The congressman from the 16th District is Democrat José Serrano, who won the seat in a 1990 special election. A native of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, he grew up in the Mill Brook project in Mott Haven. After serving in the Army, he worked at a bank and as a school administrator. Serrano moved up while other Bronx politicians fell by the wayside because of corruption. He was elected to the New York Assembly in 1974 and chaired its Education Committee. In 1985, he ran for Bronx borough president, bucking the Democratic organization, and nearly won. Then in January 1990, U.S. Rep. Robert García of the South Bronx was convicted of accepting money from the minority contractor Wedtech. His conviction was later reversed, but his resignation paved the way for Serrano’s election to the House. Read More

The congressman from the 16th District is Democrat José Serrano, who won the seat in a 1990 special election. A native of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, he grew up in the Mill Brook project in Mott Haven. After serving in the Army, he worked at a bank and as a school administrator. Serrano moved up while other Bronx politicians fell by the wayside because of corruption. He was elected to the New York Assembly in 1974 and chaired its Education Committee. In 1985, he ran for Bronx borough president, bucking the Democratic organization, and nearly won. Then in January 1990, U.S. Rep. Robert García of the South Bronx was convicted of accepting money from the minority contractor Wedtech. His conviction was later reversed, but his resignation paved the way for Serrano’s election to the House.

Serrano has one of the most liberal voting records in the House. As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, he brings as many federal dollars home to his economically strapped district as he can. He chaired its Financial Services subcommittee when the Democrats controlled Congress and is now its ranking Democrat. Among Appropriations members he is known as a jokester, always ready to enliven hearings with a quip. At a June 2010 session on the Federal Communications Commission’s budget, he said he was doing his part for technology: “This hearing is online live as we speak. And I sent out a Twitter message. I put it on two Facebook pages and an e-mail. So we should get at least 10 people to watch.” He often amiably spars with Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., over his beloved Yankees and her state’s St. Louis Cardinals as well as its star slugger Albert Pujols. He told her at a February 2011 hearing, “I just want to know if the Republican (budget) cuts will affect Pujols’ contract.” Serrano told National Journal that humor is useful in a highly polarized House. “We take our work seriously, but we shouldn’t always take ourselves so seriously,” he said.

Serrano is a critic of outsourcing government services, and in 2007, he moved to end the Internal Revenue Service’s use of private debt-collection companies for delinquent taxes. He was the only House member from New York City who voted in 2008 against the federal bailout for banks and other financial services companies. He said he couldn’t justify giving money to the wealthy people who’d created the problem. A big local priority for Serrano has been cleaning up the Bronx River, and he delivered about $30 million for the effort. (When the river progressed to the point where it could support wildlife, a beaver appeared and was dubbed “José” in honor of Serrano’s work in behalf of the waterway.) He helped secure $10 million in 2010 to rebuild the Fordham transit plaza, one of the city’s busiest. He also was able to include illegal immigrants who responded to the September 11 attacks as among those compensated in the long-delayed bill that became law in the 2010 lame-duck session. With Republicans now in control, he said he sees one of his chief goals as “trying to avoid as much harm as possible” on budget cuts and “making sure people understand that cutting can hurt a lot of people.”

Another of his issues is statehood for Puerto Rico, which he calls an American “colony.” He backs a long-stalled referendum to determine the status of the island, and got a bill through the House in 2010 calling for a two-step process. He also took credit for working with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Citizen Energy Corp. to strike a deal to bring cheaper oil to the South Bronx. He has criticized the reluctance of House Democratic leaders to pass immigration reform, and after Arizona passed the nation’s toughest immigration law in 2010, he asked Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to move the 2011 All-Star Game from Phoenix in protest. Selig rebuffed the idea.

Although he is well-liked by colleagues, Serrano’s attempts to join the Democratic leadership have been stymied. In 1997, Democratic Minority Leader Dick Gephardt passed over him and picked the less-senior Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who was a better fundraiser, to be chief deputy whip. In 1998, Serrano ran for Democratic Caucus vice chairman as “the candidate who refuses to raise money to buy your vote for leadership.” He again lost out to Menendez, who went on to become a senator. Serrano was among the New York Democrats who briefly toyed with running against newly appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in the 2010 primary because of concerns over her centrist voting record.