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Theodore Fulton Stevens (born November 18 1923) is a United States Senator from Alaska. He is currently the longest serving Republican in the Senate and the current President pro tempore. Stevens served as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee from 1997 to 2005 except for the 18-month interlude when Democrats controlled the chamber. The chairmanship gave Stevens considerable influence among fellow Senators, who relied on him for home-state project funds. Due to Republican Party rules that limit committee chairmanships to six years, Stevens gave up the Appropriations gavel at the start of the 109th Congress. He is currently the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, a role in which he has considerable influence on matters of national policy in the area of interstate commerce, including regulation of interstate telephone carriers. Stevens has had a six-decade-long career of public service, beginning with his service in World War II. Later, in the 1950s, he held senior positions in the Eisenhower Interior and Justice departments. He has served continuously in the Senate since 1968.
Early life Ted Stevens was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1923. During World War II, he was an Army Air Forces C-47 pilot in the China-Burma-India theater with the "Flying Tigers" of the Fourteenth Air Force from 1943 to 1946, holding the rank of First Lieutenant. There he received two Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Air Medals, as well as the Yuan Hai medal awarded by the Republic of China. After the war ended, Stevens attended UCLA, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Harvard Law School. In the early 1950s he moved to Alaska, then a territory. In Fairbanks, Stevens practiced law, and he was appointed U.S. Attorney for Fairbanks in 1953. Department of the Interior In 1956, Stevens was transferred to Washington, D.C., where he worked as legislative counsel and assistant to Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton. He also pushed for the statehood of Alaska and Hawaii, which occurred in 1959. In 1960, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted Stevens to solicitor of the Department of the Interior. Alaska House of Representatives After returning to Alaska, Stevens practiced law in Anchorage. He was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1964, and became House majority leader in his second term. United States Senate In December 1968, Governor Walter Joseph Hickel appointed Stevens to the U.S. Senate after the death of Democrat Bob Bartlett. In 1970, Stevens was elected to finish the term in a special election, and has been reelected six times since, in 1972, 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002. His current term will expire in 2009. Stevens served as the Assistant Republican Whip from 1977 to 1985. In 1994, Stevens was appointed Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. Stevens became the Senate's president pro tempore when Republicans regained control of the chamber as a result of the 2002 mid-term elections, during which the previous longest-serving republican senator and former president pro tempore Strom Thurmond retired. He is a former Chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. In the past, Stevens also has served as Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, the Arms Control Observer Group, and the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress. His campaign political action committee is called the "Northern Lights PAC." Abortion According to Ontheissues.org and NARAL, Ted Stevens has a voting record that indicates a pro-life perspective. However, as a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, Stevens supports human embryonic stem cell research. Criticism Ted Stevens has taken criticism for a wide variety of positions and actions taken in the Senate. This includes placing a secret hold on a bill that would allow easier accountability and research of all federal funding measures, describing the Internet as a "series of tubes" when taking a strong alliance with the telecommunications industry on network neutrality, supporting perceived pork barrel projects such as the Gravina Island Bridge, commonly known as the "Bridge to Nowhere", and the Knik Arm Bridge. He threatened to resign from the Senate if the federal earmark for the Alaskan bridges was sent to help repair Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina damage. Family In December 1978, Stevens survived the crash of a Lear Jet at what would later be named the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, which killed five people, including his first wife, Ann. Stevens' son, Ben Stevens, was appointed to the Alaska Senate in 2001 by Democratic Governor Tony Knowles, and is currently the Senate President. Aside from Ben, Stevens and his first wife Ann had two daughters, Susan and Beth, and two sons, Walter and Ted. He and his second wife Catherine have a daughter, Lily. Stevens' current home in Alaska is in Girdwood. Recognition Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage is named after him. When he is discussing issues that are especially important to him (such as opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling), he wears a necktie with The Incredible Hulk on it to show his seriousness. Marvel Comics responded by sending him free Hulk paraphernalia and throwing a Hulk party for the Senator. Stevens is the focus of the Ted Stevens Foundation, a charity established to "assist in educating and informing the public about the career of Senator Ted Stevens." Tim McKeever, chairman of the Foundation and is a lobbyist who was treasurer of Stevens' campaign, has said that the charity is "nonpartisan and nonpolitical." In May 2006, the Senate Majority Project, a partisan political organization, nominated Stevens as "Drama Queen of the US Senate" for his entertaining tactics. November 18, 2003, the senator's 80th birthday, was declared Senator Ted Stevens Appreciation Day by Alaska's Governor, Frank H. Murkowski. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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