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U.S. Representative José E. Serrano represents
the Sixteenth Congressional
District of New York, in the Bronx. He serves on the exclusive House Appropriations Committee as a member of the Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice, and Commerce and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Serrano is also currently
one of three Vice Chairs of the Democratic Steering
and Policy Committee, which is the body that makes committee
assignments for all Democratic Representatives and advises
the Democratic
Leader on policy, and is an active member of the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus.
Born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico on October 24, 1943, Serrano moved to the Bronx with his family when he was a young boy. He grew up in Mill Brook Houses in Mott Haven and attended local public schools. From 1964-66, Serrano served in the 172nd Support Battalion of the U.S. Army Medical Corps. After an honorable discharge from the Army, he returned to the Bronx and worked in a bank and as a school administrator before his election to the New York State Assembly in 1974.
Assemblyman Serrano chaired the Committee on Education for eight years, during which he authored legislation that doubled state funding for bilingual education programs in 125 languages and provided $50 million in funding for New York City to combat the school drop-out crisis. He also served as Chairman of the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection.
Congressman Serrano was first sworn in as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in March 1990 after he won a special election in what was then New York's Eighteenth Congressional District. He was subsequently reelected to serve a full term in the 102nd Congress in November of that year. Following a statewide decennial redistricting in 1992, he has continued to represent the Bronx from its Sixteenth Congressional District. Serrano is now the most senior Member of Congress of Puerto Rican descent.
Early in his tenure in the House, Serrano quickly established a legislative record that reflected, and continues to reflect, his core political values of equal opportunity and fair treatment for all citizens. In particular, Serrano believes that government should work to ensure that the prosperity of our country is shared by the neediest and most vulnerable members of our society- the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and children- in the form of participation in government, educational opportunities, access to housing and affordable health care. As a member of the Committee on Education and Labor in his first term, Serrano authored legislation, signed into law in November 1990, to provide funding for successful school drop-out prevention programs.
During the 102nd Congress (1991-1992), Serrano continued to build on this record of accomplishment by introducing more legislative initiatives along these themes. His Voting Rights Language Assistance Act of 1992, signed into law, mandated that voter materials continue to be provided in different languages. He also introduced the Classroom Safety Act, which would have provided program models and grants to assist local educational agencies in efforts to reduce and prevent violent crime in elementary and secondary schools.
In 1993, Serrano joined the Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for shaping expenditures of discretionary federal funds. Because Appropriations is an exclusive Committee, he was required to give up his seat on Education and Labor. That same year he was also elected by his colleagues to serve as Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) during the 103rd Congress. As Chairman, Serrano's strong leadership contributed to the passage of several bills of interest to Hispanics and other minorities. During this same period, the CHC helped to defeat of a number of pieces of legislation that were widely criticized as attempts at "immigrant-bashing" and veiled bigotry. Serrano continues to be an active participant in the CHC as a member of its Civil Rights Task Force.
In 1995, when the House Republicans became the majority and reduced the Appropriations Committee in size, Serrano was appointed to the House Judiciary Committee, in which he served on the Subcommittee on the Constitution. The Democratic Caucus re-appointed him to the Appropriations Committee in March of 1996, and he resigned from the Judiciary Committee to return to that committee.
As an appropriator, Serrano has managed to secure millions of dollars in federal funding for his Bronx Congressional District. He has directed funding to countless local initiatives, including environmental projects, improvements to Bronx parks, educational programs for disadvantaged students and displaced workers and funding for various local charitable organizations, whose goals range from providing access to the arts to developing small businesses.
Perhaps the most notable of all these projects have involved the environmental restoration of the Bronx River. Serrano has been a tireless advocate for the urban river since taking office, and was an early supporter of naming the river an American Heritage River. Through the appropriations process, furthermore, Serrano has been able to secure millions in funding, as well as technical and managerial assistance from various federal agencies, for Bronx River environmental studies and cleanup projects since fiscal year 1999. In recognition of his long record of successful advocacy on behalf of the river, the Bronx community named Congressman Serrano the Honorary Chairman of the Bronx River Golden Ball in 2003.
In addition to advocating strongly for projects in the Bronx, Serrano has worked tirelessly in his capacity as Ranking Minority Member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary, to fight against Administration cuts in a number of programs important to Bronx residents. Such programs include the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which provides technical assistance to increase the competitiveness of small manufacturers, the Legal Services Corporation, which funds legal aid programs to ensure equal access to the judicial system for low income americans, and the COPS program, which provides crucial support for state and local law enforcement. Serrano has also pushed strongly for resource allocations to fulfill the United States' overseas commitments, including the payment of UN dues, funding for peacekeeping operations and security for U.S. personnel stationed abroad.
Current Issues
Even as Serrano has been actively engaged in all stages of Congress's annual appropriations process, he has not lost sight of the other important issues of great concern to the residents of the Bronx.
Pushing for a Practical National Language Policy
Serrano authored the English Plus Resolution, which calls on the government to encourage all Americans to learn and use multiple languages, in addition to English. He vehemently opposes "English only" proposals because he believes that implementing such a policy would be harmful to civil rights and America's broader national interests. In 1996, the English Plus Resolution came close to House passage, and Serrano has proposed it again in the current Congress.
Protecting Civil Liberties
Congressman Serrano has been a leading, and often lonely, voice in the House on preserving Americans' civil liberties as federal law enforcement agencies continue to transform in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He voted against the USA PATRIOT Act, and uses his positions on his Appropriations Subcommittees to monitor the activities of the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. In countless pieces of correspondence and numerous verbal exchanges during Subcommittee hearings, Serrano has unhesitatingly challenged agency heads on what he has often perceived as a systematic effort to curtail Americans' rights.
Advocating a More Sensible Approach to Cuba
Since his earliest days in Congress, Congressman Serrano has been actively involved in ending the embargo against Cuba. He has sponsored legislation and worked tirelessly to educate other Members of Congress about how the embargo harms American businesses and American farmers. While Serrano was once part of a tiny group in Congress to support a changed approach to Cuba, growing numbers of Members join Congressman Serrano in signing on to his Bridges to the Cuban People Act each year.
Promoting a Rational, Humane Immigration Policy
Serrano's most recent legislative proposal enacted into law responded to the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. The law granted posthumous citizenship to non-citizens who died as a result of the September 11th attacks and who had already initiated the process to become U.S. citizens. Serrano succeeded in having the bill incorporated into a larger bill, which signed into law (P.L. 107-77) at the end of 2001.
Other Proposed Legislation
Serrano has also introduced several other bills and resolutions for consideration in the current 108th Congress. These include:
- A bill to modify the Immigration and Nationality Act to ensure that non-citizen veterans of the United States Armed Forces are eligible for discretionary relief from detention, deportation, exclusion, and removal;
- The Depleted Uranium Screening and Testing (DUST) Act, to provide for the identification and health testing of members of the Armed Forces exposed to depleted uranium during their military service;
- A bill to provide business credits for the use of clean-fuel vehicles in areas that are not adhering Clean Air Act air quality standards; and
- The Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act, to require labeling of food products that were produced on land on which sewage sludge was applied.
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