Senate Report Card: Kent Conrad D-ND

Senator Kent Conrad is the senior Democratic Senator from the state of North Dakota. He is a member of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party, which is the affiliation of the Democratic Party in North Dakota. He has served in the senate since 1992. He is currently serving his fourth term in the Senate.

Senator Conrad is a member of the Agriculture, Nutrition, Forestry, Finance and Indian Affairs Committees. He is also the chairman of the Budget Committee.

As the Budget Committee Chairman, he has been highly critical of budget deficits. He has no qualms over criticizing the spending practices of the Bush Administration. Conrad is opposed to most free-trade measures and is a strong supporter of farming subsidies.

Conrad is considered more moderate than many in the Democratic Party, especially on the issues of abortion and gun control. He is one of the few members of the Democratic Party to have voted consistently in favor of banning partial birth abortions despite arguments that it could be used as a threshhold for removing other reproductive rights. He also opposes public funding of abortion. However, Conrad voted in favor of lifting the ban on military base abortions. Conrad was one of only four Democrats to vote in favor of confirming President Bush's nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

Senator Conrad was not a supporter and had serious concerns with the No Child Left Behind Act. He also supported an amendment to the Budget Resolution to restore funds eliminated in the President's budget for TRIO and LEAP programs, and to increase the maximum Pell Grant to $4,500. The full Senate adopted that amendment.

In the wake of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11th, Senator Conrad helped pass emergency legislation providing $40 billion to wage the war on terrorism, improve homeland security, and rebuild the Pentagon and lower Manhattan.

Senator Conrad drafted the congressional budget resolution for fiscal year 2003, which included the largest increase in National Defense spending in a generation. In his current role as Budget Committee Chairman, Conrad has continued to support record levels of funding for national defense

The senator voted against approving use of military force in the first Gulf War in Iraq in 1991. He was one of only 23 senators to vote against the Iraq War Resolution of 2002. He is proud that he voted against the use of military force in Iraq, and is critical of his colleagues support of the war. He has voted for restrictions on troop deployments, effectively expanding time between deployments. He joined his Democratic colleagues and a few Republicans in voting for the Iraq Redeployment Amendment.