Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (born September 24, 1952) is an American businessman, Democratic politician, and a member of the Kennedy family. He is the eldest son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, and a nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy and former U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy. He is also the older brother of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the 8th congressional district of Massachusetts from 1987 to 1999. In 1979 he founded and, until he was elected to the U.S. House, led Citizens Energy Corporation, a nonprofit energy company that provides heating oil to low-income and elderly families in Massachusetts.
Early life, family and education Kennedy was born in the Brighton section of Boston on September 24, 1952. He was the second of 11 children to Ethel (née Skakel) and Robert F. Kennedy. He was named after his grandfather Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., the patriarch of the Kennedy family, and his uncle Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., who was killed in an airplane crash in 1944 during World War II. He is the eldest grandson of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Kennedy spent his childhood between the family's homes in McLean, Virginia, and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
Kennedy had a troubled youth and was expelled from several private schools as a result of his quick temper. He regularly got into fights with his younger brothers and male cousins. He was 15 when his father was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel. That night, Kennedy and two of his siblings, Kathleen and Robert Jr., were flying to Los Angeles aboard one of the planes in the Secret Service's presidential fleet.Oppenheimer, Jerry (May 15, 1995). The Other Mrs. Kennedy: An Intimate and Revealing Look at the Hidden Life of Ethel Skakel Kennedy. Macmillan. p. 453.
Kennedy dropped out of Milton Academy, a preparatory boarding school in Milton, Massachusetts, when he was not allowed to take time off to work on his uncle Ted's 1970 Senate campaign. He finished his high school studies at Manter Hall, a tutoring school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1971. At Milton, he was roommate to Thomas C. Wales.Osborne, David (April 1985). "Joe Kennedy Makes a Name for Himself". Mother Jones. p. 20.
Kennedy attended the University of California, Berkeley in 1972, but dropped out.Oppenheimer, Jerry. The Other Mrs. Kennedy. p. 578. St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1995. He returned to school after a major car accident in 1973 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1976.Walker, P. Wayne. 1997 Congressional Staff Directory (49th Edition), p. 111. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Books, June 1997
Early career While on hiatus from college, Kennedy worked for several months as part of a federally funded program to combat and treat tuberculosis in San Francisco's African American community. Mayor Joseph Alioto personally praised Kennedy's work in the community. Kennedy resigned from his position in the program and returned to Massachusetts in the summer of 1973.
In 1979, Kennedy founded Citizens Energy Corporation, a nonprofit organization to provide discounted heating oil to low-income and elderly families in Massachusetts. According to author J. Randy Taraborrelli, Kennedy started the venture "to alleviate the burden of heating bills for the poor during the oil crisis of that year". By 1984, Citizens Energy helped provide low-cost heat for 250,000 families. In 2010, Kennedy transformed the organization to become a leader in renewable energy generation while continuing to use profits to provide energy savings to low-income families.
U.S. House of Representatives (1987–1999)
Elections In 1986, incumbent Democrat and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, who had held the seat for Massachusetts's 8th congressional district (a Democratic stronghold in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts) since 1953, announced his retirement. Kennedy ran for the seat, which his uncle John F. Kennedy had held from 1947 to 1953. The Democratic nomination was contested by several well-known Democrats, including state senator George Bachrach and state representative Mel King. Kennedy was endorsed by The Boston Globe and by O'Neill. He won the primary with 53% of the vote, and the general election with 72%. He was reelected in 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1996.
Tenure Kennedy's legislative efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives included:
Expanding the availability of credit to working Americans to buy homes and to open businesses.Dober, Patrick; Callahan, Tom (1998-11-08). "Joe Kennedy's Home Run Against Bias". The Boston Globe. Requiring public disclosure of bank-lending practices in poorer neighborhoods and disclosure of bank home-mortgage approvals and refusals by race, sex, and income.Turner, Robert L. (1989-07-02). "Joe Kennedy: the Happy Warrior". The Boston Globe. p. A45. Subsequent Federal Reserve Board studies based on these newly required disclosures found widespread evidence of discriminatory-loan practices. One study found that white borrowers in the lowest-income category were approved for mortgages more than African American borrowers in the highest-income category. Data from Boston, Chicago, and Minneapolis found that African Americans were turned down at three times the rate of whites.Harrington, Walt (1993-06-06). "Settling In". The Washington Post (magazine section). p. 32. Helping create hundreds of thousands of new affordable-housing units nationwide by introducing tax credits to stimulate private investment in neighborhood housing developments after federal housing assistance had been cut by 75% during the 1980s.Op-ed essay. Flynn, Raymond L.; Kennedy II, Joseph P. (1988-01-25). "Decent, Affordable Housing for All". The New York