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This
Web Site is dedicated to Paul Wellstone and his family. In
Loving Memory From the Members of WE
WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER Below is some things I found on the internet about Paul Wellstone and his family and his staff. There is also some photo's below of them also. Biography Paul David Wellstone, Minnesota's senior senator, was born to Russian immigrants Leon and Minnie Wellstone on July 21, 1944. In 1963 Paul married Sheila Ison, with whom he has three children, David, Marcia, and Mark. Today the Wellstones have six grandchildren: Cari, Keith, Joshua, Acacia, Sydney, and Matt. Paul was raised in Arlington, VA and attended Wakefield and Yorktown high schools. An accomplished student and athlete he went on to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he was a champion wrestler. In 1965 he earned his B.A., and four years later was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science. Soon he accepted a teaching post at Carleton College in Northfield, MN where he taught for 21 years. In 1990, underdog Senate candidate Paul Wellstone rallied a dynamic volunteer force and traveled throughout Minnesota in his trademark green bus. On election day he was the only Senate challenger that year to unseat an incumbent. United States Senator Paul Wellstone's experience as a teacher and community organizer in Minnesota, and his work representing Minnesotans in the Senate provides the framework for his progressive priorities and accomplishments. Minnesotans have a long tradition of electing strong and determined leaders willing to fight for those they represent and Paul Wellstone is proud to stand within this tradition During his first Senate term Wellstone led legislative battles to make health care more accessible and affordable, and won workers protection to take time from work to care for their families without losing their jobs. He helped raise the minimum wage, successfully fought to protect seniors' pension funds from corporate raiders, and authored historic ethics and lobbying reform measures that forever changed how the people's business is done on Capitol Hill. Since 1996, Wellstone has expanded health care coverage for those suffering from mental illness, worked with a bipartisan coalition to write a new farm bill, and blocked harsh bankruptcy reforms unfair to consumers as well as efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. He has fought for and secured federal resources for Minnesota schools, and worked tirelessly on behalf of veterans, passing legislation to aid homeless veterans and securing compensation for "atomic veterans" suffering from cancers due to radiation exposure during their military service. He has been a leader in efforts to combat violence against women. In 2000, Wellstone joined with Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) to pass historic bipartisan legislation to prevent international sex trafficking of women and girls, establishing first-ever penalties for those who enslave and traffic in persons. Paul and Sheila Wellstone live in St. Paul, commuting to and from Washington when the Senate is not in session. Education A former teacher and current member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Senator Wellstone has worked to realize our national promise of equal opportunity and a decent education for all children. He fought to expand school funding; established a new teacher recruitment and retention program to train and retain highly skilled teachers for high-need urban and rural areas in key subject areas such as math, science and special education; secured funding for competitive grants to help states which adopt the highest quality assessments; and won funding for local, community-based Parent Involvement Centers to help low-income communities. Senator Wellstone has proposed halting the repeal of the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax and freezing scheduled tax rate reductions for the wealthiest 1% of the population (those making over $300,000 annually) in order to fund a proposal to bring an additional $2 billion to Minnesota's schools over the next ten years. He has contributed significantly to the Higher Education Act, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and other major education bills. Senator Wellstone continues to fight for sufficient resources to expand early childhood education, provide adequate financial aid for college students, improve teacher quality in public schools, expand after-school enrichment programs and renovate schools in disrepair. Agriculture and Rural Community Development Senator Wellstone's successes on behalf of Minnesota's farmers and rural communities reflect his commitment to preserve Minnesota's family farms and agricultural tradition. He has expanded the market for value-added products such as ethanol and vegetable inks and won emergency funds for farmers suffering from the price crisis and the farm-flooding. Senator Wellstone has championed the fight to repeal the Freedom to Farm Act of 1996 and the Northeast Dairy Compact. A member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Wellstone contributed significantly to the 2002 Farm Bill, increasing loan rates for the first time in two decades; establishing a country-of-origin labeling requirement for red meats, fruits and vegetables; and providing an historic 80 percent funding increase in conservation programs and farm-based renewable energy projects utilizing biomass, ethanol and wind power. Wellstone authored and implemented the Rural Telework Act to better connect Minnesota's rural communities to high-tech jobs throughout the world. Health Care and Workplace Safety Senator Wellstone has been a leader in reforming our nation's health care system to make health care affordable and accessible to all Americans. A member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Wellstone has worked to establish a meaningful Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors, and has fought tirelessly on behalf of health care consumers, pressing to ensure strong patient privacy rules and a comprehensive Patient's Bill of Rights, and to prevent big pharmaceutical companies from making outrageous profits at the expense of consumers. He stopped drug industry-sponsored proposals to extend the patents on Lodine and Claritin, giving consumers access to lower-priced generic forms of the drugs. Senator Wellstone has also championed efforts to allow consumers to "re-import" drugs from Canada at much lower prices than American consumers currently pay. Wellstone also authored and passed the Muscular Dystrophy Community Assistance, Research and Education Act of 2001 (MD CARE Act), securing a reliable federal commitment towards increased research, treatment and prevention of muscular dystrophy. As Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Safety and Training, Wellstone has fought to protect workers against repetitive stress injuries such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and other workplace hazards. Jobs and the Economy Senator Wellstone is one of the Senate's most forceful advocates for quality jobs and economic development. He cast the tie-breaking vote in support of the 1993 Economic Recovery Plan that helped create 418,000 jobs in Minnesota since 1994 and helped bring unemployment nationwide to its lowest level in 30 years. In 1998, Wellstone joined with Republican Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) in authoring and passing the Workforce Investment Act, which streamlined the many federal job training programs into a system of One-Stop centers, and cosponsored a common-sense FDA reform measure that has spurred Minnesota's medical supply industry. Wellstone led the fight to raise the minimum wage, worked for fair trade rules that support Minnesota's and the nation's economy, and