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Rep. Earl Blumenauer is the representative of the 3rd District of Oregon, and is one of the co-sponsors of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
He was born on August 16, 1948, in Portland, Oregon, and finished high school at the Centennial High School in 1966. He attended Lewis & Clark College after high school, earning a bachelor of arts degree, majoring in political science, in 1970. He then went on to attend the Northwestern School of Law (formerly the Lewis & Clark Law School), earning a Juris Doctor degree in 1976. While working on his degree at Northwestern, Blumenauer worked as an assistant to the President of Portland State University.
Rep. Blumenauer served in the Oregon House of Representatives after being elected in 1972, as a Democrat representing District 11 in Multnomah County. He was re-elected in 1974 and in 1976, and served as the representative of Portland and Multnomah County until 1979. He also served on the Board of Portland Community College from 1975 to 1981, and was elected as Commissioner of Multnomah County. He was a member of the governing board of the county from 1979 to 1987.
He served on the Portland City Council from 1987 until 1996, and was appointed by Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt to the commission on higher education, which he served in 1990 and 1991.
Rep. Blumenauer eventually made a bid for a seat in Congress and was elected in 1996, filling the seat vacated by his predecessor, Ron Wyden, who had been elected to the Senate.
He may not have lived to see the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but the late Senator Edward Kennedy – an icon in American politics – was one of the most staunch and prominent supporters of health care reform. His dedication to the cause of providing quality and affordable health care coverage for the American public pre-dates the Obama presidency – a presidency that he also openly supported.
Edward Moore Kennedy was born on February 22, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the youngest of a brood of nine children born to Rose Fitzgerald and Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and his siblings included the late President John F. Kennedy and the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who both fell to assassin’s bullets at the height of their careers. Another elder sibling, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., was killed in action during the Second World War.
He spent 47 years in public service, and at the time of his death, he was the second most senior member of the Senate, as well as the fourth-longest-serving senator in the history of the United States. His tenure, as well as his influence, in the United States Senate earned him the nickname “The Lion of the Senate.”
This tenure also inevitably meant that he was instrumental to the passage of many laws over the years, and among the concerns addressed by some of these laws are health insurance, children’s health insurance, AIDS care, mental health benefits, and cancer research.
He was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May 2008, but was still actively involved during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, where he supported Barack Obama. He suffered a seizure during the inaugural luncheon for President Obama in January, 2009.
At the beginning of the 111th Congress under the new President, Senator Kennedy focused his attention on health care issues, which he called “the cause of my life.” He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the end of July 2009. On August 25, 2009, Senator Ted Kennedy passed away in his home in Hyannis Port.
One of the members of the House who co-sponsored the new health care reform law is Rep. Walter Clifford “Walt” Minnick, the representative of the 1st congressional district of Idaho.
Rep. Walt Minnick was born on September 20, 1942 in Walla Walla, Washington, and spent his childhood on a wheat farm. While studying at Whitman College in Walla Walla, he was a member of the debate team. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1964 and proceeded to graduate studies at the Harvard Business School, earning an MBA in 1966. He then went on to study law at the Harvard Law School, earning a juris doctor degree in 1969.
During the Vietnam War, Minnick served in the Army and in the Pentagon. He founded a chain of retail nurseries, SummerWinds Garden Centers, and used to lead a forestry industry. He served as the CEO of TJ International, and has served on the board of directors of a number of corporations and non-profit organizations.
Despite the fact that Minnick is currently serving his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, his political career started even earlier. Cong. Minnick served on the White House Domestic Council from 1971–72 as a staff assistant to President Nixon, and served as deputy assistant director for the Office of Management and Budget from 1972–73. He also participated in the creation of the Drug Enforcement Organization (DEA).
Cong. Minnick won the Democratic nomination for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1996, but he lost the seat to Senator Larry Craig. He won the Democratic nomination in 2008 for his current congressional seat after running unopposed, and went on to win the general election on November that year. He assumed office on January 3, 2009.
As the days since the passage of the new health care reform law – which promises to overhaul America’s health care system – go by, opposition to the new law is going down, at least according to a tracking poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
A feature on The Washington Post shared that the latest results of the poll, which were released on Thursday, showed a decline of opposition to health care reform over the past month: opposition declined from 41 percent to 35 percent.
