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Senator Christopher J. Dodd Esq.


Self Description

October 2007: "Connecticut’s Chris Dodd is a senior Democratic leader in the United States Senate. A respected legislator who works in a bipartisan fashion to better peoples’ lives, Chris Dodd is best known for his work to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.

Senator Dodd is perhaps best known for bringing much-needed attention to children’s issues. He formed the first children’s caucus in the Senate and spent seven years fighting to enact the Family and Medical Leave Act, which has helped ensure that 50 million Americans don’t have to choose between the job they need and the family they love. He also authored and enacted landmark legislation to ensure that our nation provides better access to safe and affordable childcare.

A common-sense leader who has long fought to put our nation’s fiscal house in order, and who has offered targeted tax relief for working families. Dodd offered a "pay as you go" budget proposal in 1982 and played an important role in the 1990’s to restore the fiscal discipline that for the first time since World War II led to record budget surpluses. He also has long fought to reform our campaign finance laws and authored legislation banning members of Congress from receiving speaking fees.

Chris Dodd has a reputation for independence, vision, and effectiveness. Even before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Dodd saw a need to help local committees better prepare for man-made and natural disasters. Working with Senators on both sides of the political aisle, he successfully authored the legislation to help towns and cities hire, equip, and train firefighters and other emergency responders. This legislation has helped communities throughout America better protect their citizens from the risks of terrorism, fires, floods, and other disasters.

After the controversial presidential election of 2000, Dodd’s leadership skills were again on display. He authored legislation that contained a simple yet profound truth: that in America, every voter should have an equal opportunity to vote and have that vote counted. This legislation was enacted as the Help America Vote Act – which has been called the most important voting rights legislation since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Chris Dodd has long believed that “the best social program is a good job.” To that end, he has dedicated himself to helping Americans create and win the best jobs in the 21st century global economy. He is a long-time supporter of job-training initiatives that enable American workers to acquire higher-skilled, better-paying jobs. He co-authored the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley law, which has strengthened accounting and managerial practices for the benefit of companies and workers who invest in those companies. He has worked to rein in runaway energy and health care costs that are placing unprecedented burdens on American businesses and employees. In addition, he is a long-time supporter of the Research and Development Tax Credit and of greater investments in scientific research to spur innovation and job creation. While helping American companies compete abroad, Senator Dodd also believes that we must do more to help our companies keep good jobs here at home. In his view, American policy should encourage the export of American goods and services – not American jobs.

Recognizing that the information age offers great challenges as well as opportunities, Dodd also has fought to protect people’s basic right to privacy, authoring legislation to protect individuals’ financial, medical and genetic records. He also wrote and successfully enacted a measure requiring Internet service providers to notify parents of how to obtain software to screen out web content unsuitable for children.

A strong advocate of better education for America’s children, Dodd has consistently fought to expand and improve Head Start, and ultimately was honored as a national Head Start "Senator of the Decade" for his efforts. He helped write the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, worked to create after-school initiatives designed to keep children out of trouble and on the road to success, and has helped author measures to make higher education more affordable for working families. He has introduced legislation to improve and reform the No Child Left Behind law. This law, which was signed into law in 2002 to help teachers and students raise achievement levels, has been greatly under funded and inflexibly implemented.

As a senior member of the Senate committee responsible for health care, Chris Dodd has been a voice for innovation in patient care. He has worked to support community health centers and initiatives aimed at child nutrition, autism, maternal and child health, and infant mortality prevention. He has also worked to modernize the Food and Drug Administration approval process for drugs and medical devices, getting innovative therapies to patients more quickly without compromising safety and effectiveness. He authored critically important legislation to protect the mentally ill from abusive and deadly restraint and seclusion practices in mental hospitals. He has supported a patient’s bill of rights, which would give Americans basic assurances in their health care services and a greater right to choose their health care provider. And he is working to enact new legislation to ensure that the medicines taken by consumers are safe and effective.

