Carolyn B. Maloney
Encyclopedia
Carolyn Bosher Maloney (born February 19, 1946) is the U.S. Representative
for , serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party
. The district, popularly known as the "silk stocking district", includes most of Manhattan
's East Side; Astoria and Long Island City in Queens
; and Roosevelt Island
.
and graduated from Greensboro College
. In 1970, she visited New York City
and decided to stay.
in 1982, defeating incumbent Robert Rodriguez in a heavily Spanish-speaking district based in East Harlem and parts of the South Bronx
. She served as a Councilmember for 10 years. On the Council, she served as the first Chair of the Committee on Contracts, investigating contracts issued by New York City in sludge and other areas. She authored legislation creating the City's Vendex program, which established computerized systems tracking information on City contracts and vendors doing business with the City. Maloney also introduced the first measure in New York to recognize domestic partnerships, including those of same-sex couples. She was the first person to give birth while serving as a City Councilmember.
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Maloney worked to ensure that the Bush administration maintained its commitment to New York's recovery and security efforts, prompting Wayne Barrett
of the Village Voice to write that Maloney was "like a tiger in the House on every dollar due New York." After the 9/11 Commission
published its findings, Maloney co-founded the bipartisan House 9/11 Commission Caucus and helped write and secure the enactment into law many of its recommendations to reform the nation's intelligence agencies Congressional Quarterly wrote in its annual guide, 2006 Politics in America: "In the 108th Congress, Maloney reached out beyond her usual roles as a liberal gadfly and persistent Bush administration critic, helping win enactment of a sweeping bill to reorganize U.S. intelligence operations." Following the Dubai Ports World controversy
, Maloney helped secured the passage and enactment of her bill to reform the system for vetting foreign investments in the United States. Maloney has supported Scientology's "New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project".
After reports of corruption among military contractors in Iraq
and Afghanistan
, Maloney later secured House passage of her bill to create a database to better monitor all federal contracts, the key provisions of which were later adopted into law as part of the defense budget.
Politically, Maloney is ranked in the National Journal's annual ranking as the 114th most Progressive (or 314th most conservative) member of Congress, with more Progressive scores on foreign policy than on economic and social policy. Her score of 75.5 ranks her as modestly more Progressive than the New York Congressional delegation as a whole.
Maloney has taken several actions on health care issues. Her measure to provide Medicare coverage for annual mammograms was included in the Fiscal Year 1998 federal budget. Maloney also advocated for the cause of providing federal support for medical monitoring and health care for rescue and recovery workers who were at the Ground Zero
site after the 9/11 attacks, many of whom later developed serious respiratory and other ailments. In the 111th Congress, Maloney introduced "The Breastfeeding Promotion Act" to protect breastfeeding
in the workplace under civil rights
law and make it illegal for women to lose their jobs or otherwise be discriminated against for expressing milk during lunchtime or on breaks. Maloney has advocated for international women's health and family planning programs supported by the United Nations Population Fund
.
A co-founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Working Group on Parkinson's Disease
, she serves on the boards of the Michael Stern Parkinson's Research Foundation and the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation, both in New York City. Maloney introduced the “Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007” (H.R. 2832), legislation that would require the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) to conduct a comprehensive comparative study of vaccinated
and unvaccinated populations, which may resolve the heated controversy
over the possible link between autism
and vaccine components, including thimerosal and aluminum
. The original bill did not pass, but Maloney re-introduced the legislation in 2008.
In Congress, Maloney serves on the Committee on Financial Services, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the Joint Economic Committee, and was previously the Chair of the Democratic Task Force on Homeland Security. On January 21, 2009, Maloney was named Chair of the Joint Economic Committee
for the 111th Congress
. Previously, while serving as Chair of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Maloney first introduced the "Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights" in the 110th Congress, a measure that drew praise from some editorial boards and consumer advocates. It was passed as the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act by both houses of the 111th Congress, prompting Money magazine
to dub Maloney the "best friend a credit card user ever had". President Barack Obama
signed the Credit Card Bill of Rights into law in a Rose Garden
ceremony at the White House attended by Maloney on May 22, 2009.
