By Robert Gavin and Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff | September 1, 2009
The death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy is raising concerns about the future of programs he championed that benefited the state’s major employers, particularly in the fields of health care, higher education, and technology.
Hospitals, universities, life sciences companies, and research centers - which together provide hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state - all were accustomed to turning to Kennedy for help.
As chairman of the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, he was in an ideal position to deliver on their requests for assistance. And as a powerful member of the Armed Services Committee, he defended and promoted the state’s technology-based defense sector.
“He kind of protected us in a sense,’’ said Thomas Glynn, chief operating officer of Partners HealthCare, which includes Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “The ques tion is five years from now will [hospitals] be getting as much money as they would if he were alive. I doubt it.’’
It’s still too early to fully assess how Massachusetts will fare without his clout, experience, and personal connections, business leaders say. Indeed, while he steered federal funding to help Massachusetts industries, he also supported measures, such as higher taxes and additional regulations, that businesses say hurt them. His lifetime ratings on issues important to US business was 24 out of 100, according the US Chamber of Commerce.
Still, business leaders fear his success in advancing the interests of Massachusetts will not be easily replaced. While he generally did not earmark specific projects for Massachusetts, the state’s industries were well positioned to benefit from broader policies and programs that he was instrumental in shaping.
For example, Kennedy led efforts to double funding for the National Institutes of Health, a major sponsor of health-related research, as well as boosting money for the National Science Foundation.
Massachusetts captures more than $5 billion a year in federal research money, according to the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The money goes to a variety of recipients, including hospitals and universities. On a per capita basis, Massachusetts’ share of federal research and development money ranks second only to Virginia among leading technology states.
“Innovation and discovery are things that are tough to support in some quarters because they are far away and academic,’’ said Henri A. Termeer, chief executive of Genzyme Corp., a leading biotechnology company in Cambridge. “He was intensely interested in innovation. Now, we will have to try to manage without that support.’’
There are other champions for these and other programs, and that might help blunt the impact of losing Kennedy. For example, research and development is a priority of President Obama. In addition, the state has a powerful delegation in the Democrat-controlled Congress. Senator John F. Kerry, in addition to serving as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, also serves on the health care subcommittee of the Finance Committee.
US Representative Edward Markey of Malden is the third-ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is crafting health care reform legislation. Markey is also chairman of the subcommittee that oversees energy and telecommunications, key technology sectors in the state.
Representative Barney Frank of Newton is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, while Representatives John Olver of Amherst and Richard Neal of Springfield are respectively subcommittee chairmen of powerful panels: Appropriations, which crafts spending bills, and the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes tax legislation. Representative Michael Capuano of Somerville is close to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, having led her transition team when Democrats regained control of the House in 2006.
“We will have to work very hard to do our best to fill the huge gap,’’ said Markey, the longest-serving member of the congressional delegation. “But our delegation is exceptionally well placed in the committee structure in the House and John Kerry is exceptionally well positioned in the Senate.’’
Kerry said the delegation will have to marshal its clout from all the panels on which its members sit, and enlist powerful allies, such as Senator Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, particularly on health care issues.
“Nothing makes up for Ted’s 46 years of heavy lifting in that arena,’’ Kerry said. “We’re going to have to just use everything at our availability.’’
Kennedy’s command of the political process and his stature in both the state and the nation allowed him to pull together interests and resources as few others could, institutional and business leaders said.
One example is the alliance he formed with Mitt Romney, the former governor and a Republican who once challenged Kennedy for his seat. They worked together to save Hanscom Air Force Base during a round of base closings a few years ago. Hanscom, which specializes in developing communications, surveillance, and other technologies, is a driver of the state’s tech sector.
“Unlike anyone else in the delegation, he had a unique gift of personally connecting and getting through political roadblocks,’’ said Christopher Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council. “His view was you take what’s a good idea, perfect it, and work it so there’s no us vs. them. It was a truly unifying experience.’’
Kennedy also helped restore funding for the Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyer, a major contract for Waltham defense giant Raytheon Corp. He provided support to other weapons systems that benefited the Massachusetts economy, such as the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet made by Boeing Co. of Chicago. The program, which relies on more than 100 Massachusetts subcontractors, accounts for nearly 4,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state, Boeing estimated.
The state’s health care industry is likely to miss Kennedy the most. He championed the merger of city and university hospitals that created Boston Medical Center in 1996 as a way to protect services for the poor, and helped secure $25 million for its cancer treatment center.
He made sure that Medicare included funding for teaching hospitals, which have a major presence in Massachusetts, and created a program to pay for doctors’ training at children’s hospitals. That program brings $21 million a year to Boston’s Children’s Hospital, and helped it erase seven-figure losses.
“A lot of this stuff wouldn’t have happened without him,’’ said Joshua Greenberg, director of government relations at Children’s. “We’d still be in business, but do I think that children who need health care would have the same seat at the table they had all these years? No.’’
Bryan Bender of the Globe staff also contributed to this report. Robert Gavin can be reached at rgavin@globe.com. 