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José Serrano | |
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| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew York | |
| In office March 21, 1990 – January 3, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Garcia |
| Succeeded by | Ritchie Torres |
| Constituency | 18th district (1990–1993) 16th district (1993–2013) 15th district (2013–2021) |
| Member of theNew York Assembly | |
| In office January 1, 1975 – March 21, 1990 | |
| Preceded by | Eugenio Alvarez |
| Succeeded by | David Rosado |
| Constituency | 75th district (1975–1982) 73rd district (1983–1990) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | José Enrique Serrano (1943-10-24)October 24, 1943 (age 82) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Children | 5, includingJosé |
| Education | Lehman College (attended) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1964–1966 |
| Unit | 172nd Support Battalion[1] |
Serrano paying tribute to theNew York Yankees winning their 27thWorld Series championship. Recorded November 6, 2009 | |
José Enrique Serrano (born October 24, 1943) is an American politician who was a member of theU.S. House of Representatives from 1990 until his retirement in 2021. Serrano, aDemocrat fromNew York, represented a district that is one of the smallest in the country geographically, consisting of a few square miles of the heavily populatedSouth Bronx inNew York City. His district was also one of the most densely populated and one of the few majorityHispanic districts in the country. The district was numbered the18th from 1990 to 1993 and the16th from 1993 to 2013, and the15th district from 2013 to 2021. He was the longest-serving Hispanic-American in the House.[2] He did not run forre-election in 2020 due to a diagnosis ofParkinson's disease, andRitchie Torres was elected to succeed him.[3]
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Serrano was born inMayagüez, Puerto Rico. At the age of seven, Serrano was taken by his family toThe Bronx, where he was raised in the Millbrook Houses. Serrano went to Grace Dodge Vocational High School in the Bronx and briefly attendedLehman College in 1961. He served as a private in the 172nd Support Battalion of theUnited States Army Medical Corps from 1964 to 1966. Serrano was employed by Manufacturers Hanover Bank from 1961 to 1969, except for his military service, and served on New York City's District 7 School Board from 1969 to 1974. He was also chairman of the South Bronx Community Corporation and a delegate to the1976 Democratic National Convention.
Serrano was a member of theNew York State Assembly from 1975 to 1990, sitting in the181st,182nd,183rd,184th,185th,186th,187th and188th New York State Legislatures. His district was numbered the 75th until 1982, and the 73rd from 1983 on. He was Chairman of the Committee on Consumer Affairs (1979-1983), and the Committee on Education (1983-1990).[citation needed]
In 1990, Serrano won a special election for the seat vacated by resigning U.S. CongressmanRobert García with 92% of the vote.[4] He never won re-election with less than 92% of the vote[5][6] in what is considered one of the safest seats in Congress.
In 2004, Serrano faced an electoral challenge from Jose Serrano, an unemployed former loading dockworker with the same name who eventually dropped out of the race in July.[7]
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A member of theProgressive Caucus, Serrano was widely regarded as one of the most progressive members of Congress. He was questioned about hispork barrel spending by some fiscally conservative members of Congress.Arizona CongressmanJeff Flake once said of Serrano's $150,000earmark to repair the roof at the city-owned Arthur Avenue Market (a historic indoor produce and prepared food market in the Bronx's "Little Italy"), "I would argue this is onecannoli the taxpayer doesn't want to take a bite of."[8] Serrano replied to Flake, "The more you get up on these, sir, the more I realize that you do not know what you are talking about. I make no excuses about the fact that I earmark dollars to go in the poorest congressional district in the nation, which is situated in the richest city on earth."[8]
On November 18, 2005, Serrano was one of three members of the House of Representatives to vote in favor of immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. The other two votes were fromCynthia McKinney ofGeorgia andRobert Wexler ofFlorida.[9]
In 1997 [HJR 19],[10] 1999 [HJR 17],[11] 2001 [HJR 4],[12] 2003 [HJR 11],[13] 2005 [HJR 9],[14] 2007 [HJR 8],[15] 2009 [HJR 5],[16] 2011 [HJR 17],[17] and 2013 [HJR 15],[18] Serrano introduced a joint resolution proposing an amendment to theConstitution of the United States to repeal the22nd Amendment, thereby removing presidential term limits. Each resolution died without ever getting past the committee.[19][20]
Serrano paid attention to localenvironmental issues in New York, with a particular focus on constructing greenways, acquiring parklands, and cleaning up the Bronx River, which ran through his district. In 2007, a beaver was discovered swimming in the river for the first time in 200 years, something seen as a testament to his efforts. The biologists who made the discovery named the animal José, after Serrano.[21] Also that year, he engineered the purchase of the last privately owned island in New York harbor—South Brother Island—for preservation in perpetuity by the City of New York as a wildlife refuge for rare shorebirds.[citation needed]
Serrano was one of three New York-area congressmen on theHouse Appropriations Committee, the others beingNita Lowey of the18th district andGrace Meng of the6th district. At the end of his tenure, he was the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, having previously served as the chair. As chairman, he successfully engineered the inclusion of language in the 2007 omnibus spending bill that guaranteed the extension of the50 State Quarters program to include the minting of six additional quarters to honor the District of Columbia and the five United States territories, including Serrano's native Puerto Rico.[citation needed]
Serrano advocated for Puerto Ricans under FBI prosecution.[22][better source needed] In May 2000, he brokered an agreement with then-FBI DirectorLouis Freeh, then-Puerto Rican Independence Party Electoral CommissionerManuel Rodríguez Orellana and then-Puerto Rico Senate Federal Affairs Committee chairman (and future Puerto Rico Senate President and Secretary of State)Kenneth McClintock that resulted in the release of nearly 100,000 pages of previously secret FBI files on Puerto Rican political activists.[citation needed]
Serrano was a critic of the Bush administration's approach to handling PresidentHugo Chávez ofVenezuela. In 2005, while the Venezuelan President was in New York City speaking before the United Nations, the congressman invited him to his district to speak to his constituency.[23] After Chávez' death, Serrano published condolences viaTwitter, describing him as a leader who "understood the needs of the poor" and was "committed to empowering the powerless".[24] Serrano's tweet prompted a response from theRepublican National Committee, which asserted that it was "simply insulting that a Democrat Congressman would praise the authoritarian ruler Hugo Chávez".[23]
Serrano criticizedBrazil's presidentJair Bolsonaro. In March 2019, he and 29 other Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to Secretary of StateMike Pompeo that read in part: "Since the election of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro as president, we have been particularly alarmed by the threat Bolsonaro's agenda poses to the LGBTQ+ community and other minority communities, women, labor activists, and political dissidents in Brazil."[25][26]
In March 2019, Serrano announced that he would not seekre-election in 2020 because he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.[27]
Serrano's son,José M. Serrano, is a member of theNew York State Senate. In addition to José Jr, Serrano has four other children.[33]
In March 2019, Serrano announced that he had been diagnosed withParkinson's disease and would not seekre-election in 2020.[27]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew York's 18th congressional district 1990–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew York's 16th congressional district 1993–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theCongressional Hispanic Caucus 1993–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew York's 15th congressional district 2013–2021 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
| International | |
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| National | |
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