Issues

To learn more about my views on some of the many important issues facing America today, please select from the list below.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform

We take up the solemn task of immigration reform – not just because we may, but because we must. The answers are not simple or easy. We cannot meet this challenge by simply building fences. We need comprehensive and common sense solutions that meet the immigration needs of this century.
Caring for Massachusetts' Wounded Soldiers

A WEB HOTLINE FOR OUR VETERANS - Our veterans and soldiers deserve medical facilities and care that match their enormous sacrifices. However, we have learned that this administration was not prepared or able to provide quality care for the wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq. The conditions at Walter Reed are outrageous and inexcusable. Sadly, the problem isn’t just at Walter Reed, but throughout the country. Veterans and families, please click on the respond button below and use the comments field to let me know of any problems you have experienced in receiving medical care or otherwise.
The War in Iraq

Senator Kennedy has been a leader in Congress against the war in Iraq. Time and again, he has been the first to challenge the Administration and chart a new course for Iraq, and current events have proved him right all too often.
First Responders

First responders are on the front lines in helping communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to threats and emergencies. The federal government has a responsibility to recognize this sacrifice, and provide the support and resources necessary to safeguard the public. This includes modernizing equipment and communications systems, improving training, and helping communities maintain safe levels of first responders.
Helping America’s Workers

Workers are the backbone of the nation’s economy, and every American deserves a good job, with good pay, decent benefits, and a secure retirement. The United States must recommit itself to helping working families to ensure a strong and prosperous America for future generations. This involves supporting the right to associate freely, improving worker safety, raising the minimum wage, and enhancing worker health care.
Minimum Wage

Since its inception in 1938, the minimum wage has been increased over the years to adjust for inflation and enhance the purchasing power for low-income Americans. Currently at $5.15 an hour, the value of the minimum wage is at its lowest level since 1955. Raising the minimum wage has a broad beneficial impact on the U.S. economy, and allows millions of Americans to escape poverty and live a better quality of life.
Health Care

We need serious proposals to help solve the major health care challenges facing the nation. We need proposals that hold the promise of providing every American with quality health coverage - making sure that it is a right and not a privilege. In the wealthiest and most prosperous nation in the world, no citizen should have to choose between a visit to the doctor and paying the rent or putting food on the table.
Social Security

Social Security is one of the most successful domestic programs in the nation’s history, providing a guaranteed monthly check to retirees and disabled individuals, and preventing millions of Americans from slipping below the poverty line. Any corrections made to the program should reinforce Social Security with additional financing, not weaken it with privatization schemes that cut benefits and increase the mounting national debt.
Disaster Preparedness and Response

The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was – and remains to this day - almost beyond human comprehension, and the failures of our government to prepare for and to respond to the disaster was deplorable.
Stem Cell Research

The issue of Stem Cell Researchis of vital importance for every American affected by diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's Disease or other serious disorders. The question is whether we will permit a type of life-saving medical research to achieve its full potential to heal illnesses and cure disease – or whether we will stop this promising research dead in its tracks and deny its benefits to millions of Americans.
HIV / AIDS

The spread of AIDS is the greatest global health threat of our times. It’s a terrible disease that destroys lives, denies hope to individuals and families, and threatens the well-being of entire countries.
Fiscal Responsibility

When he took office in 2001, President Bush inherited a growing economy with the largest budget surplus in the country’s history. In a dramatic turnaround, President Obama will inherit one of the most severe recessions the nation has ever faced and a soaring budget deficit.
Environment

Environmental protection and stewardship are important to the health of our families, the strength of our economy, and the future of our planet. America has made great progress in many areas, but on issues such as climate change, clean air, and clean water, we can do much more.
Amending the Constitution, Dividing America

Slowing Jobs and Housing Market, Exploding Debt, Health Care in Crisis and a Disaster in Iraq, Republicans Seek to Divide America with Wedge Issues.
Port Security

Port Security is a critical component of America’s homeland defense preparedness. However, because of a lack of commitment and shortage of funding, efforts to secure the country’s ports are falling far short, creating a significant gap in the nation’s security. The federal government must make securing our ports a top priority, and provide the resources necessary to enhance the security infrastructure at the country’s seaports.
Civil Rights