A staunch friend of law enforcement, Dodd voted for passage of the landmark crime bill which put 100,000 new cops on the street across the country, including more than 1,000 in Connecticut. He supported the Brady Bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases, and supported the ban on deadly assault weapons. He authored a bill requiring safety locks on guns and supported legislation to prevent anyone convicted of domestic violence from owning a gun. In addition, he has worked for tough new laws to investigate, prosecute and punish criminals who prey upon children.

A recipient of the Edmund S. Muskie Distinguished Public Service Award recognizing leadership in foreign policy, Dodd’s record reflects his commitment to a strong national defense and his desire to build a more secure world. As a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he is a recognized expert on Latin and South America and has worked to foster peace, prosperity and democracy abroad. He helped lead the successful fight to save Submarine Base New London, where our nation’s most sophisticated undersea arsenal is developed and home-ported. He has taken steps to change Administration policies that currently allow the export and loss of critical defense technologies. And he has been a leader in the Senate to ensure that American soldiers have the best possible equipment on the battlefield.

Senator Dodd is currently Chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. He serves as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics. He is a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and is the Chairman of its Education and Early Childhood Development Subcommittee. He also is a member of the Rules and Administration Committee.

Dodd’s commitment to public service and human rights was instilled at an early age by his parents, the late Senator Thomas J. Dodd and Grace Murphy Dodd. Thomas Dodd was one of the lead prosecutors during the Nuremberg war crimes tribunals before he was elected to the United States Senate. Chris Dodd is the first Connecticut son to follow his father into the Senate and the youngest person ever elected to the United States Senate in Connecticut history. He is also the first Connecticut Senator popularly elected to five terms.

Following his graduation from Providence College, Dodd, who is fluent in Spanish, spent two years in the Peace Corps working in a rural village in the Dominican Republic. Upon returning to the United States, Dodd enlisted in the Army National Guard and later served in the U.S. Army Rserves. In 1972, he earned a law degree from the University of Louisville School of Law. He practiced law in New London before his election to Congress in 1974, where he served three terms in the House of Representatives on behalf of Connecticut’s Second District.

Dodd was born May 27, 1944, in Willimantic, Connecticut, the fifth of six children. Senator Dodd lives in East Haddam with his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, and their daughters Grace and Christina."

http://dodd.senate.gov/~dodd/index.php?q=node/2954

May 2002: Born 1944 (son of US Senator Thomas J. Dodd). US Senator from Connecticut.
http://dodd.senate.ogov/bio/biography.html

Third-Party Descriptions

January 2012: "Former Sen. Chris Dodd, now chief media mogul at the MPAA, didn't even bother to drape a veil over the threat he issued to his erstwhile colleagues [12] after they started bailing on SOPA and PIPA. He told Fox News:"

http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/megaupload-the-content-cartel-strikes-back-184785

May 2010: "The Senate has proved to be a difficult audience. When Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, released a draft of the financial legislation in November, Mr. Strupp and his clients drew up a list of roughly 30 problems that the industry had with the proposals. About two dozen of those provisions remain in the bill."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/business/10lobby.html

September 2009: "Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) plans to introduce legislation requiring banks to get permission from customers, rather than allowing overdrafts automatically. If customers decline and then try to overspend, the transaction would be rejected. A similar bill is pending in the House."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/20/AR2009092002879.html

July 2009: "Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the banking committee chairman, and other Democrats vigorously defended the White House proposal."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/business/15consumer.html

June 2009: "Two Democratic senators, Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Charles E. Schumer of New York, have urged Mr. Geithner to combine the four federal bank regulators into one."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/us/politics/14power.html

June 2009: "Later that month, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) wrote legislation that trumped those efforts and capped bonuses at one-third of executives' salaries. The new law applied only to firms that took bailout funds after Feb. 11."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/10/AR2009061001416.html

January 2009: '“If you’re looking at a way to get to the bottom of the economic problems in our country, this is the cause of our economic problems,” said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the banking committee. “It is the housing foreclosure problem. We’ve got to address that.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/economy/09loan.html

