congress, he authored the bill creating the Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency, which was the only reform legislation to emerge from the Iran-Contra affair.
Senator Specter continues his strong advocacy for veterans, a passion born when his father-Harry Specter, wounded in World War I-was denied his promised bonus by the U.S. Government. As a former Chairman of the Veterans Committee, he pushed for just treatment for veterans and increased benefits. Working closely with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Senator Specter oversaw the opening of four new veterans outpatient clinics in Fayette, Northampton, Venango, and Warren counties and the creation of a new veterans cemetery in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
A frequent visitor to all of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, he places constituent service high on his priorities and has been instrumental on the Appropriations Committee in promoting Pennsylvania's interests in agriculture, high-tech, steel, coal, tourism, mass transit, highways and military installations.
In addition to tackling the major legislative business before the Senate this year, Senator Specter also engaged in a personal battle with Stage IVB Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer. He underwent nearly five months of chemotherapy, but still maintained all of his Senatorial duties, including chairing hearings, voting, and brokering important legislative initiatives. On July 22, 2005, Senator Specter received his last chemotherapy treatment and has since received a clean bill of health.
Senator Specter was born to immigrant parents in Wichita, Kansas, and grew up in the small town of Russell, Kansas. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He began his career in public service as an Assistant Philadelphia District Attorney. While serving in that position, he was named Assistant Counsel on the Warren Commission investigation into President Kennedy's assassination. Two years later, Senator Specter was elected District Attorney of Philadelphia at the age of 35.
Senator Specter lives in Philadelphia with his wife Joan. They have two sons, Shanin and Steve, and four grandchildren, Silvi, Perri, Lilli, and Hatti.
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