Civil rights remains the unfinished business of America. Although tremendous progress has been made over the years in creating greater opportunities for minorities and other groups facing discrimination, significant challenges remain before we can claim to have achieved equal opportunity and equal justice for all. The challenge of civil rights is shared by all generations, and America must rededicate itself to policies that provide all Americans with the capacity to realize the American dream.
Elementary and Secondary Education
Poverty

While corporations and wealthy Americans are reaping the rewards of large tax breaks, budget cuts for many effective anti-poverty initiatives are clearly harming those most vulnerable in society. A true poverty-fighting agenda requires compassion and fairness for all Americans. This includes affordable housing, quality health care and education, and a commitment to raising the minimum wage. These are real policies that will help put the country on the path to eliminating poverty, and ensure every American who works hard has the capacity to succeed.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Access to a free, appropriate public education has helped open the doors of opportunity for millions of children with disabilities in the United States. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) helps states provide disabled children with a quality public education – just like other students. The level of funding for IDEA has fallen far short of what Congress promised at its inception, and the federal government must live up to the obligation it made to students who receive special education services.
Campaign Finance

The preoccupation with money is having a corrosive effect on on the electoral system. We can continue the unseemly influence of special interests in American politics, or we can reform our broken campaign finance system and restore integrity to the electoral process.
Fair Trade

Free trade – by creating jobs and opening international markets - is important to the strength of the American economy. But to realize its benefits and truly level the playing field for competition between American and foreign workers, our free trade agreements must be fair. This includes protecting American jobs and providing aid to workers displaced as a result of our trade agreements.
Head Start (Early Learning)

Head Start helps disadvantaged children enter school prepared to learn and succeed, making it one of the most successful and effective poverty fighting programs in the country. The program helps children develop the intellectual capacities and social skills needed to perform once they reach kindergarten, and offers low-income children the appropriate immunizations and health care that will help them fully develop.
Voting Rights/Election Reform

The right to vote – and to have that vote counted – is one of the most fundamental and cherished rights granted to citizens. Recent elections have highlighted the need for measures to increase access to the political process and improve the overall integrity of the electoral system. Since 1965, the Voting Right Act has propelled substantial increases in minority participation and representation in the U.S., and it is essential for Congress to reauthorize and strengthen key provisions set to expire in 2007.
Medical Errors and Health IT

According to the Institute for Medicine, medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, putting patients at risk and wasting billions of dollars in health care costs. Health IT offers an opportunity to contain and reduce costs, and save lives by improving the delivery of health care.
Prescription Drugs

Americans are forced to pay some of the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, placing a detrimental burden on the nation’s seniors. Americans deserve real prescription drug relief that will lower the cost of medicine instead of producing headaches for seniors and huge profits for the drug and insurance industries. Real prescription drug relief involves allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices for beneficiaries, and legalizing the safe reimportation of prescription drugs from other industrial countries.
Reproductive Rights

Among the cherished individual liberties granted by the Constitution is a women’s fundamental right to make her own decisions regarding a pregnancy. As the Supreme Court has recognized, reproductive choices are personal and private. At the same time, efforts should be made to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and reduce the incidence of abortion. This involves providing women and parents the education, health care, and economic opportunities that will help them make informed choices in all aspects of their lives.
Retirement Security

Americans are confronting an uncertain future when it comes to their retirement and savings. The three-legged stool that represents retirement security – Social Security, employee pensions and private savings – is under attack by the irresponsible policies of the current administration. Americans deserve policies that will protect their hard-earned pensions and savings - in good times and bad.
Higher Education

Skyrocketing increases in college tuition and cuts to financial aid programs are creating serious financial barriers to higher education, forcing students to borrow money at unprecedented rates, or give up on college entirely. A college degree leads to improved skills and knowledge, greater employment opportunities, and considerably higher pay. Making a college education more accessible and affordable must be a top priority for the federal government.
Equal Opportunity

Disparities between the haves and the have-nots have never been greater, as the rich keep getting richer, and the rest of America – the poor and the middle class – keep falling behind. Democrats are resolute in support of equal opportunity for all Americans, and believe compassionate solutions are needed to bring Americans together and lend a helping hand to their fellow citizens.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy

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