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Pat Roberts
	Pat Roberts
	;
	United States Senator; from Kansas
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; January 3, 1997; Serving with Sam Brownback
Preceded by	Nancy Kassebaum Baker
	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; from Kansas's 1st district
	In office; January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Keith Sebelius
Succeeded by	Jerry Moran
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics
	In office; January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Robert C. Smith
Succeeded by	Harry Reid
	In office; January 20 – June 6, 2001
Preceded by	Harry Reid
Succeeded by	Harry Reid
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
	In office; January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Bob Graham
Succeeded by	Jay Rockefeller
Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture
	In office; January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Kika de la Garza
Succeeded by	Robert F. Smith
Born	April 20, 1936 (age 73); Topeka, Kansas
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Franki Roberts
Children	David Roberts; Ashleigh Roberts; Anne Wesley Roberts
Residence	Dodge City, Kansas
Alma mater	Kansas State University
Occupation	newspaper publisher
Religion	Methodist

Charles Patrick "Pat" Roberts (born April 20, 1936) is the junior United States Senator from Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he was formerly the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

[edit] Newspaper background

Roberts hails from a family that has long published the small town weekly Oskaloosa Independent, which claims to be the second-oldest newspaper in Kansas. Roberts was born in Topeka, Kansas to Ruth B. Patrick and C. Wesley Roberts,^[1] who served for four months as Chairman of the Republican National Committee under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Roberts graduated in 1954 from high school in Holton, Kansas and went on to earn a B.A. in Journalism from Kansas State University in 1958, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a captain from 1958 to 62. He was a reporter and editor for several Arizona newspapers before joining the staff of Republican Kansas Senator Frank Carlson in 1967. In 1969, he became administrative assistant to Kansas's 1st District Congressman Keith Sebelius.

[edit] House of Representatives (1981–1997)

After Sebelius announced his retirement, Roberts easily won the Republican primary, which was tantamount to election in the heavily Republican 1st District. He was reelected seven times without serious difficulty, never dropping below 60 percent of the vote. He even ran unopposed in 1988.

Roberts served as the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee from 1995 to 1997.

[edit] U.S. Senator (1997–)

Following the retirement of Senator Nancy Kassebaum, Roberts easily won the Republican primary. In the general election, he defeated Democratic State Treasurer Sally Thompson with 62 percent of the vote, almost certainly helped by the presence of Bob Dole atop the ticket as the Republican presidential candidate. He was re-elected in 2002 by the largest margin ever for a statewide office in Kansas history; however, Democrats didn't even field a candidate. Roberts was re-elected to a third term in the 2008 elections, taking 60 percent of the vote against former Congressman Jim Slattery.

Although Roberts is the dean of the Kansas congressional delegation, he is the state's junior Senator since Sam Brownback was sworn in the same night of the election in 1996 for the balance of Dole's Senate term. He is scheduled to become Kansas' senior senator in the 112th Congress, as Brownback is retiring from the Senate to run for Governor.

Roberts was a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chairing the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. This subcommittee oversaw the military's work in the area of homeland security and the efforts to prevent proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

As of 8-31-2009, Roberts has an approval rating of 58%, with 34% disapproving.^[2]

[edit] Committee assignments

[edit] Issues and ideology

Roberts's voting record is conservative. Among other issues, he is pro-life, opposes same-sex marriage and supports the Patriot Act, and loosening restrictions on NSA wiretapping. [1]

[edit] Investigation into pre-war intelligence on Iraq

As chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Roberts was responsible for the committee's investigation into the intelligence failures prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The first half of the Senate Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq was released on July 9, 2004. The second half, according to language voted on by the full Committee, consists of five parts including: whether public statements and reports and testimony regarding Iraq by U.S. Government officials made between the Gulf War period and the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom were substantiated by intelligence information; the postwar findings about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and weapons programs and links to terrorism and how they compare with prewar assessments; prewar intelligence assessments about postwar Iraq; any intelligence activities relating to Iraq conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group (PCTEG) and the Office of Special Plans within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; and the use by the Intelligence Community of information provided by the Iraqi National Congress (INC).

On November 1, 2005, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called the Senate into a rare closed session[2]. The move was "an attempt to get around the perceived stalling by Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS). Roberts had promised in July 2004 to investigate the Bush administration's misuse of intelligence before the Iraq War, but to date has not released any findings of such an investigation."

Almost two years after finishing of Phase I investigation, on April 5, 2006, Senator Roberts released the Committee's schedule for completion of Phase II [3]. Senator Roberts said, “Today members of the Committee were provided three draft reports of the Phase II inquiry including: postwar findings about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs and links to terrorism and how they compare with prewar assessments, the use by the Intelligence Community of information provided by the Iraqi National Congress (INC), and prewar intelligence assessments about postwar Iraq.

“The Committee’s efforts on Phase II must be completed in a timely manner,” Roberts said. “I intend to complete this inquiry within the agreed upon Phase II parameters and turn the Committee’s attention to other pressing national security matters.

“Two of the drafts given to members today are complete or close to completion. The third is still being revised. Members were briefed by Committee staff, in detail, about each draft. Staff continues to work on a draft of the fourth report on public statements. The Committee will receive this draft when it is ready.

“It is my intention to complete work on the drafts presented to members today following the Easter recess. During the recess, staff will receive and incorporate member input where appropriate in order to complete the three drafts. They will begin drafting conclusions for member consideration.

“In order to expedite the declassification process so that the American people can review the information, the drafts of the factual findings of the report will be sent to the Intelligence Community for fact checking and declassification with the understanding that they are not final until approved by the Committee.

“Following the recess, the Committee will engage in a series of closed business meetings to move forward on Phase II which will include Committee approval of factual findings and conclusions.”

