Local Accomplishments

Congressman Ackerman's recent accomplishments in the Fifth Congressional District include helping local defense industries convert to peaceful applications in the post Cold War era. Ackerman also persuaded the National Cancer Institute to fund and undertake the nation's first ever and now famous study of environmental factors and breast cancer. The study took place on Long Island where the rate of breast cancer is among the highest in the nation.              

Congressman Ackerman has obtained millions of dollars for environmental projects in Queens and Long Island including funds for flood relief projects, road and infrastructure construction, beach erosion and cleanup of Long Island Sound. He has also secured millions for education, local community and nonprofit organizations, volunteer fire departments, New York City and Nassau County police departments, area hospitals, housing agencies and various neighborhood, environmental and safety projects.

Ackerman is credited with saving the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Long Island as well as preserving the other U.S service academies as tuition free institutions including West Point, the Naval Academy at Annapolis and the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs.

Ackerman has been instrumental in improving mail delivery throughout the district and he convinced the Postal Service to recognize each Queens community by their respective Zip code. Previously, the agency considered each Queens neighborhood as being either Flushing, Jamaica or Long Island City regardless of the Zip code. He also helped ensure that the recently closed Air National Guard station in East Hills, Long Island and the Fort Totten Army base in Bayside, Queens became public parkland. At the same time, he brokered the agreement that allowed Fort Totten’s Coast Guard station to move to the Merchant Marine Academy, preventing its closing and consolidating costs without compromising safety. He was also instrumental in preventing the Eatons Neck Coast Guard Station on Long Island from shutting down.

The Congressman helped prevent nightmare traffic delays in Queens and L.I. by forcing changes in the closing/reconstruction time of the Throgs Neck Bridge access ramps of the Cross Island Parkway (from 18 months to six months). He has also championed the resurgence of business in the area by leading trade missions overseas with several high tech leaders from the L.I. and Queens corporate communities.

In addition, Ackerman obtained funds for New York’s devastated lobstermen during the mass lobster die off in Long Island Sound and he continues to obtain war medals that were either never received or are newly issued, for hundreds of Queens and Long Island veterans.

Furthermore, Ackerman worked with then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to improve the city's emergency 911 response time after witnessing a shootout in a Queens Chinese restaurant.

Ackerman also has a crackerjack staff and maintains what is arguably the best constituent service office in the nation, handling thousands of cases per year in New York City and Long Island. He is the dean of the Queens and Long Island Congressional Delegations.