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Charles Bernard Rangel has left an indelible imprint on history. He has served 20 terms in the House of Representatives, the last two as as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. The first African American to head that longstanding panel, Congressman Rangel currently serves as the Committee's senior member, wiedling influence over tax revenue legislation and oversight authority over the major issues of the day – economic policy, international trade, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, and health care. Congressman Rangel won his district – which includes his native Central Harlem, East Harlem, the Upper West Side, and Washington Heights – with 88 percent of the vote in November.
A high school dropout, Congressman Rangel recounts how he was transformed from wayward youth to public servant in his autobiography, "And I Haven't Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress." In 1948, he volunteered for the Army and served in the Korean War, earning himself a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for Valor in the process. With the aid of the G.I. bill, he received a college degree from New York University and a law degree from St. John's University Law School.
He began his public service career as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and was later elected to the New York State Assembly. He came to Washington in 1971, succeeding Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in the House of Representatives and becoming a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Early in his tenure, Congressman Rangel served as a member of the House Judiciary Committee during hearings on the articles of impeachment of then-President Richard Nixon.
Over the past forty years, he has led the fight in Congress against drug abuse and trafficking, agitated for fairer sentencing, worked to limit the spread and use of illegal guns, and fought for affordable housing, urban renewal, and economic prosperity in his district and across the United States. He was the principal author of the five-billion-dollar Federal Empowerment Zone demonstration project to revitalize urban neighborhoods. He is the author of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, responsible for financing ninety percent of the affordable housing built in the United States in the last decade. He championed the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which provided thousands of jobs for underprivileged youngsters, veterans, and ex-offenders.
Congressman Rangel has maintained a foreign policy record that keeps a keen eye on Africa and the developing world. He dealt a crippling blow to South African apartheid in 1987, successfully amending the tax code to deny foreign tax credits to U.S. companies investing in South Africa. Dubbed the "Rangel Amendment," it prompted the government's largest investors and several Fortune 500 companies to withdraw their funds. Congressman Rangel has also wielded his influence to open trading opportunities with struggling nations through the Caribbean Basin Initiative and the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
Read here a full listing of his Congressional achievements and projects.
He has resided in a total of two places the whole of his life – the 132nd Street Harlem home in which he was born and raised, and his current apartment down the street on Lenox Avenue. He lives there with his wife Alma, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus Spouses group. They together have two children.
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