José Serrano

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For other persons named José Serrano, see José Serrano (disambiguation).

José Serrano

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 16th district
Incumbent
Assumed office March 20, 1990–
Preceded by	Bobby Garcia
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	October 24, 1943 (age 63) Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Mary Staucet
Religion	Roman Catholic

José Enrique Serrano (born October 24, 1943) is a New York politician, currently representing the state's 16th Congressional district (map), in the United States House of Representatives. His son, Jose M. Serrano is a member of the New York State Senate.

[edit] Biography

Serrano was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. At a young age, Serrano moved to The Bronx. Serrano went to high school and then Lehman College for his undergrad degree. He served in the United States Army medical corps from 1964 to 1966.

Serrano was elected to the New York state Assembly in 1974 as a Democrat, where he served as chairman of the Consumer Affairs Committee and, subsequently, the Education Committee.

In 1990, Serrano won a special election for a vacated House of Representatives seat and has thereafter been reelected by mostly 90 percent-plus margins in what is considered one of the safest seats in Congress. Serrano is an advocate of ending the trade embargo on Cuba and for 'English Plus' which would encourage Americans to become bilingual. He has consistently supported initiatives to resolve Puerto Rico's political status problem, including the 1998 Young bill, which he coauthored, and the Dec. 22, 2005 report of the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Political Status, which recommends that Congress provide in 2006 an opportunity for residents in Puerto Rico to vote for or against its current status, which the report describes as an unincorporated US territory and Serrano describes as a US colony.

A member of the Progressive Caucus, he is widely regarded as one of the most liberal members of Congress. On November 18, 2005 he was one of three votes in favor of immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. The other two votes were from Cynthia McKinney of Georgia and Robert Wexler of Florida.

In 2005, Serrano introduced a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd Amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as president. It was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Congressman Serrano has been a critic of the Bush administration's approach to handling President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. 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.

Serrano is one of three New York-area congressmen on the House Appropriations Commmittee, the others being Nita Lowey of the 18th District and Steve Rothman of New Jersey's 9th congressional district (located only seven miles from New York City). He is the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services.

Serrano has also been an advocate for Puerto Ricans under FBI persecution.

Serrano's district is one of the smallest in the country geographically consisting of a few miles of the heavily urbanized and populated South Bronx in New York City. His district is also one of the most densely populated and one of the few majority Hispanic districts in the country. Yankee Stadium is in his district. Serrano has a wife and 5 kids.

Serrano received an "A" on the Drum Major Institute's 2005 Congressional Scorecard on middle-class issues.

[edit] See also

List of famous Puerto Ricans

[edit] External links

Preceded by Robert Garcia	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 18th congressional district 1990–1993	Succeeded by Nita M. Lowey
Preceded by Charles B. Rangel	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 16th congressional district 1993–	Succeeded by Incumbent