20 January 2009
Vice President Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the first of four siblings. In 1953, the Biden family moved from Pennsylvania to Claymont, Delaware. Joe Biden graduated from the University of Delaware and from Syracuse University Law School, and then served on the New Castle (Delaware) County Council. At age 29, he became one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate.
Just weeks after the election, tragedy struck the Biden family, when Biden’s wife and their one-year-old daughter were killed and their two young sons critically injured in an auto accident. Biden was sworn in as senator at his son’s hospital bedside, and he began commuting to Washington every day by train, a practice he maintained throughout his career in the Senate.
In 1977, Biden married Jill Jacobs. Jill Biden, who holds a PhD in education, has been an educator for more than two decades in Delaware's schools.
Vice President Biden has three children: Beau, Hunter, and Ashley. Beau serves as Delaware’s attorney general and is currently deployed to Iraq as a captain in the 261st Signal Brigade of the Delaware National Guard. Ashley is a social worker, and Hunter is an attorney. The vice president also has five grandchildren.
As a senator from Delaware for 36 years, Biden was a leader on some of America’s most important domestic and international challenges. As chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 17 years, Biden was widely recognized for his work on criminal justice issues, including the landmark 1994 Crime Bill and the Violence Against Women Act. As chairman or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee beginning in 1997, Biden played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. He has been at the forefront of issues and legislation related to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, post-Cold War Europe, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia.
