Get to know Ben
Senator Ben Cardin has dedicated his life in public service to the basic belief that by putting principles into action, we can give every Maryland family the opportunity to achieve their dreams.
A third-generation Marylander, Ben Cardin has never forgotten the lessons of his family’s success. Through hard work, Ben’s grandfather opened a family-run, neighborhood grocery store and turned it into a successful wholesale food distribution company. His grandfather taught Ben that nothing is more important than the family around you and the job at hand.
Ben’s father devoted his life to strengthening the community through public service by serving as a member of the House of Delegates and Associate Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City. His mother was a schoolteacher; both dedicated to her classroom and devoted to her family.
Ben’s parents taught him the value of public service, fairness and honesty. They taught Ben that government should be there for those who work hard and play by the rules – not just the politically connected.
Following in his parents’ footsteps, Ben has dedicated his life to public service. He has become a national leader on fiscal issues, health care, retirement security & the environment. Ben has worked hard in the Senate, and throughout his career, to protect working men and women and their families. His priority, particularly during these tough economic times, is to help create and sustain quality job growth while solving the problems facing middle class families.
In 2006, Ben was elected to the U.S. Senate where he serves on the Budget, Small Business & Entrepreneurship, Finance, Environment and Public Works (EPW), and Foreign Relations Committees. He chairs the Water and Wildlife Subcommittee of EPW and the International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection Subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee.
He has been named by Worth Magazine as among the top “100 people who have influenced the way Americans think about money” and was among Treasury and Risk Management’s list of “100 Most Influential People in Finance.” 
The Washington Post has called Ben a “legislator’s legislator,” and that he “is sensible, tough-minded and independent.” The Baltimore Sun has said, “he has been able to work both sides of the aisle” to help workers save for retirement and to champion the expansion of Medicare benefits.
In the 111th Congress, Ben succeeded in getting a guaranteed dental benefit included in the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The America Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included his amendments to provide first-time homebuyers with an $8,000 tax credit, which was later extended through April, 2010. Also included was his amendment to raise the cap on surety bonds for small businesses from $2 million to $5 million to help this sector of our economy that was hit particularly hard by the recession.
A cleaner Chesapeake Bay is one of Ben’s top legislative priorities. He introduced the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act to provide new grant authority and enforcement tools to improve the water quality in the nation’s largest estuary. He’s also spent considerable time working on protecting our nation’s waterways from stormwater pollution and ensuring that our country’s drinking water is safe.
Ben was appointed to the influential Senate Finance Committee at the beginning of the 112th Congress bringing his expertise on money matters that were developed in the House Ways & Means Committee where he served for 17 years as a member of the House of Representatives. From job creation to international trade issues, from health care to Social Security, members of the Senate Finance Committee are instrumental in developing and overseeing policies that help grow our economy and create job opportunities for all Americans.
As a member of the House, Ben represented Maryland’s 3rd congressional district, where his legislation to increase the amount Americans can save for retirement was enacted. One of Ben’s passions is improving our heath care system. He has put those principles into action by authoring meaningful laws to expand Medicare to cover preventive benefits such as screenings for breast cancer, prostate cancer and osteoporosis. His legislation to guarantee coverage for emergency health services also was enacted.
Ben has long been interested in foreign affairs. In the 111th Congress, Ben served as Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the U.S. Helsinki Commission) and currently serves as Co-Chair. He has been a member of the commission since 1993, and serves as Vice President of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly. 
A voice for our most vulnerable citizens, Ben introduced legislation to enable those leaving public assistance to get education, child care, and job training so that they could work out of poverty. His bill to expand support services and education for children between the ages of 18-21 in foster care was also enacted.
Ben served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1967 to 1986, where he served as Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee for five years before becoming Speaker from 1979-1986. As a member of the House of Representatives, the Maryland General Assembly appointed Ben to be Chairman of the Special Study Commission on Maryland Public Ethics Law and he also co-chaired the Bipartisan Ethics Task Force in an effort to reform ethics procedures in the House of Representatives.
Ben is a 1967 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law (1st in his class) and earned his BA degree in 1964 from the University of Pittsburgh (cum laude).
Ben and his wife Myrna grew up in the same Forest Park neighborhood of Baltimore and met in elementary school. They have a daughter Deborah, son-in-law Jonathan Willis, and two granddaughters, Madeline and Julia.