Biography

Personal

Congressman Gary Ackerman is presently serving his fifteenth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ackerman represents the Fifth Congressional District of New York, which encompasses parts of the New York City Borough of Queens and the North Shore of Long Island, including west and northeast Queens and northern Nassau County. 

Born on western Long Island in a place called Brooklyn on November 19, 1942, Ackerman was raised in Flushing, Queens. He attended local public schools, Brooklyn Technical High School and was graduated from Queens College in 1965. After college, Ackerman became a New York City school teacher in Queens where he taught social studies, math and journalism to junior high school students.

Following the birth of his first child in 1969, Ackerman petitioned the New York City Board of Education for an unpaid leave of absence to spend time with his newborn daughter. However, his request was denied under then existing policy which reserved unpaid "maternity-child care" leave to women only.

In what was to be a forerunner of the Federal Family Leave Act, then-teacher Ackerman successfully sued the Board in a landmark case which established the right of either parent to receive unpaid leave for child care. A quarter of a century later as a Congressman, Ackerman, in the House-Senate Conference Committee, signed the report of the Family and Medical Leave Act which became the law of the land.

Ackerman's second career move occurred in 1970, when he left teaching and founded a weekly community newspaper calledThe Flushing Tribune, which soon becameThe Queens Tribune. Ackerman served as its editor and publisher. 

Ackerman was first elected to public office – the New York State Senate – in 1978. State Senator Ackerman was then elected to Congress in 1983 in a special election. Ackerman represented the central Queens area until 1992, when reapportionment reconfigured his district to the North Shore of Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Then redistricting in 2002 slightly redrew the boundaries again to its present configuration of Queens and Nassau.

After many years of living in Jamaica Estates, Ackerman, who sports a white carnation boutonniere each day and lives on a houseboat while in Washington, D.C. (a houseboat named the Unsinkable II…don’t ask!), resides in Roslyn Heights with his wife Rita. The Ackermans have three children: Lauren who married Paul; Corey who married Lena; and Ari. They also have four grandchildren.

Congressman Ackerman is an Eagle Scout, as well as a very amateur photographer, an avid stamp collector and a boating enthusiast.

Legislative Highlights

Among Congressman Ackerman's significant legislative undertakings, was the passage of his Baby AIDS legislation. The measure requires mandatory HIV testing of newborns and disclosure of the results to the mother. It also forbids insurance companies from terminating the health insurance of anybody who undergoes an AIDS test, regardless of the results.

Ackerman championed the issue of newborn testing after discovering that 45 states including New York tested babies for HIV but did not disclose the results to the mothers, using the data for mere statistical purposes. As a result, thousands of mothers brought their infants home from the hospital, never aware that their child tested positive for HIV. This legislation, which became the subject of profound debate nationwide, garnered such support that it was the only bill that session of Congress to have a majority of all the House Democrats and Republicans as cosponsors. In addition, Ackerman stopped the anonymous testing from being reinstated in years that followed.

The Congressman also sponsored the bill that created the “Heroes” postage stamp (with the three firefighters raising the American flag at ground zero), the revenue from which went towards the families of rescue workers killed or permanently disabled while responding to the September 11 attacks.

Ackerman also scored a victory in his efforts to ban “downed” animals (sick, injured or diseased livestock) from being sold as meat in supermarkets, restaurants and butcher stores. For a decade, Ackerman warned that use of such livestock was not only inhumane treatment of animals but also risked causing a Mad Cow disaster in the U.S. His legislation fell on deaf ears until December 2003, when his warning became prophetic and the Bush Administration—among those who had opposed the bill—finally imposed his ban through regulation.

Also law of the land is Congressman Ackerman’s measure requiring banks and financial companies to notify consumers when negative information is placed on their credit reports. The Congressman also authored the law that in the wake of the Enron, WorldCom and other corporate scandals, prohibits accounting firms from consulting for the companies they audit.

