Political timeline for Sen.Ted Kennedy

See also Senator Kennedy's stance on various issues and legislation he proposed .

• 1962  Edward M. Kennedy is elected to the United States Senate.

• 1963  Senator Kennedy becomes a member of the Health Committee and Judiciary Committee in the Senate, and works on fishery research and development, the NASA Electronics Research Center, and the Northeast Airlines Boston-Miami route.

• 1964  Senator Kennedy makes his maiden speech to the Senate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was signed on July 2, 1964, and outlawed segregation in public accommodations. He also strongly supported the Economic Opportunity Act, a key bill in President Johnson’s war on poverty, which was signed on August 20, 1964. The Act stated that programs would be "developed, conducted and administered with the maximum feasible participation and the residents of the areas and members of the groups served." It also established community action programs to deal directly with the roots of poverty. In the fall election, Robert Kennedy was elected to the Senate by New York.

• 1965  The first major bill that Senator Kennedy managed on the Senate floor was the Immigration Act of 1965. It was enacted and stood as a major turning point in immigration and civil rights policy because it eliminated discriminatory immigration quotas which favored European immigration, but restricted immigration from other parts of the world. The 1965 Act gave priority to immigrants based on their skills and family relationships. Senator Kennedy also won passage of a bill establishing The National Teacher Corps, which awarded scholarships to college students who agreed to teach for at least two years in economically-distressed rural and urban areas after graduation, a program which continues today. He was also a strong and vocal supporter of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to end discrimination against minorities in voting.

• 1966  Senator Kennedy passed legislation creating the national community health center program. He joined a health center in Columbia Point in Dorchester, Massachusetts, with a center in Mound Bayou, Mississippi as the start of a national program that now includes more that 1200 health centers nationally serving more than 20 million low income patients.

• 1967 Senator Kennedy was a strong supporter of the school reforms in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the first comprehensive federal aid for public schools. He also made his first speech that openly questioned the Vietnam War.

• 1968 Senator Kennedy was a strong supporter of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the third major civil rights legislation of the decade after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  As a result of Senator Kennedy's championing of bilingual education, the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 was passed by Congress. The Act required schools to offer bilingual education programs, the first time Congress had endorsed funding for bilingual education. Senator Kennedy was also a leading supporter of President Johnson’s Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act

• 1969  Senator Kennedy gives his first speech calling for national health insurance for all Americans. His amendment creating a minimum tax — the so-called “Alternative Minimum Tax” — becomes law, setting a limit on the amount of taxation for middle-income Americans.

• 1970  Senator Kennedy amended the Voting Rights Act to lower the voting age to 18, laying the basis for a constitutional amendment moving the voting age from 21 to age 18. He was also a leader in enacting the Occupational Health and Safety Act to protect workers on jobs and the Older American Community Service Employment Act. To ease the high cost of home heating, Senator Kennedy actively worked to create a fuel assistance program for low-income persons now known as the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program or “LIHEAP”. He was also responsible for legislation laying the basis for the “War on Cancer” by quadrupling funds for cancer research and prevention. When President Nixon attempted to pocket veto Senator Kennedy’s Family Protection of Medicine Act, the Senate won a court decision invalidating the pocket veto and enacting the law.

• 1971  Senator Kennedy becomes Chairman of the Senate Health Subcommittee. He held a series of field hearings around the country on national health insurance, and is a leader in passing the National Cancer Act to expand research on all aspects of cancer. Inspired by the civil rights movement in the United States and because of his growing concern over British policy in Northern Ireland, Senator Kennedy joins Senator Ribicoff in introducing a Senate Resolution calling for immediate withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and the unification of Ireland, beginning his long involvement with Northern Ireland.

• 1972  Senator