December 2008: "The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is Christopher Dodd. His staff said the Connecticut Democrat has his own credit card bill containing tough language to stop things like rate-jacking and shortening of billing cycles -- two issues that anger consumers. But even Dodd's own bill has failed to gain traction -- it has sat since July."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/17/credit.card.rates/index.html

December 2008: "An eleventh-hour effort to salvage a proposed $14 billion rescue plan for the auto industry collapsed....Corker and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Banking Committee, had led negotiations..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121101578.html

July 2008: "Modest adjustments in mortgage rates are common among financial institutions as they compete for business or develop relationships with wealthy families. But amid a national housing crisis, news of discounts offered to Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee, and Kent Conrad (D-N.D) by another lender, Countrywide Financial, has brought new scrutiny to the practice and has resulted in a preliminary Senate ethics committee inquiry into the Dodd and Conrad loans."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070103008.html

June 2008: "Senators Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, introduced the proposal after an article in The New York Times identified several lenders that had stopped offering federally guaranteed loans at community colleges and some four-year institutions."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/business/18loan.html

August 2007: "Democrats, including Mr. Frank in the House and Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate banking committee, contend that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could help thousands of people refinance their subprime mortgages if the two finance giants were allowed to hold those loans in their portfolios."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/business/28workout.html

March 2008: "Dodd and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, demanded Jackson's resignation 10 days ago, saying the ethics allegations have distracted from the secretary's ability to handle the nation's housing crisis."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/31/hud.resignation/index.html

March 2008: "That's one reason that efforts are ramping up in Congress for additional measures designed to slow the pace of foreclosures. The leading approach, for now, seems to be one backed by Rep. Barney Frank (D) of Massachusetts and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D) of Connecticut that could start moving this week."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0331/p01s01-usec.html

November 2007: "Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, who introduced similar legislation in the Senate, said in a statement, “A foreclosure doesn’t differentiate between a homeowner and a renter residing in a defaulting property.” Currently, most state or local laws do not provide this protection."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/us/18renters.html

October 2007: Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida, and Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and a presidential candidate, presented separate private bills on behalf of the brothers, which resulted in the suspension of their deportation until 2009.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/us/31immig.html

October 2007: That reply did not satisfy some senators, who noted that the technique had been widely described in the press. Four Democratic senators who are running for president, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Christopher J. Dodd, said this week that they would not support Mr. Mukasey based on his initial testimony on waterboarding.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/washington/31mukasey.html

October 2007: In a fairly stunning related news, Democratic Senator Chris Dodd went all in with his political capital Thursday, announcing he would unilaterally put a hold on the [telecom immunity--Ed.] bill, which would stop the bill from being voted on.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/dem-pushing-spy.html

October 2007: Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida, and Sen. Chris Dodd, a Democratic presidential candidate from Connecticut, introduced what is known as a 'private bill,' used to help individuals with immigration problems.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-07-Dream_N.htm

September 2007: The debate was held in South Florida, home to an extensive -- and heavily Republican -- Cuban immigrant population. Dodd said he would begin lifting the decades-old trade embargo on the communist government of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, saying Castro is 'using that as an excuse for his own failures.'

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/09/spanish.debate/index.html

August 2007: On Capitol Hill, the Senate Banking Committee approved a bill, sponsored by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), that would require private lenders to give approved student borrowers an extra 30 days to shop for a lower rate, inform applicants of their eligibility for lower-cost federal loans and take other steps to increase market transparency and curb what critics call deceptive business practices.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/01/AR2007080102602.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Member of (past or present) Democratic Party / Democratic National Committee (DNC) Organization Oct 21, 2007
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Motion Picture Association of America, The (MPAA) Organization Jan 24, 2012
Member of (past or present) National Guard, Army (ARNG) Organization Oct 21, 2007
Member of (past or present) Peace Corps Organization Oct 21, 2007
Student/Trainee (past or present) Providence College Organization Oct 21, 2007
Member of (past or present) US Army Reserve (USAR) Organization Oct 21, 2007
Member of (past or present) US Senate Organization Oct 21, 2007
Student/Trainee (past or present) University of Louisville Organization Oct 21, 2007
Family Member Senator Thomas J. Dodd Esq. Person Oct 21, 2007

