Pat Roberts
From dKosopedia
Charles Patrick Roberts is a Republican and a Senator for Kansas. He previously served eight terms in the House Of Representatives representing Kansas' 1st district before being elected to the Senate in 1996. He was re-elected in 2002. He is the ranking member and former chairman of the Senate Committee on Intelligence.
Not to be confused with Reverend Pat Robertson.
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Biography
Roberts was born in Topeka, KS on April 20, 1936. Senator Roberts and his wife Franki have three grown children, David, Ashleigh, and Anne Wesley. He is the son of the late Wes Roberts, Chairman of the Republican National Committee under President Dwight Eisenhower. His great-grandfather, J.W. Roberts, founded the Oskaloosa Independent], Kansas' second oldest newspaper. He graduated from Kansas State University in 1958 and then served four years in the Marine Corps.
After leaving the military, he became a reporter and editor for several Arizona newspapers before joining the staff of Kansas Senator Frank Carlson in 1967. In 1969, he became Administrative Assistant to Kansas's 1st District Congressman Keith Sebelius.
After Sebelius' retirement, Roberts was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1980, serving eight terms until 1997. Roberts served as the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee from 1995-97, leading the reform of outdated federal farm policies.
Following the retirement of Senator Nancy Kassebaum, he was elected to the Senate in 1996 and re-elected in 2002.
In addition to his chairmanship on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Roberts is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chairing the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. This subcommittee oversees the military's contribution to homeland security and the efforts to prevent proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
In August 2004, Roberts proposed legislation to dismantle the CIA and establish a national intelligence director with far-reaching powers, including authority over budget and personnel decisions.
As chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Roberts played a key role in investigating intelligence failures leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The first half of the Senate Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq was released on July 9, 2004. At that time, Roberts said about the second half of the report, "It is one of my top priorities". However, after the 2004 election, he stated "To go though that exercise, it seems to me, in a post-election environment--we didn't see how we could do that and achieve any possible progress. I think everybody pretty well gets it." A comparison between pre-war intelligence and the pre-war statements made by senior Bush administration officials would have been damaging to the Bush administration, and this half of the report was halted to protect those officials.
Quotes
- “I would only point out that you really don’t have any civil liberties if you’re dead,” Roberts said at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. (Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2/3/06)
Committees
- Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
- Armed Forces
- Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
- Ethics
- Intelligence
2002 Election Results
641,075
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Preceded by: Keith Sebelius | U.S. Representative for Kansas' 1st Congressional District 1981–1997 | Succeeded by: Jerry Moran |
Preceded by: Nancy Kassebaum Baker | U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Kansas 1997– | Succeeded by: — |
Affiliations
Related articles
References
- This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pat Roberts"
External links
- Official website
- Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): Chairman of the Senate Cover-up Committee - a summary of Robert's extreme positions, and coverups to protect the Bush administration - ThinkProgress.org