Other legislative highlights include President Bush invoking the Congressman’s measure to impose sanctions against the Palestinian Authority for not complying with peace agreements it signed with the U.S. and Israel. Ackerman was also successful in getting Medicare to cover testing for prostate cancer. 

Enacted as well was his measure that prevents war criminals and human rights abusers who have perpetrated genocide, torture, terrorism or other atrocities, from entering the U.S. and deports those who have slipped in. In addition, Congressman Ackerman sponsored the first federal legislation to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving.

Further, the Congressman shepherded the renewal of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (TRIA) through the House. TRIA provides a federal insurance backstop critical to the rebuilding of Ground Zero in New York and other potential targets of terrorist attacks.

He also authored the law – as part of the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights – that prohibits credit card companies from charging customers a fee to pay their bills online or over the phone.

He also helped craft the new law that imposes the toughest ever economic sanctions on Iran.

In addition, the Congressman helped push through the 2010 financial reform law to improve consumer protections and to keep Wall Street accountable while leading efforts to remove provisions that saved scores of local jobs and kept businesses in New York.

Congressional Initiatives

Most recently, Congressman Ackerman demanded and secured greater accountability from the Securities and Exchange Commission after the agency failed to detect the Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff. He also convinced the IRS to allow Madoff victims to claim theft loss on their taxes, and he obtained changes in key financial regulations in the wake of the nation’s recession, most notably the reinstatement of the uptick rule, revisions of mark-to-market accounting rules and reforming the manner in which credit rating agencies assign ratings. 

In 1994, Ackerman made history, when as Chairman of the Asia Subcommittee, he traveled to North Korea to discuss with dictator Kim Il Sung the framework under which the communist nation would agree to stop building nuclear weapons. Upon his return to South Korea, Ackerman became the first person since the Korean War to cross the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone).

Congressman Ackerman is also well known for his many missions to feed the starving people of Ethiopia and the Sudan and for playing a leading role in the rescue of Ethiopian Jews and aiding their emigration to Israel. Active in the Middle East peace process, Ackerman has met with the current and most past Israeli prime ministers and the heads of all the Arab countries in an effort to help secure peace in the region. He also ventured to Kashmir, enduring sub-freezing winter temperatures, in an attempt to secure the release of four western hostages.

Among his many other initiatives, Ackerman helped to force the State of Hawaii to change its discriminatory law that forbade blind individuals from bringing their guide dogs with them to the Island. The Congressman chaired an investigation and bipartisan hearing into whether New York City and Long Island officials properly utilized the spraying of Malathion during the West Nile virus outbreak. He also obtained federal funds to combat a return of the disease.

He convinced the German government to establish a $110 million fund to compensate 18,000 Holocaust survivors and to investigate whether 3300 former Nazi soldiers now living in the U.S. and collecting German pensions are war criminals.

Congressman Ackerman also convinced the Defense Department to stop garnishing wages from certain U.S. soldiers serving in the war against Iraq. Although troops who serve in combat zones are not required to pay federal taxes, many soldiers including New Yorkers had failed to be granted the exemption.

In addition, the Congressman lobbied federal security officials – in the wake of September 11 – to use ex-law enforcement officers as screeners at New York airports and he pressed President Bush to make good on his promise to provide New York with $20 billion in additional 9/11 disaster aid.

Rep. Ackerman also helped secure unprecedented safety measures for the trash transfer station across LaGuardia Airport’s runway, slated to open in 2012. He also demanded and secured greater accountability from auto company executives who came to Congress seeking billions in loans to save their industry.

Ackerman is the recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award, and was instrumental in winning Congressional approval of the U.S.-India civilian nuclear energy agreement. Further, he honored Italian-Americans by championing legislation that posthumously awarded the Congressional gold medal to Constantino Brumidi, the Italian-American artist who painted awe-inspiring murals and frescos throughout the U.S. Capitol during the 19th century.