Pat Roberts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pat Roberts
Junior Senator from Kansas
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 7, 1997 Serving with Sam Brownback
Preceded by	Nancy Kassebaum Baker
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas's 1st district
In office January 5, 1981 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Keith Sebelius
Succeeded by	Jerry Moran
Born	April 20, 1936 (1936-04-20) (age 72) Topeka, Kansas
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Franki Roberts
Alma mater	Kansas State University
Religion	Methodist

Charles Patrick "Pat" Roberts (born April 20, 1936) is the junior United States Senator from Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he was formerly the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

[edit] Newspaper background

Roberts hails from a family that has long published the small town weekly Oskaloosa Independent, which claims to be the second-oldest newspaper in Kansas. Roberts was born in Topeka, Kansas to Ruth B. Patrick and C. Wesley Roberts,^[1] who served for four months as Chairman of the Republican National Committee under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Roberts earned a B.A. in Journalism from Kansas State University in 1958, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a captain from 1958 to 62. He was a reporter and editor for several Arizona newspapers before joining the staff of Republican Kansas Senator Frank Carlson in 1967. In 1969, he became administrative assistant to Kansas's 1st District Congressman Keith Sebelius.

[edit] House of Representatives (1981–1997)

After Sebelius' retirement, Roberts was elected as a Republican 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 to 1997.

[edit] U.S. Senator (1997–)

Following the retirement of Senator Nancy Kassebaum, he was elected to the Senate in 1996 and re-elected in 2002 by the largest margin ever for a statewide office in Kansas history. Since Sam Brownback was sworn in the same night of the election, Roberts holds the distinction of being both the dean of the state's congressional delegation and the state's junior Senator.

Roberts was a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chairing the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. This subcommittee oversaw the military's work in the area of homeland security and the efforts to prevent proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

As of 11-20-2007, Roberts has an approval rating of 51%, with 38% disapproving.[1]

[edit] Committee Assignments

• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Health Care
  • Subcommittee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness
  • Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-term Growth
• Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on Domestic and Foreign Marketing, Inspection, and Plant and Animal Health
  • Subcommittee on Production, Income Protection and Price Support (Ranking Member)
• Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
  • Subcommittee on Children and Families
  • Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety
• Select Committee on Ethics

[edit] Issues and ideology

Roberts' voting record is conservative. Among other issues, he is pro-life, opposes same-sex marriage and supports the Patriot Act, and loosening restrictions on NSA wiretapping. [2]

[edit] Investigation into pre-war intelligence on Iraq

As chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Roberts was responsible for the committee's investigation into the intelligence failures prior 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. The second half, according to language voted on by the full Committee, consists of five parts including: whether public statements and reports and testimony regarding Iraq by U.S. Government officials made between the Gulf War period and the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom were substantiated by intelligence information; the postwar findings about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and weapons programs and links to terrorism and how they compare with prewar assessments; prewar intelligence assessments about postwar Iraq; any intelligence activities relating to Iraq conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group (PCTEG) and the Office of Special Plans within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; and the use by the Intelligence Community of information provided by the Iraqi National Congress (INC).

On November 1, 2005, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called the Senate into a rare closed session[3]. The move was "an attempt to get around the perceived stalling by Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS). Roberts had promised in July 2004 to investigate the Bush administration's misuse of intelligence before the Iraq War, but to date has not released any findings of such an investigation."

Almost two years after finishing of Phase I investigation, on April 5, 2006, Senator Roberts released the Committee's schedule for completion of Phase II [4]. Senator Roberts said, “Today members of the Committee were provided three draft reports of the Phase II inquiry including: postwar findings about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs and links to terrorism and how they compare with prewar assessments, the use by the Intelligence Community of information provided by the Iraqi National Congress (INC), and prewar intelligence assessments about postwar Iraq.

“The Committee’s efforts on Phase II must be completed in a timely manner,” Roberts said. “I intend to complete this inquiry within the agreed upon Phase II parameters and turn the Committee’s attention to other pressing national security matters.

“Two of the drafts given to members today are complete or close to completion. The third is still being revised. Members were briefed by Committee staff, in detail, about each draft. Staff continues to work on a draft of the fourth report on public statements. The Committee will receive this draft when it is ready.

“It is my intention to complete work on the drafts presented to members today following the Easter recess. During the recess, staff will receive and incorporate member input where appropriate in order to complete the three drafts. They will begin drafting conclusions for member consideration.

“In order to expedite the declassification process so that the American people can review the information, the drafts of the factual findings of the report will be sent to the Intelligence Community for fact checking and declassification with the understanding that they are not final until approved by the Committee.

“Following the recess, the Committee will engage in a series of closed business meetings to move forward on Phase II which will include Committee approval of factual findings and conclusions.”

On August 3, 2006, Chairman Roberts publicly released the findings of fact and conclusions of the first two of the Phase II reports.

