![]() ![]() In 1988, Congress renamed the Federal Guaranteed Student Loan program the Robert T. “Every American child has a right to an equal educational opportunity,” he said. He sponsored the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1976, which required public schools to teach children with disabilities in mainstream programs, and supported legislation to help the children of low-income Americans attend college. Stafford also drove monumental strides in education. “Against that tide, he was able to lead the Congress in adopting landmark legislation,” said Mitchell. One of his colleagues, Senator George Mitchell, noted Stafford’s knack for reaching across the aisle to get things done. He also helped pass the Safe Drinking Water Act and led the successful effort to override President Reagan’s veto of the Clean Water Act. In the Senate, he chaired the Committee on Environment and Public Works and cosponsored the Wilderness Protection Act in the early 1980s. One of his notable successes in the House was winning the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970, the first federal law that addressed the national problem of air pollution. ![]() He would be reelected for the next 18 years.ĭuring his time in Congress, Stafford was known as a steadfast advocate for the environment. He served five terms before resigning in 1971 to accept an appointment in the Senate, filling the vacancy caused by the death of Winston L. In 1960, he was elected to represent his state in the US House of Representatives. After serving in World War II and the Korean War, he returned to Rutland and moved up the ranks in Vermont politics from deputy attorney general to attorney general, then lieutenant governor and governor. Stafford first entered the public sector in 1938 as a city attorney in his hometown of Rutland, Vermont, while practicing law alongside his father. Photo courtesy of the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration ![]()
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