Senators Kennedy and Hutchison
About Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
In his 43 years in the Senate, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts has made healthcare one of his top priorities. He has fought for accessible, affordable, and quality healthcare for all Americans, and he championed the enactment of several landmark bills, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act that ensures that our medical information must be kept private and allows people to continue their health insurance while switching jobs.
Sen. Kennedy chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and he has been instrumental in promoting biomedical research, HIV/AIDS research and treatments, a national bone marrow donor registry, and anti-tobacco legislation. He emerged as a leader when he won passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971.
Sen. Kennedy has been closely touched by cancer. His son, Ted Kennedy Jr., lost his leg to osteosarcoma at age 12, and his daughter Kara is a 5-year lung cancer survivor. In May, after already beginning work on this important legislation, Sen. Kennedy was diagnosed with a brain tumor for which he has been in treatment.
Speaking about cancer survivorship at a gala in May 2008 – just two weeks before receiving his cancer diagnosis – Sen.Kennedy said of the bill, “It’s legislation that is going to provide the earliest kinds of detection, give emphasis to prevention … treatment and … survivorship. It is the major piece of legislation we have been working on.”
About Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
The first – and so far only – woman elected to the Senate from Texas, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is now the fourth highest ranking Republican senator and the highest ranking Republican woman. She was instrumental in establishing The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST), which is the centerpiece of her effort to support research and development while promoting Texas as a science state.
In 2001, Sen. Hutchison sponsored legislation requesting $250 million for research on blood cancers and another $25 million for education programs promoting awareness of blood cancers, which became law in 2002. She has also worked to double the nation’s financing of the National Institutes of Health from $13.6 billion in 1998 to $29.89 billion in 2008, with $4.9 billion allocated to the National Cancer Institute.
Cancer takes a toll on Sen. Hutchison’s home state of Texas. As she said on the Senate floor in May 2008, nearly 96,000 Texans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and 35,000 Texans will lose their battle. Her own brother, Allan Bailey, is fighting that battle now against multiple myeloma.
“Senator Kennedy and I have been working on a bill to evaluate our progress on cancer research and treatment, address our shortcomings, and renew our commitment to eradicating this disease… The cancer community must embrace a coordinated assault against this disease. We must start looking at more cooperative efforts that focus on the big picture.” (From Sen. Hutchison’s speech on the Senate floor. May 21, 2008.)