Days after voting against cancellation of a $1 billion, 10-year subsidy plan for U.S. sugar farmers within the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill, Maloney hosted a fundraising event that netted $9,500 in contributions from sugar growers and refiners, according to Federal Election Commission
records. Maloney's election attorney, Andrew Tulloch, called the timing of the 31 July fundraiser a "pure coincidence". The bill passed the House by a 282-144 vote. The Sunlight Foundation
pointed out that among the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Maloney has the ninth-highest amount of investment in oil stocks.
Maloney has been active on issues involving women, children and families since the beginning of her career. A former Co-Chair of the House Caucus on Women's Issues, she authored and helped secure the enactment into law of a measure to provide federal funding to clear the backlog of rape kits for which evidence had been collected, but never entered into law enforcement DNA databases. It was called "the most important anti-rape legislation ever considered by Congress" by the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network. Maloney's bill, included in the "Justice for All Act of 2005", was named in honor of Debbie Smith, a rape survivor; the effort to enact it was later the subject of a Lifetime Television
movie, A Life Interrupted: The Debbie Smith Story. Maloney was played by Lynne Adams
. Maloney also co-authored and helped secure passage of bipartisan legislation to curb the demand for sex trafficking. She introduced the Child Care Affordability Act of 2007 to increase access to child care by providing tax credits Maloney's amendment to a foreign aid bill succeeded in securing $60 million in funding for programs for Afghan women and girls and to help establish an Afghan commission on human rights. She is the chief House sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment
. In 2008 and again in 2009, Maloney authored, and secured House passage of, a bill to provide four weeks of paid parental leave to federal employees. She has also authored and introduced the Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act that would expand the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act to include couples in domestic partnerships, civil unions, and same-sex marriages. Legislation to create a National Women's History Museum that was jointly introduced by Maloney and her colleague Eleanor Holmes Norton
was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in October, 2009.
In 2008, Rodale Press
published Maloney's book on women's issues, Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: Why Women's Lives Aren't Getting Any Easier—and How We Can Make Real Progress for Ourselves and Our Daughters. In the book, Maloney argues that progress for women has stalled and offers recommendations for resuming their advance toward full equality.
Maloney appeared on The Colbert Report in the Better Know a District
segment on July 29, 2008, speaking about women's issues.
In Congress, Maloney has helped secure funding for major mass transit projects, resulting in the commitment of billions of federal dollars for New York State. Early in her tenure, she joined with colleagues to secure $306.1 million in federal funds for the 63rd Street Connector, a $645 million project that significantly expanded transit capacity between Queens
and Manhattan
Maloney has been hailed as a champion of the Second Avenue Subway, a project first conceived in the 1920s. In November 2007, the federal government signed a full funding grant agreement with New York State committing to providing $1.3 billion in federal funds for the subway's first phase on Manhattan's Upper East Side
. Maloney has also advocated for the East Side Access project, which will bring Long Island Railroad (LIRR) trains directly to Grand Central Terminal
and create a new LIRR stop in Sunnyside, Queens
. In December 2006, the federal government signed a full funding grant agreement promising $2.63 billion to New York to complete East Side Access.
In 2010, the Project On Government Oversight
, a government watchdog group, presented Maloney with its Good Government Award for her contributions to government transparency and oversight, including her investigations into corruption and mismanagement in the Mineral Management Service and her support of a Federal Contractor Misconduct Database similar to POGO's.
