Meet U.S. Senator Joe Biden

Born on November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Joe Biden graduated from the University of Delaware with a double major in History and Political Science in 1965, and from the Syracuse University College of Law in 1968. After a short stint as a trial attorney and Public Defender, in 1970 27 year old Joe Biden ran for New Castle County Council and won in a Republican district. At age 29 he launched an improbable bid to unseat two-term Republican U.S. Sen. J. Caleb Boggs that perhaps foreshadowed his role as Obama’s choice for Vice President. With limited support from the state party, with his younger sister as his campaign manager, Joe Biden defeated Senator Boggs in 1972 by 3,162 votes. He has cast over 10,000 legislative votes during his time representing the people of Delaware.

Senator Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Les Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, have offered a five-point plan that offers a political solution to ending the war in Iraq which has been overwhelmingly endorsed by the Senate (in a 75-23 vote.)

Biden became ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee in 1997 and served as chairman of the committee from 2001 to 2003 and from January 2007 to the present. He has served as chairman or ranking member of the Judiciary Committee for sixteen years. He is recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities on foreign policy, as well as one of its most influential voices on terrorism, drug policy, crime, and issues important to women. He has been a tireless advocate for working families and has reached across the aisle to work with Republicans on tackling some of the greatest challenges facing Americans.

• Like Barack Obama, Biden has been an outspoken critic of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq.
• Biden’s leadership was instrumental in helping to bring stability and peace to the Balkans. In 1999, Biden wrote a resolution endorsing the air war in Kosovo that was passed by the Senate.
• Biden is a leader on the congressional effort to end genocide in Darfur.
• In the late 1990s, Biden led the effort in the Senate to bring Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into NATO and to pass the Chemical Weapons Treaty.
• Biden has been instrumental in crafting almost every major piece of crime legislation over the past two decades. His Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 put more than 100,000 police officers on America’s streets and has been credited with bringing down crime rates to the lowest in a generation.
• In 1996, Biden authored legislation to create a national registry of sex offenders, which tracks people convicted of sex crimes involving violence or committed against minors.
• Biden authored and passed the landmark Violence Against Women Act, the strongest legislation to date that criminalizes domestic violence and holds batterers accountable.
• Biden was a strong supporter of the Family and Medical Leave Act, cracked down on deadbeat dads, and has been a consistent champion for equal pay.
• Biden was one of the first to introduce legislation to address global warming and he co-sponsored the most aggressive piece of climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate.
• Biden is a champion on the issue of making college more affordable by using the tax code to reduce costs.
• Biden was successful in passing a provision that prevents budget cuts to military facilities while the nation is at war, one of his key priorities, ensuring that all veterans have top-notch medical treatment in a fully-funded VA health care system.

For more information on this dedicated public servant there are numerous sources you can consult:

• Biden’s official site as a U.S. Senator
• Wikipedia
• releases about Biden from the Obama for America campaign site
• Joe Biden on the issues…

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