Senator Arlen Specter '56 to Speak on "The Senate's Hot-Button Issues," Oct. 13

Senator Arlen Specter '56 will deliver an address titled "The Senate's Hot-Button Issues" on Friday, October 13, 2006, at 12:30 p.m. in Room 127.

Pennsylvania's senior U.S. Senator, Specter is currently in his fifth term. He is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a senior member of the Appropriations and Veterans Affairs Committees.

As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Specter has played a role in the confirmations of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He presided over the nomination hearings of now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito '75.

As a member of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Specter is Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, which oversees the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and educational programs such as Head Start.

Senator Specter is the author of the Armed Career Criminal Act and the Terrorist Prosecution Act. A month after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Senator Specter drafted the legislation that established the Department of Homeland Security.

Recently, Time magazine named Senator Specter one of the country's ten best Senators. He has been in the forefront of recent controversies over military commissions, NSA surveillance, and division of the 9th Circuit.