The poll also showed that half of the public – 50 percent – expressed views in favor of the overhaul. This represented a slight increase from the 48 percent who were in favor last month. Meanwhile, 14 percent did not have an opinion on the measure. This, according to the Post feature, represents the highest approval level for health care reform since it was enacted in March of this year.
The survey, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, was conducted from July 8 until July 13, and consisted of information from 1,504 adult respondents. For the broadest categories of respondents, the survey had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Despite the improvement in its approval level, however, the Kaiser Family Foundation determined that there were still misconceptions regarding the legislation. Kaiser Family Foundation chief executive Drew Altman wrote of such a misconception, known as the “death panel”: “A year after the town meeting wars of last summer, a striking 36% of seniors said that the law ‘allowed a government panel to make decisions about end of life care for people on Medicare’, and another 17% said they didn’t know.”
One of the co-sponsors of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the representative of the First Congressional District of Nevada – Rep. Shelley Berkley. Cong. Berkley was born Rochelle Levine on January 20, 1951 in New York City. She moved to Nevada as a junior high school student along with her family, and went on to attend the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
At the University of Nevada, Berkley studied political science and served as the University’s Student Body President. She went on to work on a law degree at the University of San Diego School of Law.
After finishing her law degree, Berkley practiced as a lawyer and served as a member of the legal counsel of several casinos in Las Vegas. At one time, she served as the national director for the American Hotel-Motel Association.
From 1982 until 1984, Berkley served in the Nevada Assembly, where she was an advocate of consumer safety laws and worked on a campaign against drunken driving. She also founded the Senior Law Project.
In 1990, Shelley Berkley was appointed as the vice chair of the Nevada University System Board of Regents. She served in that position until 1998.
She was elected to the House of Representatives in 1998, the first Jewish woman and the first Democrat from Nevada to be elected into Congress. She was also the second person of the Jewish faith elected into Congress, as well as the second woman elected into Congress from Nevada. She assumed office on January 3, 1999, succeeding John Ensign.
Rep. Brian Higgins of the 27th Congressional District of New York is one of the 40 co-sponsors of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Cong. Higgins was born on October 6, 1959, in Buffalo, New York. He studied political science and history at Buffalo State College and was awarded the inaugural Western New York Harvard Graduate fellowship in 1995. He completed a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy and Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1996.
Before winning a seat in the House of Representatives, Brian Higgins served three two-year terms as the South District Councilman on the Buffalo Common Council, from 1988 until 1994. In a Buffalo News Survey of Western New York business and community leaders, Higgins was proclaimed as “Buffalo’s Best Lawmaker” in 1993, during his last year in the council.
After serving in the Buffalo Common Council, Higgins went on to serve as the 145th Assemblyman in the New York Assembly, from 1999 until 2004.
When Republican Jack Quinn suddenly announced his retirement as the Representative of the 27th District of New York in 2004, Higgins made a bid for the seat, and narrowly edged-out opponent Nancy Naples. He has since been re-elected twice, earning 70 percent of the vote in the 2006 and 2008 elections.
Rep. Higgins is a member of the New Democrat Coalition, and expressed support for allowing senior citizens to purchase prescription drugs in Canada. One of Higgins’ priorities in Congress is said to be to push for legislation that will enable the government to negotiate for volume discounts on medicines.
In a previous post, we shared information on Rep. James McDermott, a licensed physician, who is one of the co-sponsors of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Cong. McDermott is joined by yet another physician-sponsor of health care reform: Rep. Steven Kagen.
Rep. Steven Leslie Kagen was born on December 12, 1949, in Appleton, Wisconsin. He is currently the representative of the 8th Congressional District of Wisconsin, which covers the northeastern part of the state, including Green Bay and Kagen’s hometown, Appleton.
He was among the first batch of graduates from Appleton East High School, and went on to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning a degree in Molecular Biology, with Honors. He then went on to attend medical school, training at both Northwestern University in Chicago and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Steven Kagen, M.D., is triple Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology & Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology.
