Queens delegation goes to work in DC

WASHINGTON - &#8220The shift in power in the U.S. Congress works to the benefit of my constituents and the City of New York,” Queens Congressmember Gary Ackerman said.
He was speaking from his congressional office in Washington, D.C. following his swearing in by the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, on Thursday, January 4th, inauguration day of the 110th Congress - the first democratically-controlled Congress in 12 years.
&#8220The change puts the chairman's gavel in the hands of the New York congressional delegation,” he said. Ackerman represents the 5th Congressional District (CD) of New York, encompassing the north shore of Queens and Long Island including west and northeast Queens and northern Nassau County.
Ackerman said that the New York delegation in Congress is very powerful because Charles Rangel chairs the powerful Ways and Means Committee and Louise McIntosh Slaughter of CD 28 is on the Rules Committee. Ackerman himself is now the chair of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, an adjunct of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Ackerman, who is currently serving his 13th term in the House of Representatives, is the third most senior member of the New York delegation. &#8220Because there are New Yorkers on key committees it will be possible to negotiate a better deal for New York,” he said.
The New York delegation was proud to count among its members the first Hispanic woman to ever chair a full congressional committee - U.S. House Small Business Committee - Congressmember Nydia Velzquez, who represents the 12th CD.
Velzquez, who embraced her term with great enthusiasm, introduced a legislative package to improve the quality of life for New York City families and small businesses as she was being sworn in.
&#8220This legislative package is an important step toward improving the well-being and vitality of our residents. From expanding dietary options, to helping low-income communities and cleaning up valuable areas of land throughout our neighborhoods, this will truly make a difference in enhancing the quality of our everyday lives,” Velzquez said.
Among the acts she introduced was H.R. 44 - The Stabilizing Affordable Housing for the Future Act - aimed at addressing New York's affordable housing crisis. &#8220Overall, the bill ensures preservation of current affordability levels, as well as offering protections for renters,” she said.
Chief Deputy Whip and member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, Congressmember Joseph Crowley, of the 7th CD which covers parts of Queens and The Bronx, held his 17-month-old son, Liam in his arms as he was sworn in by Speaker Pelosi.
&#8220Hardworking families in Queens and the Bronx deserve a responsive Congress that puts them first and listens to their needs,” he said.
In his first act as a member of the Democratic majority, he voted for an aggressive ethics reform package which he said would reverse Republican excesses and restore public trust in Congress. The Honest Leadership and Open Government bill passed 430-1.
&#8220With the passage of this historic ethics package, we are restoring honesty, openness and accountability to the House of Representatives and to Washington. Most importantly, we are restoring open government back to the American people . . . I am proud to cast my first vote in the 110th Congress as a member of the majority to make this Congress the cleanest and most ethical in United States history,” he said.
The ethics proposal includes measures to ban gifts from lobbyists, ban lobbyists from providing free travel for Congressmembers and their staff, prohibits use of company planes, shuts down pay-to-play schemes like the &#8220K Street Project,” bans arm-twisting for votes, and requires fiscal and budgetary responsibility. &#8220Republicans turned our record surplus into record deficits. The American people have to live within their budget and make ends meet day in and day out, month after month. The Congress should have to do the same,” Crowley said.