Statement Regarding the Passing of Senator Ted Kennedy

Among Senator Ted Kennedy’s many accomplishments in the U.S. Senate was a little-heralded but critical boost he gave to the Freedom of Information legislation in 1974. At a time when the opposition to this key bill was in need of a countervailing champion, we visited Senator Kennedy, had a very substantive meeting and secured his networking support among other Senators, which led to its passage.

One can only surmise how many major changes Senator Kennedy could have secured through the Congress had the Senate been populated by the kind of progressives who served in the mid-Sixties instead of their more conservative successors, both in Congress and in the White House.

His legacy of helping the impoverished, the excluded, and the needy in our society will persist. Our sympathies are with his family in these sorrowful times.