He did have other work experience aside from a career in medicine. As a teenager he worked as a playground leader at the Appleton Department of Parks and Recreation, and as a Teamster in a dairy, bagging sugar and whey, after graduating from high school.
Dr. Kagen practiced as an allergist, and founded four clinics in Appleton, Green Bay, Fond du Lac, and Oshkosh. He also served as an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin and as an Allergy Consultant to CNN, CNN Airport News, CNN Headline News, and CNN Interactive.
He was elected Congressman in November, 2006 and assumed office on January 3, 2007.
Rep. John B. Larson is the representative of the 1st Congressional District of Connecticut, and one of the co-sponsors of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Congressman Larson was born on July 22, 1948 in Hartford, Connecticut. He spent most of his life in nearby East Hartford, and grew up in a housing project. He finished high school at East Hartford High School and went on to attend the Central Connecticut State University.
His careers as a private individual included working as a high school teacher and an assistant athletics coach at the George J. Penney High School; he also co-owned an insurance agency in East Hartford. He was chosen as a Senior Fellow to the Yale University Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy by Head Start founder Edward Zigler in 1971.
Rep. Larson’s career in politics began in 1977, as he served on the East Hartford Board of Education for one term. He went on to serve two terms on the Town Council of East Hartford, and was elected to the Connecticut Senate in 1982. He served in the Connecticut Senate for six terms, the last four of which he served as president pro tempore. In 1994, Larson made a bid for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Connecticut; he was, however, defeated by Bill Curry in the primary.
For several years after not getting the Democratic nomination for Governor, Larson went into private business. He made a bid for the Democratic nomination for the Congress in the 1st District when incumbent Barbara Kennelly ran for governor in 1998. He assumed office on January 3, 1999 and has since been reelected five times.
Rep. Alexander “Al” Green represents the 9th Congressional District of Texas, and is one of the co-sponsors of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
He was born on September 1, 1947 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He went to the Florida A&M University and then to Tuskegee University, receiving his bachelor’s degree from the latter. He received a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the Texas Southern University in 1974.
After receiving his law degree from TSU, he elected to stay on in Houston. He is, until now, single, and lives in the community of Alief. Green was a former trial lawyer and co-founded Green, Wilson, Dewberry and Filch, a law firm. He was a former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Houston, focusing on increasing minority hiring in Texas during his term. While Green was Houston NAACP president, its number of members increased sevenfold. He is also a member of the first Greek-letter fraternity established for African-Americans, Alpha Phi Alpha.
Al Green was elected Justice of the Peace in Harris County, Texas in the Precinct 7, Place Two position, in 1978; he stayed on at this position for 26 years. In 1981, he ran for mayor of Houston, but finished fifth in the primary. In 2004, Green won the March 9 Democratic primary for the position of representative, and went on to defeat Republican Annette Molina during the November elections. He assumed office on January 3, 2005, and is now on his third term in Congress; he ran unopposed in 2006.
During the debates for health care reform, it was rather noticeable that there was a line that divided the members of the Democratic and Republican parties as far as opinions regarding health care reform were concerned. Most Democrats were pro-reform, while most Republicans were against it. There was a spattering of Republicans who favored health care reform, though; one of them was Rep. Todd Platts of the 19th Congressional District of Pennsylvania.
Cong. Todd Russell Platts was born on March 5, 1962 in York, Pennsylvania. He finished high school at York Suburban Senior High School in 1980 and attended Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, earning a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration, Summa Cum Laude, in 1984. He proceeded to study at the Pepperdine University School of Law, earning a Juris Doctorate degree, Cum Laude, in 1991.
Platts was elected to represent the 196th legislative district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in November, 1992. He served in that capacity from January 5, 1993 until November 30, 2000. In the year 2000, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, assuming office on January 3, 2001. He is now in his fifth term as Congressman.
Among the initiatives he supported was the privatization of Social Security, tax cuts, drilling in the ANWR, the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, the war in Iraq, and the ban on same-sex marriage. While he was initially pro-choice when he was elected to the Pennsylvania House, he has since become pro-life and has a pro-life voting record as a Congressman.