Times. Chairing the House Banking subcommittee on consumer credit and insurance and holding the first U.S. congressional hearings to expose the lack of access to insurance in low-income neighborhoods.Kurkjian, Stephen (1995-10-13), "U.S. Urged to Probe Business Insurers". The Boston Globe. Proposing a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution as a vehicle to end skyrocketing deficits, reduce interest rates, and free up investment capital for business growth rather than government bondsKeller, Jon (1995-02-05). "Joe Kennedy's Clear-Eyed View of How Things Are". The Boston Globe. p. 3. while fighting to end corporate tax breaks and subsidies.Kennedy II, Joseph P. (1995-12-27). "Corporations Rake in Subsidies as Poor, Aged Suffer Cuts". The Boston Globe. Overhauling federal public-housing law for the first time in almost 60 years, giving local housing authorities the ability to raise standards while protecting those who depend on public housing for shelter.Pear, Robert (1998-05-10). "House Votes to Overhaul Housing for the Poor". The New York Times. Co-chairing the U.S. congressional biotechnology caucus and proposing to preserve and expand federal research and development accounts that stimulate the creation of new technologies and build the foundation for new jobs and business growth.Kennedy II, Joseph P. (1998-02-02). "R&D, Engine of Our Growth". Boston Herald. Proposing the "Mom and Pop Protection Act" to help corner-store owners to install safety equipmentBlack, Chris (1995-11-25). "Rep. Kennedy Acts to Protect Small Shops". The Boston Globe. and a "National Stalker Reduction Act" to require all states to enact comprehensive anti-stalking legislation, track stalkers, and establish a national domestic-violence database to track violations of civil-protection orders.Sullivan, Paul (1993-01-30). "Kennedy Targets Stalking in New Bill". Boston Herald.Kennedy II, Joseph P. (1993-04-25). "It's Time to Give the Courts Legal Tools to Put Stalkers Away". Boston Herald. Protecting kids from alcohol by proposing to limit television advertising of beer and wine between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and to keep outdoor alcohol advertisements away from schools."Rep. Kennedy Takes on Beer Ads". The Boston Globe. (May 17, 1996); "Celebrating Sobriety". The Boston Globe. (July 3, 1996). Launching a bipartisan initiative in Massachusetts to fight child hunger that helped lead to an expansion of school breakfast and lunch programs.Kennedy II, Joseph P. (1998-02-08). "Growing Up Hungry in a Time of Plenty". The Boston Globe. pp. C1-C2.
In 1988, Kennedy traveled to Northern Ireland. During his stay, the Democratic Unionist Party called him a "republican parrot". He also had a well-publicized encounter with a British soldier who suggested that Kennedy return home. In 1991, Kennedy boycotted a speech to the U.S. Congress by the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II "in protest to the British occupation in Northern Ireland".
In March 1998, after a year of family troubles that included the skiing death of his brother Michael LeMoyne Kennedy, he announced that he planned to retire from the House, citing "a new recognition of our own vulnerabilities and the vagaries of life". The Boston Globe wrote in an editorial, "Kennedy has remained steadfast in his political life to issues and constituencies no poll would have led him to: the poor, the homeless, disadvantaged children, and others swamped in the current tide of prosperity." He served six House terms, until January 1999. In his final speech on the U.S. House floor, Kennedy delivered "an impassioned plea for unity and forgiveness"Miga, Andrew (1998-12-19). "Joe K's Final Speech on the House Floor Is His Finest". Boston Herald. amid Congressional debate about articles of impeachment of President Bill Clinton.Meehan, Marty (1999-01-10). "Joe K Leaves Legacy of Morality". Boston Herald. p. 27.
Committee assignments Throughout his House career, Kennedy served on the House Banking Committee, where he played an active role in the federal saving-and-loan bailout, credit-reporting reform, the overhaul of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933, and financial modernization. Kennedy also served on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, passing legislation to strengthen the veterans' health-care system, to investigate the causes of Gulf War syndrome, and to provide medical treatment for veterans of the Persian Gulf War.
Citizens Energy (since 1999) Overview After leaving the House of Representatives, Kennedy returned to Citizens Energy. (During Kennedy's terms in the House, it had been run by his brother Michael.) Citizens Energy pursues commercial ventures aimed at generating revenues that, in turn, are used to generate funds that could assist those in need in the U.S. and abroad.Katz, Marisa (2001-01-15). "Heat Is On, Thanks to Joe". The Providence Journal. It grew to encompass seven separate companies, including one of the largest energy-conservation firms in the U.S. Citizens Energy became one of the first U.S. energy firms to move large volumes of natural gas to more than 30 states. As a precursor to market changes under electricity deregulation in the late 1990s, Citizens Energy was a pioneer in moving and marketing electrical power over the power grid.Sheingold, Barry J. "Power Marketing for the People". Public Power (January–February 1990), pp. 24–29. In recent years, Kennedy has led the company into the renewable-energy industry, building solar farms along the East Coast and transmission lines to support charitable programs like one giving free solar panels to low-income families in California. In 2019, Citizens Energy announced the completion of one of the largest Low-Income Community Shared Solar projects in the country, funded by its investment in the Sunrise PowerLink Transmission line. Totaling 30 megawatts, the project will provide $500 in energy savings to 12,000 low-income families annually.
Public policy