John H. Chafee Senatorial Papers, Washington Office I (MsG. 115.2)

Biographical Note

John Hubbard Chafee was born October 22, 1922 in Providence, Rhode Island. He attended Providence Country Day school and Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts. In 1940 he enrolled in Yale University but left during his sophomore year to join the United States Marine Corps at the start of World War II. He was among the first wave of American forces that invaded Guadalcanal and later the island of Okinawa. After returning from the war in 1945 he returned to Yale University and completed his bachelor’s degree. In 1950 he earned a law degree from Harvard University.

In 1951 the Marine Corps recalled Chafee to active duty. He spent the next two years serving as a rifle company commander in the Korean conflict. After returning from Korea in 1953 Chafee worked as an attorney in a Providence law firm while serving in the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1957 to 1963. He was elected minority leader for the Rhode Island Republican party for three years and nominated as the party’s candidate for governor in the 1962 elections.

In 1962 Chafee ran for Governor of Rhode Island and won by a very narrow margin. He was reelected in 1964 and 1966 by the largest margins in the state’s gubernatorial history. After losing the 1968 gubernatorial race to Frank Licht, Chafee was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Richard Nixon in January 1969. Upon resigning from that position, Chafee entered the 1972 Senatorial race which he lost to incumbent Democrat Claiborne Pell.

Chafee ran again for Senator when John O. Pastore announced he was retiring. He was challenged by Richard P. Lorber, who beat Governor Philip Noel by a hundred votes in the primary. Chafee won the election by a comfortable margin carrying every town in the state and capturing 58 percent of the vote. He was the first Republican from Rhode Island elected to the Senate since 1930.

Chafee’s record was highlighted by his ability to lead bipartisan efforts towards passing far-reaching legislation. In Congress he worked through consensus and cooperation in order to make progress on important bills that greatly affected the budget, tax policy, environmental protection, health care, and civil rights. In 1977, Chafee attained the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. He quickly established himself as an advocate of environmental protection, often finding himself at odds with the conservative factions of his party.

Chafee helped pass major environmental protection legislation that included the 1980 Superfund program to clean up hazardous waste, the Clean Water Act of 1986, the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. In 1990 Chafee was ousted from his Senate Republican Chairmanship position (the third ranking position in the party leadership) because of his collaboration with Senate majority leader George Mitchell on the Clean Air Act.

Chafee was a member of several important congressional committees. He sat on the Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee on Small Business, was Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Health Care, and was a member of the Senate Arms Control Observer Group. He also served as Chairman of the Republican Conference for six years. He was an advocate for expanding Medicare coverage to needy families and fought diligently to secure health care coverage for children through employee benefit plans. Chafee played a key role in the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allowed workers to take unpaid leave to care for a new child or deal with a family medical crisis. In addition, he helped write the Children’s Supplemental Security Income grant that safeguarded families threatened by government cutbacks. Chafee also fought hard for persons with disabilities and established landmark legislation providing home and community-based services for the developmentally disabled.

The 1982 senatorial election campaign was more difficult for Chafee than his previous election campaign. He was challenged by former state Attorney General Julius C. Michaelson. Michaelson tried to discredit Chafee by tying him to elements in the Republican party that supported President Ronald Reagan’s conservative agenda and close ties to big business which often clashed with the traditionally moderate ideology of Rhode Island constituents. Chafee defended his record by asserting that he prevented many jobs from leaving Rhode Island by persuading General Dynamics’ Electric Boat division to keep it’s shipyard in the state. Chafee was able to build a large treasury that allowed him to run a stronger campaign in the areas of the state that required his attention. Chafee’s long-standing seat on the Senate Finance Committee also gave him a significant advantage over his opponent. As a result, Chafee won the election, but by a mere 7,965 votes.

In the 1988 elections Chafee was challenged by Lieutenant Governor Richard Licht, nephew of former Governor Frank Licht. With a substantially larger campaign treasury and twelve years of experience in Congress, Chafee won the election with a comfortable 55 percent of the vote making him the first Republican senator in Rhode Island to be popularly elected to three consecutive terms.

Chafee was extremely active in efforts to preserve fragile coastal regions. His sponsorship of the Coastal Barriers Resources Act of 1982, which was amended in 1990, protected expansive areas of coastal shoreline from human development. Chafee also worked to protect wetlands and sponsored the American Wetlands Conservation Act. He played a leading role in the reformation of the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1995 and 1996, and he sponsored the 1984 Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act which saved important fisheries along the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico from pollution and over-fishing. In addition, Chafee established the nation’s first indoor air hazard research and response program, and he authored legislation that established Rhode Island’s Pettaquamscutt Cove National Wildlife Refuge which protects over 300 acres of salt marsh and forest land.

In the 1994 senatorial election Chafee retained his seat by defeating Democratic state legislator Linda J. Kushner by a comfortable margin. Chafee captured a surprising 65 percent of the vote in a year when he was thought to be vulnerable because of his highly centrist record which was seen as too moderate for Republicans and too conservative for Democrats. Nevertheless, Kushner failed to develop an effective campaign strategy and often attacked Chafee in areas where he excelled, such as health care and the environment. One of the last major bills Chafee helped create and pass was the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century through which he obtained federal funding for a bicycle trail along the Blackstone River, in addition to 59 million dollars for a new Jamestown Bridge. Chafee died on October 24, 1999 after more than forty years of public service. He left behind his wife Virginia, and their five children.