Bill Green
, in a victory considered an upset. She is the first woman to ever represent the district, and has been re-elected eight times. The 14th and its predecessors had been one of the few districts in the city where Republicans usually did well; in fact, they held the seat for all but eight of the 56 years between 1937 and Maloney's victory. Following Maloney's win, Republicans continued to hold most of the State Senate, Assembly, and City Council seats on Manhattan's East Side for nearly another decade. Since 2002, the Democrats have dominated the area, and now hold all of the area's seats in the state legislature and City Council.
Maloney faced significant opposition from Republican City Councilman Charles Millard
in 1994, the year of a Republican tidal wave in the midterm congressional elections. She defeated Millard handily and hasn't faced serious opposition since.
In 2004, Maloney faced a potential Democratic primary challenge from Robert Jereski, a former Green Party political candidate and unsuccessful candidate for delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention
on the slate of Dennis Kucinich
. Jereski opposed the Iraq War while Maloney had initially voted for the resolution to authorize force; she later forcefully renounced the war, including most memorably at a town hall meeting in her district with antiwar Congressman John Murtha
. However, Jereski didn't qualify for the ballot because his petition was found to have invalid signatures, leaving him 4 short of the 1250 required.
In December 2008, Maloney hired a public relations firm to help bolster her efforts to be named by Governor David Paterson
as Hillary Clinton's successor as a New York Senator. Maloney toured parts of the state, but was overshadowed by Caroline Kennedy
's promotional tour for the same seat. Maloney interviewed with the governor for 55 minutes. Public opinion polls placed Maloney's support for the Senate seat in the single digits, trailing the front-runner, then-New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
, although her bid was endorsed by the National Organization for Women
Political Action Committee, the Feminist Majority Political Action Committee, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, and other columnists and editorial boards.
On January 23, 2009, Paterson named Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand
to the post. Many urged Maloney to run against Gillibrand in 2010.
On July 20, 2009, Maloney apologized after using the word "nigger
" in repeating a comment made by a third party about Gillibrand. Maloney was quoted by the City Hall News:
In the Democratic Primary
for Congress on September 14, 2010, Maloney defeated a well-funded opponent, Reshma Saujani
, a 34-year-old Indian-American hedge fund lawyer, by a landslide, 62-percentage point margin, racking up more than 81% of the vote to Saujani's 19 percent. That night, Saujani said, "I'm definitely running again,", but three months later announced publicly that she would not challenge Maloney again.
, an investment banker, in 1976. The couple had two daughters, Christina and Virginia. Her husband, the oldest American ever to summit an "eight-thousander
", the world's fourteen mountains that surpass 8,000 meters in altitude, died on a climbing expedition on September 25, 2009 while descending from the world's sixth tallest peak, Cho Oyu
in Tibet
.
Maloney is a member of The Junior League of the City of New York
.
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
for , serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. The district, popularly known as the "silk stocking district", includes most of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's East Side; Astoria and Long Island City in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
; and Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island, known as Welfare Island from 1921 to 1973, and before that Blackwell's Island, is a narrow island in the East River of New York City. It lies between the island of Manhattan to its west and the borough of Queens to its east...
.
Early life, education and career
Maloney was born in Greensboro, North CarolinaGreensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
and graduated from Greensboro College
Greensboro College
Greensboro College is a four-year, independent, coeducational liberal-arts college, also offering four master's degrees, located in Greensboro, North Carolina, and affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1838...
. In 1970, she visited New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and decided to stay.
New York City Council
Maloney was elected to the New York City CouncilNew York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...
in 1982, defeating incumbent Robert Rodriguez in a heavily Spanish-speaking district based in East Harlem and parts of the South Bronx
South Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....
. She served as a Councilmember for 10 years. On the Council, she served as the first Chair of the Committee on Contracts, investigating contracts issued by New York City in sludge and other areas. She authored legislation creating the City's Vendex program, which established computerized systems tracking information on City contracts and vendors doing business with the City. Maloney also introduced the first measure in New York to recognize domestic partnerships, including those of same-sex couples. She was the first person to give birth while serving as a City Councilmember.