Articles and Resources

51 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Jan 23, 2012 MegaUpload: The content cartel strikes back

QUOTE: Like SOPA and PIPA, the bust comes with its own collateral damage. Along with those pirated movies and music, the feds took down noninfringing data from thousands of legit MegaUpload users, who are howling in protest and demanding -- futilely, so far -- the return of their stuff.

 InfoWorld
May 21, 2010 Reconciliation for 2 Financial Overhaul Bills

QUOTE: In three areas, consumer protection, restricting banks from using their own money to make bets in the market, and dealing with failing institutions that threaten the financial system, administration officials suggested that they were inclined to favor provisions in the Senate version over those of the House bill...

 New York Times
May 14, 2010 Debit Fee Cut Is a Rare Loss for Big Banks

QUOTE: Retailers have begged Congress for years, in vain, to limit the fees they must pay to banks when customers swipe credit or debit cards...That long record of futility ended in a landslide Thursday night. Sixty-four senators, including 17 Republicans, agreed to impose price controls on debit transactions over the furious objections of the beleaguered banking industry.

 New York Times
May 09, 2010 Banks Lobbying Against Derivatives Trading Ban

QUOTE: Democrats surprised the industry by adding the “push-out” provision in mid-April, transforming the final rounds of an epic prize fight. The industry has been forced to set aside the issues that were its greatest concerns, including its opposition to a requirement that almost all derivatives trades be recorded on public exchanges.

 New York Times
Nov 08, 2009 Swine flu: Without paid sick leave, workers won't stay home: Many workers choose to work if they don't have paid sick leave. Now, partly because of swine flu, 15 states are considering laws to make paid sick leave mandatory.

QUOTE: Nearly half of all American workers do not have paid sick leave, and half of these are more likely to go to work feeling unwell – or send an ill child to school – rather than take an unpaid day off.

 Christian Science Monitor
Oct 17, 2009 Congressional Ethics Inquiries Drag on, Despite Vows to End Corruption

QUOTE: The record illustrates how Congress has struggled to police itself after years in which its ethics committees were often derided as ineffectual.

 New York Times
Sep 21, 2009 Democrats Target Bank Overdraft Charges: Bailed-Out Firms Lean More Heavily on Fees

QUOTE: A backlash is brewing on Capitol Hill against banks that charge large fees for overdrafts without asking or telling customers...

 Washington Post
Sep 16, 2009 Citing Risks, U.S. Seeks New Rules for Niche Banks (Back to Business)

QUOTE: While they [niche banks that give loans to business] have brought billions of dollars in deposits, thousands of jobs and millions in charitable donations to Salt Lake City, the banks have also drawn fire from Washington.

 New York Times
Jul 27, 2009 Credit card firms raise fees before law changes

QUOTE: Chase [JPMorgan Chase & Co] is but one of a number of major credit card companies that are jacking up interest rates and fees, or laying the groundwork to do so, before new federal legislation that cracks down on some of the practices goes into effect in February.

 Boston Globe
Jul 14, 2009 Office to Aid Consumers Draws Fire and Support

QUOTE: Mr. Obama unveiled the plan for the new agency last month to opposition from banking leaders, who have voiced concern about what they say is needless government intervention into their lending practices.