The following is an article on the release from the Kansas City Star published August 4, 2006 and Written by Matt Stearns:

The Senate Intelligence Committee approved two reports in its oft-delayed, much-maligned investigation into whether the Bush administration misused intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq, committee chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas said. The two reports focus on Saddam Hussein's connections to terrorism and his weapons of mass destruction program, and how they compare with prewar intelligence assessments. They also examine the use by intelligence agencies of information from the Iraqi National Congress, much of which was later discredited. That leaves unfinished three reports in the so-called Phase II investigation, including the potentially explosive one that compares the prewar public statements of government officials to what the intelligence they had at the time indicated. The committee expects to vote on releasing the two completed reports in September, after Congress returns from its summer break. The Bush administration still must declassify the information in them before they can be released."Taken together, I believe the American people will have a better view of the intelligence which contributed to the decision-making that led us to war," said Roberts, a Republican. "The public won't have to listen to the political 'he said, she said' — which certainly abounds in an election year."Roberts said he would pressure the White House to declassify most of the information in the reports: "I will not tolerate a report which is overly redacted. This committee will not settle for anything less. Neither will the American public."Partisan politics have dogged the investigation virtually since it began in February 2004. Democrats, who had hoped to have it completed before the 2004 presidential election, accused Roberts of dragging his feet and protecting the White House. Roberts has said Democrats are responsible for politicizing the investigation. The committee appeared to overcome partisanship Thursday: It voted 14-1 to approve the report on Hussein's weapons program and terrorist ties, and 11-4 to OK the report on information from the Iraqi National Congress. John Pike, director of the think tank Globalsecurity.org, thought the two reports would be instructive on documenting how U.S. intelligence agencies failed in recent years."I think the first one will show there's enough blame to go around that our Iraq policy had been malpremised for a decade," Pike said. "The second one, it will be interesting to see what they conclude on sources and methods. Talk about gullibles' troubles."Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the Democratic vice chairman of the committee, said all five reports were important "to determine where mistakes were made in the full cycle of intelligence — collection, analysis, dissemination and use. Only then can we begin to fix problems that are critical to our national security."Besides the report on officials' public statements, the others to be completed are on the intelligence role of the Pentagon's controversial Office of Special Plans, which challenged the CIA on Hussein's terrorist ties and other issues; and what intelligence agencies predicted about Iraq's postwar conflagration.

On February 16, 2006, the Committee voted to create a seven member subcommittee to conduct enhanced oversight of the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program, instead of a vote called by committee Democrats to investigate the misconduct by administration [5] because the program is claimed by many scholars as breaking the 1978 law of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The New York Times editorial page accuses Sen. Roberts of being "busy trying to give legal cover to the president's trampling on the law and the Constitution." [6] and "Doing the President's Dirty Work" [7]. ThinkProgressive even call his committee the "Senate Cover-Up Committee" [8]

[edit] Torture and the suspension of habeas corpus

He was one of only nine Senators to vote against the McCain Detainee Amendment on October 5, 2005.

On September 28, 2006, Roberts voted with a largely Republican majority to suspend habeas corpus provisions for anyone deemed by the Executive Branch an "unlawful combatant," barring them from challenging their detentions in court. Roberts' vote gave a retroactive, nine-year immunity to U.S. officials who authorized, ordered, or committed acts of torture and abuse, permitting the use of statements obtained through torture to be used in military tribunals so long as the abuse took place by December 30, 2005.^[2] Roberts' vote authorized the President to establish permissible interrogation techniques and to "interpret the meaning and application" of international Geneva Convention standards, so long as the coercion fell short of "serious" bodily or psychological injury.^[3][4] The bill became law on October 17, 2006.

[edit] Environmental record

Roberts worked to secure $15 million for research on carbon sequestration.^[5]

The nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters has given Roberts a score of zero on environmental issues for 2006.^[6] In that year, the senator voted to increase offshore oil drilling,^[7] to include provisions for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the House Budget Amendment,^[8] to deny funding for low-income energy assistance^[9] and for environmental stewardship,^[10] and effectively to exempt Army Corps of Engineers project analyses from independent review.^[11][12] Roberts voted to confirm Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior, to exclude oil and gas smokestacks from mercury regulations, and to reclassify the EPA as a Cabinet department — moves widely seen as pro-business and anti-environment.^[13]

[edit] Personal life

Roberts and his wife Franki have three grown children: David, Ashleigh, and Anne Wesley. His great-grandfather, J.W. Roberts, founded the Oskaloosa Independent, Kansas' second-oldest newspaper.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• United States Senator Pat Roberts, U.S. Senate site
• Pat Roberts for US Senate, Campaign site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• New York Times — Pat Roberts News collected news and commentary
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Pat Roberts profile
• Senator Pat Roberts Receives Eisenhower Leadership Award

v • d • e United States Senators from Kansas Class 2: Lane • Ross • Caldwell • Crozier • Harvey • Plumb • Perkins • Martin • Baker • Burton • Benson • Curtis • Thompson • Capper • Schoeppel • Pearson • Kassebaum • Roberts Class 3: Pomeroy • Ingalls • Peffer • Harris • Long • Bristow • Curtis • Allen • McGill • Reed • Darby • Carlson • Dole • Frahm • Brownback