On August 3, 2006, Chairman Roberts publicly released the findings of fact and conclusions of the first two of the Phase II reports.

The following is an article on the release from the Kansas City Star published August 4, 2006 and Written by Matt Stearns:

The Senate Intelligence Committee approved two reports in its oft-delayed, much-maligned investigation into whether the Bush administration misused intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq, committee chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas said. The two reports focus on Saddam Hussein's connections to terrorism and his weapons of mass destruction program, and how they compare with prewar intelligence assessments. They also examine the use by intelligence agencies of information from the Iraqi National Congress, much of which was later discredited. That leaves unfinished three reports in the so-called Phase II investigation, including the potentially explosive one that compares the prewar public statements of government officials to what the intelligence they had at the time indicated. The committee expects to vote on releasing the two completed reports in September, after Congress returns from its summer break. The Bush administration still must declassify the information in them before they can be released."Taken together, I believe the American people will have a better view of the intelligence which contributed to the decision-making that led us to war," said Roberts, a Republican. "The public won't have to listen to the political 'he said, she said' — which certainly abounds in an election year."Roberts said he would pressure the White House to declassify most of the information in the reports: "I will not tolerate a report which is overly redacted. This committee will not settle for anything less. Neither will the American public."Partisan politics have dogged the investigation virtually since it began in February 2004. Democrats, who had hoped to have it completed before the 2004 presidential election, accused Roberts of dragging his feet and protecting the White House. Roberts has said Democrats are responsible for politicizing the investigation. The committee appeared to overcome partisanship Thursday: It voted 14-1 to approve the report on Hussein's weapons program and terrorist ties, and 11-4 to OK the report on information from the Iraqi National Congress. John Pike, director of the think tank Globalsecurity.org, thought the two reports would be instructive on documenting how U.S. intelligence agencies failed in recent years."I think the first one will show there's enough blame to go around that our Iraq policy had been malpremised for a decade," Pike said. "The second one, it will be interesting to see what they conclude on sources and methods. Talk about gullibles' troubles."Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the Democratic vice chairman of the committee, said all five reports were important "to determine where mistakes were made in the full cycle of intelligence — collection, analysis, dissemination and use. Only then can we begin to fix problems that are critical to our national security."Besides the report on officials' public statements, the others to be completed are on the intelligence role of the Pentagon's controversial Office of Special Plans, which challenged the CIA on Hussein's terrorist ties and other issues; and what intelligence agencies predicted about Iraq's postwar conflagration.

On February 16, 2006, the Committee voted to create a seven member subcommittee to conduct enhanced oversight of the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program, instead of a vote called by committee Democrats to investigate the misconduct by administration [4] because the program is claimed by many scholars as breaking the 1978 law of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The New York Times editorial page accuses Sen. Roberts of being "busy trying to give legal cover to the president's trampling on the law and the Constitution." [5] and "Doing the President's Dirty Work" [6]. ThinkProgressive even call his committee the "Senate Cover-Up Committee" [7]

[edit] Torture and the suspension of habeas corpus

He was one of only nine Senators to vote against the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 on October 5, 2005.

On September 28, 2006, Roberts voted with a largely Republican majority to suspend habeas corpus provisions for anyone deemed by the Executive Branch an "unlawful combatant," barring them from challenging their detentions in court. Roberts's vote gave a retroactive, nine-year immunity to U.S. officials who authorized, ordered, or committed acts of torture and abuse, permitting the use of statements obtained through torture to be used in military tribunals so long as the abuse took place by December 30, 2005.^[3] Roberts's vote authorized the President to establish permissible interrogation techniques and to "interpret the meaning and application" of international Geneva Convention standards, so long as the coercion fell short of "serious" bodily or psychological injury.^[4]^[5] The bill became law on October 17, 2006.

[edit] Environmental record

Roberts worked to secure $15 million for research on carbon sequestration.^[6]

The nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters has given Roberts a score of zero on environmental issues for 2006.^[7] In that year, the senator voted to increase offshore oil drilling,^[8] to include provisions for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the House Budget Amendment,^[9] to deny funding for low-income energy assistance^[10] and for environmental stewardship,^[11] and effectively to exempt Army Corps of Engineers project analyses from independent review.^[12]^[13] Roberts voted to confirm Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior, to exclude oil and gas smokestacks from mercury regulations, and to reclassify the United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ (EPA) as a Cabinet department — moves widely seen as pro-business and anti-environment.^[14]

[edit] Personal life

Roberts and his wife Franki have three grown children: David, Ashleigh, and Anne Wesley. The couple reside in Hollin Hills, a suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, ^[15] ^[16] where Franki serves as the President of the Mount Vernon District Civic Association. ^[17] His great-grandfather, J.W. Roberts, founded the Oskaloosa Independent, Kansas' second-oldest newspaper.

[edit] Electoral history

2008 Kansas United States Senate Election

Pat Roberts (R) (inc.) 60%

Jim Slattery (D) 36%

2002 Kansas United States Senate Election

Pat Roberts (R) (inc.) 82.5%

Steven Rosile (Lib.) 9.1%

George Cook (Reform) 8.4%

1996 Kansas United States Senate Election

Pat Roberts (R) 62%

Sally Thompson (D) 34.4%

Mark S. Marney (Reform) 2.3%

Steven Rosile (Lib.) 1.2%

1994 Kansas 1st District United States Congressional Election

Pat Roberts (R) (inc.) 77%

Terry L. Nichols (D) 23%

1986 Kansas 1st District United States Congressional Election

Pat Roberts (R) (inc.) 76.5%

Dale Lyon (D) 23.5%

1980 Kansas 1st District United States Congressional Election