Distinguished Guest Speaker
Arlen
Specter, Pennsylvania's senior U.S. Senator, was elected to the
Senate in 1980, is currently serving his fifth term and recently 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.
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.
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.
Photo and biography from the Official Site of Senator Arlen Specter.
