Chris Dodd

It has had a positive impact, yes.

And that is great, so there is that sense of having that same person.

Jim Horan, why don't you talk--I was curious because you have talked about this as well in getting services and programs, parents involved, community involved.

I can see the trouble you would be in on that one. A Federal program here. I can see the tea party now talking about that.

But with Head Start, the requirement from the earliest days, when you go back to 1965, that your Head Start program insisted upon parental involvement with children.

I want to come back to that. Your testimony about the oral health of children, I want to come back to it in a minute.

What tremendous stories here that are going on in our own State.

I am just alarmed. I went the other night to--Nancy Pelosi's, Speaker Pelosi's daughter Alexandra made a movie which HBO supported.

I can't tell you how proud I am of what goes on in my own State, to hear these terrific things that are being done by people here.

It is simply a matter of getting the Congress to provide the money for Head Start, for afterschool, dental care...

We were successful, thanks to Senator Specter.

To me, oral health, and this is such a window on so many of the problems. And for years, it has been just so neglected.

Thank you for great work on family and children's issues.

I am deeply grateful for Senator Dodd's compassion, wisdom and courage on behalf of American children.

We are really going to miss your leadership in the Senate because you have been terrific on these issues over the decades.

I wrote, along with Lamar Alexander, the infant screening legislation, which was designed primarily to deal with some of the--I think were eight originally.

Thank you Senator Dodd for all you have done in support of our program over the years.

Thank you for all that you have done for Bridgeport children.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today.

There is 1.5 more that is--the number is stacked.

The passage of national health reform that you helped to shepherd through Congress earlier this year

Thank you for the opportunity to testify at the second hearing in this series on the State of the American Child.

We need the political will to make the changes that data and evaluation demonstrate will work.

Thank you for championing big-picture issues like healthcare and financial reform and issues that directly affect kids, like Head Start and Childcare and Development Block Grants.

I have never met a Congressperson who has been a more effective, active, and dedicated advocate for children and families than our own Senator Dodd.