Jack Reed was elected to the Senate in 1996, as the 46th United States Senator from Rhode Island. He a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Prior to his election as Senator, he served as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for six years. He also served three terms in the Rhode Island State Senate. Before his government service, Senator Reed was an associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point in 1978, an associate with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Sutherland, Asbill, and Brennan, and at Edwards and Angell, a Providence law firm. Senator Reed, an Army Ranger and a paratrooper, served in the 82nd Airborne Division as an Infantry Platoon leader, a Company Commander, and a Battalion Staff Officer. Senator Reed was educated at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he received a B.S. in 1971. He then attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he received an M.A. in public policy. He also received a J.D. from the Harvard School of Law.