Committee assignments
- Committee on Financial ServicesUnited States House Committee on Financial ServicesThe United States House Committee on Financial Services is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees the entire financial services industry, including the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries...
- Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises
- Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer CreditUnited States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer CreditThe U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services.-Jurisdiction:...
(Ranking Member) - Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and TechnologyUnited States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and TechnologyThe U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services...
- Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
- Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs
Caucus memberships
- House 9/11 Commission Caucus
- House Caucus on Women's Issues
- International Conservation CaucusUnited States Congressional International Conservation CaucusThe U.S. Congressional International Conservation Caucus is a bipartisan congressional organization that was founded in September 2003 with the conviction that “the United States of America has the opportunity, the obligation and the interests to advance the conservation of natural resources for...
- Congressional Arts Caucus
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Maloney worked to ensure that the Bush administration maintained its commitment to New York's recovery and security efforts, prompting Wayne Barrett
Wayne Barrett
Wayne Barrett is an American journalist. He was an investigative reporter and senior editor for the Village Voice for over 20 years. He is currently a fellow with the Nation Institute and contributor to Newsweek....
of the Village Voice to write that Maloney was "like a tiger in the House on every dollar due New York." After the 9/11 Commission
9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
published its findings, Maloney co-founded the bipartisan House 9/11 Commission Caucus and helped write and secure the enactment into law many of its recommendations to reform the nation's intelligence agencies Congressional Quarterly wrote in its annual guide, 2006 Politics in America: "In the 108th Congress, Maloney reached out beyond her usual roles as a liberal gadfly and persistent Bush administration critic, helping win enactment of a sweeping bill to reorganize U.S. intelligence operations." Following the Dubai Ports World controversy
Dubai Ports World controversy
The Dubai Ports World controversy began in February 2006 and rose to prominence as a national security debate in the United States. At issue was the sale of port management businesses in six major U.S...
, Maloney helped secured the passage and enactment of her bill to reform the system for vetting foreign investments in the United States. Maloney has supported Scientology's "New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project".
After reports of corruption among military contractors in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Maloney later secured House passage of her bill to create a database to better monitor all federal contracts, the key provisions of which were later adopted into law as part of the defense budget.
Politically, Maloney is ranked in the National Journal's annual ranking as the 114th most Progressive (or 314th most conservative) member of Congress, with more Progressive scores on foreign policy than on economic and social policy. Her score of 75.5 ranks her as modestly more Progressive than the New York Congressional delegation as a whole.
Maloney has taken several actions on health care issues. Her measure to provide Medicare coverage for annual mammograms was included in the Fiscal Year 1998 federal budget. Maloney also advocated for the cause of providing federal support for medical monitoring and health care for rescue and recovery workers who were at the Ground Zero
Ground zero
The term ground zero describes the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation...
site after the 9/11 attacks, many of whom later developed serious respiratory and other ailments. In the 111th Congress, Maloney introduced "The Breastfeeding Promotion Act" to protect breastfeeding
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...
in the workplace under civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
law and make it illegal for women to lose their jobs or otherwise be discriminated against for expressing milk during lunchtime or on breaks. Maloney has advocated for international women's health and family planning programs supported by the United Nations Population Fund
United Nations Population Fund
The United Nations Population Fund is a UN organization. The work of the UNFPA involves promotion of the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. This is done through major national and demographic surveys and with population censuses...
.
A co-founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Working Group on Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
, she serves on the boards of the Michael Stern Parkinson's Research Foundation and the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation, both in New York City. Maloney introduced the “Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007” (H.R. 2832), legislation that would require the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
(NIH) to conduct a comprehensive comparative study of vaccinated
Vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
and unvaccinated populations, which may resolve the heated controversy
Controversies in autism
Controversies in autism encompass the disagreement over the exact nature of autism, its causes and manifestations. Autism is considered to be a neurodevelopmental condition which manifests itself in markedly abnormal social interaction, communication ability, and patterns of interests.The cause of...
over the possible link between autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
and vaccine components, including thimerosal and aluminum
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
. The original bill did not pass, but Maloney re-introduced the legislation in 2008.
