Originally published on the CGS blog on August 26, 2009.
On Wednesday, August 26, 2009, the United States Senate lost its third longest serving member, Senator Edward Kennedy. President Barack Obama issued this statement in response to Kennedy’s passing, “An important chapter in our history has come to an end,” the statement said. “Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States senator of our time.”
Senator Kennedy referred to health care reform as “the cause of my life”. Although the committee which Senator Kennedy chaired, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, was one of the first committees to pass health care reform legislation on July 15, 2009, Senator Kennedy will never get to see the end of the health care fight. Since a seizure in May 2008, Senator Kennedy spent most of his time undergoing cancer treatment and was rarely able to make appearances on Capitol Hill.
Health care aside, Senator Kennedy has been able to claim many Senate victories throughout his long career. Senator Kennedy worked to impose sanctions on South Africa over apartheid, to bring peace to Northern Ireland, and to ban arm sales to the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The passing of Senator Kennedy will leave 59 Democrats in the Senate. The State of Massachusetts will hold a special election in five months unless the Massachusetts legislature replaces him beforehand.
