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PERSONAL 
Congressman Gary Ackerman is presently serving his twelfth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ackerman represents the Fifth Congressional District of New York, encompassing the North Shore of Queens and 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 where he taught social studies, math and journalism to junior high school students in Queens .

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. But 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, now 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 to start a weekly community newspaper in Queens called "The Flushing Tribune" which soon became "The 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 communities in Queens and Nassau .

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 Jamaica Estates, Queens with his wife Rita. The Ackerman's have three children: Lauren who married Paul, Corey who married Lena and Ari. Representative Ackerman is a very amateur photographer, an avid stamp collector and a boating enthusiast.

COMMITTEES
Congressman Ackerman is a senior member of the House International Relations Committee where he plays major leadership roles in flash point areas of the world. Often, these involve national security, nuclear proliferation and terrorism issues in areas such as the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Latin America .                       

Ackerman is the Ranking Democrat on the International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia which has oversight on U.S. policy towards nations in the Middle East and Central Asia . He is also a member of and the most recent Democrat to chair the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, which has jurisdiction over United States policy towards countries in Asia .

Ackerman also serves on the powerful Financial Services Committee where he sits on two Subcommittees: Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, as well as Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises. The Financial Services Committee has jurisdiction over banking and financial institutions, housing programs, insurance regulations and monetary policy-issues that are critical to New York City and Long Island . Ackerman is a champion of consumer rights and a fighter for financial community reform.

A Representative's representative, he was also Congress' delegate to the United Nations. In addition, he is the Present Chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.

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 was also successful in getting enacted, his bill that created the "Heroes" postage stamp (the one with the three firefighters raising the American flag at ground zero), the revenue from which helps 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 sponsored legislation which is now law that in the wake of the Enron, WorldCom and other corporate scandals, prohibits accounting firms from consulting for the companies they audit.

Other highlights include the Congressman authoring legislation that required President Bush 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.

CONGRESSIONAL INITIATIVES
In his capacity as the then Chairman of the Asia Subcommittee, Ackerman made history in the 1990's by traveling to North Korea to discuss with Kim Il Sung, the country's leader at the time, the framework under which the communist nation agreed 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 virus.  

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 retired law enforcement officers as screeners at New York airport's and he pressed President Bush to make good on his promise to provide New York with $20 billion in additional 9/11 disaster aid.  

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 projects.

Congressman 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 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 become 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 of 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 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.                                                                                                                

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Updated: 4/05