In Congress, Maloney serves on the Committee on Financial Services, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the Joint Economic Committee, and was previously the Chair of the Democratic Task Force on Homeland Security. On January 21, 2009, Maloney was named Chair of the Joint Economic Committee
United States Congress Joint Economic Committee
The Joint Economic Committee is one of four standing joint committees of the U.S. Congress. The committee was established as a part of the Employment Act of 1946, which deemed the committee responsible for reporting the current economic condition of the United States and for making suggestions...
for the 111th Congress
111th United States Congress
The One Hundred Eleventh United States Congress was the meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government from January 3, 2009 until January 3, 2011. It began during the last two weeks of the George W. Bush administration, with the remainder spanning the first two years of...
. Previously, while serving as Chair of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Maloney first introduced the "Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights" in the 110th Congress, a measure that drew praise from some editorial boards and consumer advocates. It was passed as the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act by both houses of the 111th Congress, prompting Money magazine
Money Magazine
Money Magazine is a business news and financial programme that is broadcast on Sundays at 7:00pm in Hong Kong by television channel TVB Pearl.-Producers and reporters:...
to dub Maloney the "best friend a credit card user ever had". President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
signed the Credit Card Bill of Rights into law in a Rose Garden
White House Rose Garden
The White House Rose Garden is a garden bordering the Oval Office and the West Wing of the White House. The garden is approximately 125 feet long and 60 feet wide...
ceremony at the White House attended by Maloney on May 22, 2009.
Days after voting against cancellation of a $1 billion, 10-year subsidy plan for U.S. sugar farmers within the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill, Maloney hosted a fundraising event that netted $9,500 in contributions from sugar growers and refiners, according to Federal Election Commission
Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act...
records. Maloney's election attorney, Andrew Tulloch, called the timing of the 31 July fundraiser a "pure coincidence". The bill passed the House by a 282-144 vote. The Sunlight Foundation
Sunlight Foundation
The Sunlight Foundation is a 501 educational organization founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States government....
pointed out that among the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Maloney has the ninth-highest amount of investment in oil stocks.
Maloney has been active on issues involving women, children and families since the beginning of her career. A former Co-Chair of the House Caucus on Women's Issues, she authored and helped secure the enactment into law of a measure to provide federal funding to clear the backlog of rape kits for which evidence had been collected, but never entered into law enforcement DNA databases. It was called "the most important anti-rape legislation ever considered by Congress" by the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network. Maloney's bill, included in the "Justice for All Act of 2005", was named in honor of Debbie Smith, a rape survivor; the effort to enact it was later the subject of a Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television, often referred to as Lifetime TV, or most commonly, Lifetime, is an American cable television specialty channel devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. The cable network is owned by A&E Television Networks...
movie, A Life Interrupted: The Debbie Smith Story. Maloney was played by Lynne Adams
Lynne Adams
Lynne Adams is an American actress.Adams played the role of Leslie Jackson Bauer Norris from 1966–71 and again from 1973-76 on The Guiding Light. She was the second generation in her family to act on the program; both her parents had roles in the radio incarnation in the 1940s...
. Maloney also co-authored and helped secure passage of bipartisan legislation to curb the demand for sex trafficking. She introduced the Child Care Affordability Act of 2007 to increase access to child care by providing tax credits Maloney's amendment to a foreign aid bill succeeded in securing $60 million in funding for programs for Afghan women and girls and to help establish an Afghan commission on human rights. She is the chief House sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
. In 2008 and again in 2009, Maloney authored, and secured House passage of, a bill to provide four weeks of paid parental leave to federal employees. She has also authored and introduced the Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act that would expand the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act to include couples in domestic partnerships, civil unions, and same-sex marriages. Legislation to create a National Women's History Museum that was jointly introduced by Maloney and her colleague Eleanor Holmes Norton
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Eleanor Holmes Norton is a Delegate to Congress representing the District of Columbia. In her position she is able to serve on and vote with committees, as well as speak from the House floor...
was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in October, 2009.
