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SENATOR JOHN KERRY
Dear All,
Recently Senator John Kerry visited Burma where he met
Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta's strongman Lt. Gen Khin
Nyunt.I am presenting the Senator's profile and his emaiol address to which
you can send emails expressing yourselves.
Sincerely,
Julien Moe
****************
About John Kerry
Responsible for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, ranking Democratic member
International Operations
Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, Narcotics and Terrorism
in the US Senate.
Contact Email Address:john_kerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Currently serving his third term as United States Senator from
Massachusetts, John F. Kerry has consistently shown
independence and leadership in challenging Washington to
respond to the concerns of all Americans.
John Kerry was born on December 11, 1943. He graduated
from Yale University in 1966 and then enlisted in the Navy,
becoming an officer on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Among the
decorations he
received for his service are a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and three Purple
Hearts. He also received
two Presidential Unit Citations and a National Defense Service medal. Upon
his return home, he
became an active leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and a
co-founder of the Vietnam
Veterans of America. (Read John Kerry's 1971 testimony before the Senate
Foreign Relations
Committee, courtesy of the Sixties Project.)
He graduated from Boston College Law School in 1976, then worked as an
Assistant District
Attorney in Middlesex County. He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1982
and elected to the
Senate in 1984.
Over the years, Senator Kerry has developed a reputation for diligence,
courage, and independence.
He has worked to ensure that all Americans have access to a good education,
a clean environment,
safe streets, and a decent wage that honors hard work. He has fought to
balance the budget
responsibly, create a regulatory environment friendly to small business,
and prepare the United States
to meet the new demands of international economic competition.
Senator Kerry believes that government has a proper role in safeguarding
vital services for our
neediest citizens, young or old. He also believes that any American working
diligently day after day to
put food on the table should be able to earn a livable wage. In the last
year alone he has fought to
protect Medicare from near-sighted Republican budget cuts, expand health
coverage for children not
covered by Medicaid, and increase the Federal mimimum wage from $4.15 to $5.25.
While championing the right of all Americans to certain
basic services as
the guarantee of our nation's future well-being, John
Kerry has consistently
been on the lookout for wasteful government spending
and corporate
welfare. In fact, one of Senator Kerry's very first
votes in the Senate was
for the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction plan,
the first serious
attempt in the 1980s to rein in the growth of the
federal budget. Kerry was
an original co-sponsor of this legislation -- and one
of the first Democrats.
He also has led the Senate fight to eliminate several
wasteful federal
programs and activities.
In 1993, Senator Kerry voted for the 1993 Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act, the largest and most specific deficit reduction plan
ever enacted. In l994, John
Kerry introduced legislation to make $85 billion in specific program budget
cuts over five years, and
also led a group of five Senators in sponsoring another package to cut $43
billion from the deficit
over the same time period. In 1995, Senator Kerry built on his deficit
reduction record by authoring
The Responsible Deficit Reduction Act -- which proposed to cut unnecessary
and wasteful
government spending by more than $90 billion. In addition, he fought
alongside Sen. John McCain
(R-AZ) to reduce more than $60 billion in wasteful "corporate welfare" from
the federal budget.
Most recently, John Kerry has supported two plans which balance the budget
by the year 2002.
While cutting out government waste, John Kerry is also busy making sure
that businesses are not
unduly burdened by government regulation. A member of the Senate Banking
and Small Business
Committees, Senator Kerry was instrumental in easing the "credit crunch" in
Massachusetts in the
early 1990s and in increasing by a factor of six the amount of Small
Business Administration funds
available for loans to small businesses. And his efforts do not stop at the
border.
As a member of the Senate Commerce and Foreign Relations Committees,
Senator Kerry is deeply
involved in the effort to develop better ways for American companies to
access international markets
so they can create more jobs at home. He authored legislation to create new
incentives for investment
in start-up companies and to promote advanced and environmental
technologies. He successfully
pushed legislation for targeted preferential capital gains treatment of
investment in new enterprises,
and has been a leading advocate of a permanent research and development tax
credit. Since coming
to the Senate, he has sought prudent reform of U.S. export controls.
John Kerry firmly believes that business and
environmental interests are interrelated,
particularly in today's competitive, global
marketplace. For example, on fishery issues,
Senator Kerry looks for balanced and sustainable
approaches that preserve fishery resources and
traditional coastal communities, and has pressed
for global bans of such destructive practices as
commercial whaling and large-scale driftnet
fishing.
He also has authored critical conservation bills like the Fishery
Conservation Amendments of 1990,
the Sustainable Fisheries Act and the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Fishery
Management Act. Kerry
was a key backer of the Marine Mammal Protection Act Reauthorization and
the Flood Insurance
Reform Act, both of which became law in 1993. He is co-chairman of
GLOBE-USA, an
international group of legislators dedicated to forging an international
environmental agenda.
Senator Kerry is well aware of the anger and cynicism felt toward
Washington as a result of the
perception of undue influence that special-interest money has on government
via campaign finance.
For that reason, long before his colleagues, he decided to refuse campaign
contributions from special
interest Political Action Committees (PACs). His was the first PAC-free
Senate race in recent
history. He was deeply involved in the successful effort to obtain Senate
passage of the 1993
campaign finance reform bill, and continues to be a leader in the push for
campaign finance reform.
As a former prosecutor, John Kerry knows about the best strategy necessary
to fight crime. He
helped lead the fight for passage of the toughest federal crime bill in a
generation. During the 1994
legislative session, Kerry forcefully argued to the President and his
Senate colleagues the vital need to
put 100,000 new police on the streets and to increase funding for the
Senate crime bill from $5.9
billion to $22.6 billion. He also won preliminary approval for the
innovative proposal to establish a
Police Corps that would add 80,000 new people annually to local police
forces while creating
educational and job opportunities for young people.
As a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate
Intelligence
Committee, Senator Kerry is recognized as a leader in the creation of a new
foreign policy in the
wake of the Cold War. He has also won plaudits for his deft handling of the
critical State Department
Authorization Act, of which he was the manager and principal sponsor in 1994.
In addition to his work on issues affecting Massachusetts citizens, John
Kerry is a member of the
Senate Democratic Leadership. As Chairman of the Senate Democratic Steering
and Coordination
Committee, John Kerry works with other senators in developing better
communication, coordination
and partnerships with various groups and individuals across the country.
These include citizen groups,
advocacy coalitions, alliances at national, state, and local levels, and
state and local elected officials
including governors, mayors, state legislators, and others.
Senator Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz. He has two daughters from a
previous marriage,
Alexandra and Vanessa. Teresa Heinz has three sons, John, Andre, and
Christopher. Senator Kerry
lives in Boston.