The loss.

A short list of the more than 850 bills made into law that were authored (300+) or endorsed (550+) by Senator Edward Kennedy:

• Women, Infants and Children program (WIC); food assistance and access to health care for low-income women and children.


• State Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP)


• Family Opportunity Act; expanded Medicaid to cover special-needs kids.


• COBRA


• HIPAA; limited the pre-existing conditions excuse for denial of coverage.


• Mental Health Parity law; helps ensure lifetime coverage for mental health issues.


• Ryan White Care Act; funds treatment of AIDS for hundreds of thousands of people.


• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)


• Head Start


• Direct Lending; a program for college aid lending


• Up-armoring HUMVEE legislation, (2003 and 2005)


• Voting Rights Act; amendments, 1982


• Family and Medical Leave Act


• Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act


• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; keeps health insurers from nixing you based on your DNA.


• Civil Rights Act of 1991


• National Guard and Reserve Mental Health Access Act (2008)


• Higher Education Opportunity Act


• College Cost Reduction and Access Act


• Strengthen FDA oversight of approved medication (2007)


• Minimum Wage act (1996, 2007)


• Pension Protection Act


• Bioterrorism Preparedness Act


• Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act


• LIHEAP; low income heating energy assistance program


• National and Community Service Trust Act (Americorps)


• National Military Child Care Act


• WARN Act; requires companies to give 2 months notice if a plant closing will put more than 50 people out of work.


• Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons Act (includes mentally ill, disabled, elderly)


• Meals on Wheels Act


• National Cancer Act


• Fair Housing Act


• Immigration Act (1965); ended race-based quotas in immigration

“Don’t you find it remarkable that one of the most partisan, liberal men in the last century serving in the Senate had so many of his foes embrace him? Because they know he made them bigger, he made them more graceful by the way in which he conducted himself.”
Vice President Biden, 8-26-09