In 2008, Rodale Press
Rodale Press
Rodale, Inc., is an American publisher of health and wellness magazines, books, and digital properties. Rodale is headquartered in Emmaus, Pennsylvania and also maintains a satellite office in New York City, on Third Avenue....
published Maloney's book on women's issues, Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: Why Women's Lives Aren't Getting Any Easier—and How We Can Make Real Progress for Ourselves and Our Daughters. In the book, Maloney argues that progress for women has stalled and offers recommendations for resuming their advance toward full equality.
Maloney appeared on The Colbert Report in the Better Know a District
Better Know A District
Better Know a District is a recurring segment on The Colbert Report. It offers a humorous explanation of a different United States Congressional district in each segment and generally includes an interview with that district's member of Congress.- Structure :Each segment begins with basic...
segment on July 29, 2008, speaking about women's issues.
In Congress, Maloney has helped secure funding for major mass transit projects, resulting in the commitment of billions of federal dollars for New York State. Early in her tenure, she joined with colleagues to secure $306.1 million in federal funds for the 63rd Street Connector, a $645 million project that significantly expanded transit capacity between Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
and Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
Maloney has been hailed as a champion of the Second Avenue Subway, a project first conceived in the 1920s. In November 2007, the federal government signed a full funding grant agreement with New York State committing to providing $1.3 billion in federal funds for the subway's first phase on Manhattan's Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
. Maloney has also advocated for the East Side Access project, which will bring Long Island Railroad (LIRR) trains directly to Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
and create a new LIRR stop in Sunnyside, Queens
Sunnyside, Queens
Sunnyside is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens, in New York state, in the United States. It shares borders with Hunters Point and Long Island City to the west, Astoria to the north, Woodside to the east and Maspeth to the south...
. In December 2006, the federal government signed a full funding grant agreement promising $2.63 billion to New York to complete East Side Access.
In 2010, the Project On Government Oversight
Project on Government Oversight
The Project On Government Oversight , founded in 1981, is an independent non-profit organization in the United States which investigates and seeks to expose corruption and other misconduct. POGO assists whistleblowers and investigates federal agencies, Congress, and government contractors...
, a government watchdog group, presented Maloney with its Good Government Award for her contributions to government transparency and oversight, including her investigations into corruption and mismanagement in the Mineral Management Service and her support of a Federal Contractor Misconduct Database similar to POGO's.
Political campaigns
In 1992, Maloney was elected to the House of Representatives, narrowly defeating a 15-year incumbent, Progressive RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Bill Green
S. William Green
Sedgwick William "Bill" Green was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New York....
, in a victory considered an upset. She is the first woman to ever represent the district, and has been re-elected eight times. The 14th and its predecessors had been one of the few districts in the city where Republicans usually did well; in fact, they held the seat for all but eight of the 56 years between 1937 and Maloney's victory. Following Maloney's win, Republicans continued to hold most of the State Senate, Assembly, and City Council seats on Manhattan's East Side for nearly another decade. Since 2002, the Democrats have dominated the area, and now hold all of the area's seats in the state legislature and City Council.
Maloney faced significant opposition from Republican City Councilman Charles Millard
Charles E.F. Millard
Charles E.F. Millard is the former Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation . He was the first director of the PBGC to be confirmed by the United States Senate and ran the agency from May 2007 to January 2009. As Director, Mr. Millard was the chief executive officer of the PBGC...
in 1994, the year of a Republican tidal wave in the midterm congressional elections. She defeated Millard handily and hasn't faced serious opposition since.
