Senior Senator from Michigan who became Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services for the second time in 2007. He was the longest serving senator in Michigan history.
Born in Detroit, he graduated from Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School. He was a long-time civil rights advocate, working as general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission and special assistant attorney general in the state's attorney general's office.
He was a leader of the Democratic Party and served in Congress as a United States senator from 1978 to 2015. He devoted his career to advancing the party's agenda.
As a senator, he fought for legislation to prevent credit card companies from discriminating against consumers and was one of the lead sponsors of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009. He also supported legislation to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for gays in the military.
On Capitol Hill and overseas, he was a relentless critic of the Iraq War and a tireless foe of corporate fraud and waste. He led an investigation into the Enron Corporation that contributed to a new federal law requiring executives to sign off on financial statements.
He was also a strong proponent of the government's role in health care and education. He served on a Senate panel that examined how well schools in the US met federal requirements and was a co-author of legislation to improve the way the US pays for medical care for its veterans.
