Pat Roberts

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Template:Infobox Senator Charles Patrick Roberts (born April 20, 1936) is a United States Senator from Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he is currently chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Born in Topeka, Kansas, Roberts earned a B.A. in Journalism from Kansas State University in 1958 where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a captain from 1958-62. He was a reporter and editor for several Arizona newspapers before joining the staff of Republican Kansas Senator Frank Carlson in 1967. In 1969, he became administrative assistant to Kansas's 1st District Congressman Keith Sebelius.

After Sebelius' retirement, Roberts was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1980, serving eight terms until 1997. Following the retirement of Senator Nancy Kassebaum, he was elected to the Senate in 1996 and re-elected in 2002.

Roberts served as the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee from 1995 to 1997.

In addition to his chairmanship on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Roberts is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chairing the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. This subcommittee oversees the military's work in the area of homeland security and the efforts to prevent proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

As chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Roberts was responsible for the committee's investigation into the intelligence failures prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The first half of the Senate Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq was released on July 9, 2004.

Roberts and his wife Franki have three grown children, David, Ashleigh, and Anne Wesley. He is the son of the late Wes Roberts, Chairman of the Republican National Committee under President Dwight Eisenhower. His great-grandfather, J.W. Roberts, founded the Oskaloosa Independent, Kansas' second oldest newspaper.

In a poll by Washington Staffers, Roberts is considered the funniest senator.Template:Citation needed

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