About Patrick J. Kennedy

Patrick J. Kennedy is serving his eighth term in Congress as the representative from the First District of Rhode Island. 

Kennedy was appointed to the House Appropriations Committee in December 1998, but requested a leave of absence in order to fulfill a two-year term as the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  With the term completed, Kennedy now sits on the powerful panel which has authority over all of the federal government’s discretionary spending.  As part of his Appropriations duties, Kennedy sits on the Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education; Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; and on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. He is also a member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

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 benefitting 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.

Personal Background

Kennedy, who is single and lives in Portsmouth, was born July 14, 1967, in Brighton, Mass.  The youngest of three children of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Joan Bennett Kennedy, he came to Rhode Island to attend Providence College, where he graduated with a degree in Social Science in 1991.

He was elected to the R.I. House of Representatives in 1988 at the age of 21, and then re-elected in 1990 and 1992. Kennedy served on both the Health, Education and Welfare and Special Legislative Committees and in 1992 was named chairman of the House Rules Committee.  He was a leader on gun control issues, sponsoring the state's seven-day waiting period for gun purchases.