joined a bipartisan effort to combat unfair Canadian timber subsidies. A member of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, Senator Wellstone has repeatedly voted to lower the tax burdens on entrepreneurs, passing the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act of 1995 which increased loan ceilings by 50%, and cosponsoring a federal micro-loan program to help women, minorities and low-income people nurture small businesses. He has been a champion of the Small Business Administration's loan programs, which have leveraged over $1.5 billion in capital in Minnesota over the past six years and have created over 30,000 jobs in the state, and has successfully fought cuts to those programs. He also helped pass the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, which requires federal agencies to treat small businesses fairly and with common sense. Political Reform Since coming to the Senate, meaningful political reform has been one of Senator Wellstone's top priorities. He has battled special interests, deep-pocket industries and occasionally even members of his own party to make politics more responsive to voters. During his first term he authored and passed the landmark 'Gift Ban' legislation that virtually eliminated all lobbyist gifts to members of Congress and staffers, and pressed for passage of the Lobbying Disclosure Act which established tough new lobbyist disclosure rules, forever changing the way business is done in Washington. An original cosponsor of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, Senator Wellstone added an amendment to close a loophole which would have allowed last-minute sham political ads in campaigns. He has authored the Clean Money, Clean Elections Act – often called the 'gold standard' of campaign finance reform – and has advocated to allow interested states, such as Minnesota, the freedom to create their own voluntary systems of public campaign financing for federal candidates Environment and Energy Senator Wellstone is a fierce advocate of protecting Minnesota's natural resources and improving the quality of our environment. Named an "Environmental Hero" by the League of Conservation Voters, he has led the battle to protect the Clean Air Act from repeated efforts to weaken its standards and enforcement provisions, opposed successfully the Bush Administration's rollback of drinking water standards for arsenic, and successfully filibustered the Bush Administration's attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. Senator Wellstone has worked to reduce America's dependence on fossil fuels, pressing for increased energy conservation measures and winning federal commitments to increase renewable energy efforts such as biomass, ethanol and wind power. He has been a strong supporter of preserving Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area and other parks and wilderness areas for future generations. Mental Health Improving mental health research, funding, and treatment continues to be a top priority for Senator Wellstone. Joining with Republican Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), Senator Wellstone wrote the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, a groundbreaking law ensuring health care coverage of mental illnesses be provided on par with coverage of other medical illnesses. Building on this victory, the Senators introduced the bipartisan Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act which could expand parity for mental health coverage. Wellstone has also introduced the Medicare Mental Health Modernization Act to correct the disparity in mental health coverage for Medicare beneficiaries. Along with Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Wellstone authored the Fairness in Treatment Act to establish parity in treatment for those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction. Senator Wellstone has secured critical resources for numerous mental health initiatives, particularly those focused on the needs of children, rural americans, veterans, and others. His efforts also led to increased funding for suicide prevention, suicide crisis centers, and suicide hotlines. Veterans As a member of the Senate Committee on Veteran's Affairs, Senator Wellstone is one of the nation's leading advocates for veterans and their families. He authored and passed the Comprehensive Homeless Veterans Assistance Act in 2001, which aims to completely end veterans homelessness within a decade. He secured long-awaited service-connected benefits for atomic veterans afflicted by certain radiation-related cancers. For the past several years, he has led Senate efforts to fully fund veterans health care programs. Senator Wellstone has received numerous honors and awards from the veterans community, including commendations from the Vietnam Veterans of America, the Minnesota chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the Minnesota Veterans of Foreign Wars, among others. Violence Against Women Together with his wife Sheila, Senator Wellstone has been a leader in the fight to end violence against women. In both 1994 and 2000, Senator Wellstone helped to ensure passage of the Violence Against Women Act–landmark legislation that has provided greater protection and improved services for victims of domestic violence nationwide. Senator Wellstone authored and passed several initiatives contained in the law including an educational initiative for youth exposed to violence, and new supervised visitation centers for children in violent families, among others. He also introduced legislation to create a permanent Violence Against Women Office at the Department of Justice; provide needed services for children exposed to violence in their homes; and address violence against women in the workplace. Terrorism and National Security Since the September 11th attacks, Congress has moved swiftly to protect America from future acts of domestic terrorism. Senator Wellstone has been a key player in these efforts, helping to secure our northern borders, improving airport security and protecting citizens while preserving important civil liberties. He successfully fought to triple the number of border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents working along the United States' northern border, and supported authorization of $150 million dollars to replace old equipment and provide new technologies for border agents. In addition, he authored legislation to protect all National Guardsmen and women mobilized by our nation's Governors to protect the home front since September 11th from eviction, foreclosure, high-interest debt and other financial hardships caused by their service. Foreign Policy Senator
Wellstone, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has championed
human rights around the globe. Joining with Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS),
he authored and passed the historic Trafficking Victims Protection Act,
the first law to address international trafficking in women and children
for prostitution and forced labor. He was a co-author of the Torture
Victims Protection Act, to help rehabilitate tortured survivors in the
United States and abroad. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Near Eastern
and South Asian Affairs, Senator Wellstone has been a vigorous supporter
of the peace process in the Middle East, and of a stable and secure
Afghanistan free of terrorism. Senator Wellstone actively pursued investigation
of the murder of Minnesota priest and human rights worker Father John
Kaiser in Kenya, and in 2001 won passage of the Father Kaiser Memorial
Fund to advance the late Father Kaiser's work in torture treatment,
human rights, justice and conflict resolution. He has been a Senate
leader in focusing on human rights abuses in China, Latin America, South
Asia and elsewhere.
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