patrick kennedy, with his mental health parity bill, he called that a civil rights battle. to try to erase the stigma felt by people with mental illness and substance abuse problems. and you see the kennedy legacy continuing with a new generation. you know, at first came jack's inspiration in and challenge and that was the key to sort of starting this legacy going. he was more than anything else a motivator, a morale-builder and a renewed spirit. he was more that than a historical politicians. and they were torn and how much he accomplished. it was really what he started more than what he accomplished. arthur schlesinger said the energy he released, the standards he set, the purposes he inspired, the goals he established would come for the lands for years to come and his brothers did all they could treating it like holy writ. bobby had deep compassion for the disenfranchised. that was really not what john was about. they are all idealists that the country could be better than it was. and john was sort of the purist idealist trying to inspire people these challenges. bobby wa

swear him in at noon eastern time today. >>> also on the hill today, rhode island representative patrick kennedygton today after spending nearly a month in a drug treatment center. kennedy checked into the center last month but says he's now feeling healthy and strong. >>> and president obama continues his trip in russia this morning. at 10:30 eastern time, he's going to be attending a reception with russian president medvedev, coming hours after speaking with putin who some say is the real man in power there. it was an important conversation, which president obama talked about with our own ed henry earlier this morning. >> i found him to be tough, smart, very sentimental, i think he's a practical person, and to the extent that there are common interests, like fighting terrorism, potentially nuclear proliferation, where he believes that working with the united states will advance russian goals, i think he can be a potential partner. >> president obama speaking to our own ed henry. we'll have much more after the break. it's 35 minutes after the hour. the gold delta skymiles credit card... from am

i'm so pleased that patrick kennedy is here again. his eyes lit up when george miller mentioned mental health. [applause] >> and as we gather here, the help committee is my understanding is that today they will be passing the bill in the united states and at the h.e.l.p. committee. so please give our thanks and best wishes to your father, patrick. because he too was so important making this day possible. .. the chairman on that. we also see ourselves with any additional cost cutting weekend do, we want to squeeze every dollar we have out of the system to have more savings to reduce a need for revenue. we will have a strong, level playing field public auction, many of the concerns raised were well taken. i will yield to mr. west. >> the blue dogs, or the democrats from the rural areas who have specific fiscal conservative point of view that many of us share, are playing a very constructive role. i thought there letter last week was an outstanding letter, setting out the issues that concern them and concern all of us. we are going to ha

sensitive people than chairman edwards and ranking member wamp and our colleague on the committee, patrick kennedy, that have listened so profoundly to the needs of mental health care for veterans. not only those coming back with post traumatic stress syndrome from iraq and afghanistan, but we have about 270,000 veterans that sleep on the streets of america. that's the biggest embarrassment this country has. and we have not been that good at taking care of them and so this budget puts $800 million more into the mental health and does the outreach for homeless veterans and i'm very proud of that and would urge support of the legislation. the chair: the gentleman from texas reserves his time. the gentleman from tennessee is recognized. mr. wamp: madam chairman, i yield three minutes to andrew crenshaw from jacksonville, florida, who would be the vice ranking member if there were such a position, but he is an incredibly valuable asset on our subcommittee and has done just an extraordinary job this year. i yield to mr. crenshaw three minutes. the chair: the gentleman from florida is recognized for thr

it is something i worked on a bipartisan basis with congressman patrick kennedy, with senator hillaryhere is a buy-up partisan group can work in-house, senator and z. in the senate, but we believe that the first step toward stopping the fraud is to go to an electronic system. if you think about your credit card, the average credit card company has less than 2/10 of 1% from. the new york times or present said new york state medicaid of his about 10% fraud. that's 50 times -- it's an amazing difference in a lot of fraud because it's a paper-based system in the crooks move faster than the bureaucrats. >> dave: we saw on saturday the president cannot and criticize the republicans forestalling this thing. but doesn't he have the numbers keep you why does he continue to blame publicans for this thing not getting through? >> i think that's been one of the most disappointing things about the first six months of the about the administration. he was elected in something was going to bring us together. i think he has the potential to bring us together. but he can't bring us together he turned ov

it's an honor for me to take the floor after patrick kennedy from rhode island who along with his father, senator edward kennedy, have devoted so much of their careers, their emotions, their passion to resolving the health care problems in this country. and as we talk about health care, reforming our system, we talk a lot about billions and billions of dollars, we talk about government agencies, we talk about the politics of it, but at its core, this issue isn't about any of those things. this is about human beings. this is about men, women and their families and trying to help them deal with health care crises, wellness issues, things that every american has to deal with. yesterday in southern indiana right across from my district the subcommittee of the energy and commerce committee held a field hearing in which we were able to see the face of this issue. three people who came before us to tell their stories about how the health care system in america has failed them. one of them was a constituent from my district, patricia riley. patricia is a small business person. for 20 years she w

growth act of 2009, known as h.r. 3238 legislation that my friend and colleague, representative patrick kennedy of rhode island and i introduced on thursday, july 16, 2009. as we all know, our nation is facing one of the most difficult economic times in history. technology and globalization, coupled with the economic recession are causing low wage and low-skilled workers to become particularly vulnerable. according to the bureau of labor statistics, unemployment among individuals with less than a high school diploma has risen from 7.5% to almost 15% in april, 2009. the unemployment rate for high school graduates with no college degree has increased from 4.6% to 9.3%. currently, the u.s. ranks 11th among oecd countries in the percentage of young adults with a high school diploma. we should be concerned that we are the only country in which younger adults are less educated than the previous generation. more than 40 million adults across our country have basic skills needs or limited proficiency in english that keep them from participate fully in work, in family and community activities. in the ye

every one of them has also had a kennedy as well and i am pleased that patrick kennedy as here. the health committee is today. they will be passing the bill in the u.s. senate. -- the help committee is today. best wishes to you and your father. with that, we are pleased to take any questions. >> [inaudible] and they have reservations about the surtax. how are you going to address the concerns of the committee? >> we want to squeeze every dollar we can have to have more savings, to reduce the need for revenues. we will have a strong level playing field public auction and some of the concerns raised by the blue dogs. >> the blue dogs bark democrats from the rural areas who have a specific fiscal conservatives points of view. they are playing a very constructive role. i thought that their letter was outstanding, setting up the issues that concern them and concern all of us. we are going to work through those issues. this is not a correct statement to say that they are against a public auction, they want some changes in the public auction, some would prefer not to have a public auct

kennedy was a young man with a lot of promise and unfortunately we'll never know the full eent oft he could have accomplished in life. >> "people" magazine obtained previously unreleased photos of jfk jr. patrickgers is one of the editors at "people." as we look through these photos what will register with people is these weren't photos taken by the paparazzi. these were taken by a good friend. >> these are photos taken by a friend who met john kennedy jr. at prep school when they were 15, 16 years old them remained best friends throughout their lives until a couple weeks before he died. >> she had dinner with him a week before he died. she took these photos and everything else that related to him and put them in a box under her bed. why did she decide to share them now? >> ten years later she looked at the pictures that showed john happy and why not remember him happy and put the tragedy behind. that's what you see here. you see the weekend shots. him in his shorts with his shirt off playing on the beach. the kind of snapshots that a friend would take of another friend. >> photos taken around his wedding day back in 1996. one of the people invited. she says it was an unusual invitation. >> on