 New York Times
Jul 06, 2009 Familiar Players in Health Bill Lobbying: Firms Are Enlisting Ex-Lawmakers, Aides

QUOTE: The nation's largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing their old bosses and colleagues.... public interest groups and reform advocates complain that the concentration of former government aides on K Street has distorted the health-care debate,

 Washington Post
Jun 13, 2009 As U.S. Overhauls the Banking System, 2 Top Regulators Feud

QUOTE: two Republican holdovers with similar career paths in Washington, is now helping to shape President Obama’s attempt to revamp financial regulation aimed at preventing the regulatory lapses that contributed to the economic crisis. Some of Mr. Obama’s advisers and some senior Democratic lawmakers have suggested creating a single bank regulator.

 New York Times
Jun 11, 2009 U.S. Targets Excessive Pay for Top Executives: Compensation Czar To Oversee Firms At Heart of Crisis

QUOTE: Lawmakers who approved the government's $700 billion bailout for the financial system last fall worried that taxpayers would end up financing the lavish lifestyles of top Wall Street executives....Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said yesterday that the administration is not interested in "capping pay" or "setting forth precise prescriptions for how companies should set compensation." Instead, he said, the government wants to rein in pay practices that motivated executives to take excessive risks in pursuit of profit.

 Washington Post
Jan 08, 2009 Citi Reaches Deal With Lawmakers on Home Loans

QUOTE: In a move that would help troubled homeowners, Citigroup agreed to support legislation that would let bankruptcy judges adjust mortgages for at-risk borrowers....Financial industry lobbyists, however, said the plan was flawed and vowed to fight legislation aimed at easing up on homeowners facing foreclosure.

 New York Times
Dec 18, 2008 Credit card holders livid about 'rate-jacking'

QUOTE: [credit card companies] have this provision that says they can raise the rate -- any time, any reason," she said. In September, Maloney got the House to pass by an overwhelming margin of 200 votes the "credit card holders' bill of rights," which would have stopped rate-jacking and the imposition of other fees by banks.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Dec 12, 2008 Auto Bailout Talks Collapse as Senate Deadlocks Over Wages: Without a Deal, Carmakers Face Bankruptcy Threat

QUOTE: The legislation would have provided emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler, which have said they face imminent collapse without federal help. The high-stakes talks broke down over when the wages of union workers would be slashed to the same level as those paid to nonunion workers at U.S. plants of foreign automakers...

 Washington Post
Jul 02, 2008 Obama Got Discount on Home Loan: Campaign Defends Lower Rate as Lender Competition for Business

QUOTE: Modest adjustments in mortgage rates are common among financial institutions as they compete for business or develop relationships with wealthy families. But amid a national housing crisis, news of discounts offered to Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee, and Kent Conrad (D-N.D) by another lender, Countrywide Financial, has brought new scrutiny to the practice and has resulted in a preliminary Senate ethics committee inquiry into the Dodd and Conrad loans.

 Washington Post
Jun 18, 2008 Bill Promotes Universal College Loans

QUOTE: Responding to reports that some lenders have stopped offering federal loans at community and other colleges, two Democratic senators introduced legislation Tuesday to prohibit lenders from picking and choosing among institutions. Under the proposal, lenders that participate in the federal loan program would have to extend credit to any eligible student, regardless of such things as income or the number of years of education, as long as the college is part of the program.

 New York Times
Mar 31, 2008 Mortgage mess: Who gets help and who pays? Debate over what's fair and what's wise is likely to intensify as US tries to contain the crisis.

QUOTE: Questions of fairness are sure to figure in the policy debate – and are already surfacing on the presidential campaign trail, on talk radio, and in congressional committee rooms. The people who might get bailed out, after all, include the same reckless lenders and often-speculative borrowers who helped cause the mess.

 Christian Science Monitor
Mar 31, 2008 HUD chief resigns amid ethics investigations

QUOTE: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson resigned Monday, amid multiple ethics investigations and criticism from top lawmakers.... Jackson has recently been accused in a lawsuit of retaliating against housing officials in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for blocking a land deal with one of Jackson's friends. The FBI has been investigating allegations that Jackson steered a federal contract to a golfing buddy based in South Carolina.

 CNN (Cable News Network)

51 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]