Claude Pepper Award
The Claude Pepper Foundation has provided support to the Alliance for Aging Research since 2005 through its support of the Claude Pepper Award for Advancing Healthy Aging presented at the organization’s Annual Bipartisan Congressional Awards Dinner and Roundtable events to recognize a Democratic member of Congress who is leading the way for policies encouraging medical research, innovation, and care to benefit Americans as they grow older. The Alliance for Aging Research is a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the pace of scientific discoveries and their application to vastly improve the universal human experience of aging and health.
The Alliance was founded in 1986 in Washington, D.C., and has since become a valued advocacy organization and a respected influential voice with policymakers. The Alliance believes that advances in research help people live longer, happier, more productive lives and reduce health care costs over the long term and that access to the latest scientific information empowers people to take control of their health. The Alliance strives to advance science and enhance lives through a variety of activities and initiatives—from policy issues to provider and consumer health programs—that generate knowledge and action on age-related issues. Since 1986, federal support for aging research has more than tripled, private research and development in aging-related health has reached an all-time high, and new discoveries are making a lasting difference to the lives of millions of Americans.
2021: U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
The 2021 Claude Pepper Award for Advancing Healthy Aging was presented by Thomas J. Spulak, Chair and President of the Claude Pepper Foundation to Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) at the Alliance for Aging Research, 28th Annual Bipartisan Congressional Awards event held virtually on Tuesday, September 21, 2021.
2020: U.S. Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ)
2019: U.S. Representative James E. Clyburn (D-SC)
2017: U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE)
2016: U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA 43)
2014: U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)
2012: U.S. Representative Allyson Y. Schwartz (D-PA)
2011: U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL)
Women’s Rights
Senator Pepper was an early supporter of women’s rights. He sponsored legislation in the 1940s to ensure that women got equal pay for equal work. Throughout his career he remained committed to this cause.
In 1981, Senator Pepper recorded a series of TV spots calling for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. In this video, Senator Pepper urges viewers to contact their state legislators to vote for the ERA.
Social Security
In this video from 1984, Senator Claude Pepper discusses aging and makes his case for the preservation of Social Security.
Claude Pepper’s Political Career
In the following video, Senator Pepper discusses the beginnings of his political career. He got first elected to represent Taylor County in the Florida legislature in 1928.
On April 20, 1983, President Reagan invited Senator Pepper to the signing ceremony of the Social Security Amendment Act in the South Lawn. Senator Pepper’s advocacy played an important role in the passage of this legislation.
Memorial Service for Claude Pepper
