Senator Edward M. Kennedy has represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate for thirty-seven years.  He was elected in 1962 to finish the term of his brother, president John F. Kennedy. Since then, he has been reelected to six full terms, and he is now the third-most-senior member of the Senate.

Senator Kennedy's recent achievements include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which makes it easier for those who change their job or lose their job to keep their health insurance, and the Children's Health Act of 1997.  He is currently a leader in the Senate in the effort to enact the Patients' Bill of Rights.

In addition, Kennedy is active on a wide range of other issues, including education reform, raising the minimum wage, defending the rights of workers and their families, strengthening the civil rights laws, assisting individuals with disabilities, fighting for cleaner water and cleaner air, and protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare for senior citizens.

Kennedy is currently the senior Democrat on the Labor and Human Resources Committee in the Senate. He also serves on the Judiciary Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Immigration Subcommittee, and on the Armed Services Committee.

Kennedy is the youngest of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School.  His home is in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and children, Curran and Caroline. He also has three grown children, Kara, Edward Jr., and Patrick, and four grandchildren.