Committee Membership in the 110th Congress
Committee: House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Subcommittees: Environment
and Hazardous Materials, Telecommunication and the Internet,
and
Commerce,
Trade and Consumer Protection
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Biography
In
November 1997, Vito Fossella was elected to Congress in a special election to
represent the 13th Congressional District of New York, including
Staten Island
and the Bay Ridge,
Dyker
Heights
, Bensonhurst and
Gravesend
neighborhoods of
Brooklyn
.
Vito
serves as a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Among
his top legislative priorities, Vito is leading efforts to reduce taxes,
strengthen our national security, protect Social Security and Medicare and
improve education. In addition, Vito
is at the forefront in securing federal aid to enhance
New York
’s homeland security and to help
New York City
recover and rebuild from the terror attacks of
September 11, 2001
.
Since
being elected to Congress, Vito’s top legislative initiatives have included:
-
Successfully
opposed plans to eliminate the federal tax deduction for mortgage
interest and state and local taxpayers, which would have resulted in
a tax increase of $5000 or more on the average Staten Island or
Brooklyn family.
-
Defeated
a recommendation to close the Brooklyn Veterans Affairs Hospital --
and also helped secure funding to open a new emergency room for
local veterans.
-
Authored
legislation to provide every family a tax credit of $4500 a year to
offset the high cost of private and parochial school tuition.
-
Successfully
saved the Fort Hamilton military base from closure by the Base
Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission and helped secure funding
to build a new commissary and housing for our soldiers stationed in
Brooklyn.
-
Restored
$125 million in federal funding for monitoring and treatment of
first responders who are sick or injured as a result of their
service at Ground Zero.
-
Helped
secure $21 billion in federal funding to help rebuild and secure
Lower Manhattan in the weeks and months after the 9/11 terrorist
attacks.
Vito’s political career began in 1994 when he was elected to the New York
City Council, representing
Staten Island
's south shore and mid-island section. Less
than seven months later, he was convincingly reelected. His top achievements as
a Councilman include:
· Authoring the legislation that led to the historic agreement
to permanently close the Fresh Kills Landfill.
· Conceiving
the idea of the South Richmond Rezoning Study, the most comprehensive
rezoning initiative on
StatenIsland
in 50 years
· Securing
funding for the construction of P.S.
56 and P.S. 6, the first new schools to be built on
Staten Island
in over a decade.
A
native Staten Islander, Vito earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the
Wharton
School
of the
University
of
Pennsylvania
. In 1993, he earned his Juris
Doctor from the Fordham University School of Law.