In 2004, Maloney faced a potential Democratic primary challenge from Robert Jereski, a former Green Party political candidate and unsuccessful candidate for delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention
2004 Democratic National Convention
The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to July 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated John Kerry and John Edwards as the official candidates of the Democratic Party for President and Vice President of the United States, respectively, in the 2004...
on the slate of Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....
. Jereski opposed the Iraq War while Maloney had initially voted for the resolution to authorize force; she later forcefully renounced the war, including most memorably at a town hall meeting in her district with antiwar Congressman John Murtha
John Murtha
John Patrick "Jack" Murtha, Jr. was an American politician from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Murtha, a Democrat, represented Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1974 until his death in 2010....
. However, Jereski didn't qualify for the ballot because his petition was found to have invalid signatures, leaving him 4 short of the 1250 required.
In December 2008, Maloney hired a public relations firm to help bolster her efforts to be named by Governor David Paterson
David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, from 2008 to 2010. During his tenure he was the first governor of New York of African American heritage and also the second legally blind governor of any U.S. state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting...
as Hillary Clinton's successor as a New York Senator. Maloney toured parts of the state, but was overshadowed by Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is an American author and attorney. She is a member of the influential Kennedy family and the only surviving child of U.S. President John F...
's promotional tour for the same seat. Maloney interviewed with the governor for 55 minutes. Public opinion polls placed Maloney's support for the Senate seat in the single digits, trailing the front-runner, then-New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo is the 56th and current Governor of New York, having assumed office on January 1, 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 64th New York State Attorney General, and was the 11th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development...
, although her bid was endorsed by the National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
Political Action Committee, the Feminist Majority Political Action Committee, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, and other columnists and editorial boards.
On January 23, 2009, Paterson named Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand
Kirsten Gillibrand
Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik Gillibrand is an attorney and the junior United States Senator from the state of New York and a member of the Democratic Party...
to the post. Many urged Maloney to run against Gillibrand in 2010.
On July 20, 2009, Maloney apologized after using the word "nigger
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
" in repeating a comment made by a third party about Gillibrand. Maloney was quoted by the City Hall News:
I got a call from someone from Puerto Rico, [who] said Gillibrand went to Puerto Rico and came out for English-only (education). And he said, 'it was like saying nigger to a Puerto Rican'.Although she had been leading Gillibrand in both the Rasmussen and the Quinnipiac polls, Maloney ruled out a run for the U.S. Senate and instead retained her congressional seat.
In the Democratic Primary
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
for Congress on September 14, 2010, Maloney defeated a well-funded opponent, Reshma Saujani
Reshma Saujani
Reshma Saujani is an Indian-American lawyer and politician who lost the 2010 Democratic primary for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 14th congressional district against incumbent Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney. She was the first Indian-American woman to run for Congress...
, a 34-year-old Indian-American hedge fund lawyer, by a landslide, 62-percentage point margin, racking up more than 81% of the vote to Saujani's 19 percent. That night, Saujani said, "I'm definitely running again,", but three months later announced publicly that she would not challenge Maloney again.
Personal life
She married Clifton MaloneyClifton Maloney
Clifton Harlan Wells Maloney was an American businessman.-Early life:A veteran of the United States Navy, Maloney graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Business School. He was also a serious athlete and adventurer and a member of the Explorers Club, the Alpine Club, and the New York...
, an investment banker, in 1976. The couple had two daughters, Christina and Virginia. Her husband, the oldest American ever to summit an "eight-thousander
Eight-thousander
The eight-thousanders are the fourteen independent mountains on Earth that are more than high above sea level. They are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia....
", the world's fourteen mountains that surpass 8,000 meters in altitude, died on a climbing expedition on September 25, 2009 while descending from the world's sixth tallest peak, Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu is the sixth highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu lies in the Himalayas and is 20 km west of Mount Everest, at the border between China and Nepal...
in Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
.
Maloney is a member of The Junior League of the City of New York
Junior League
The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. is a non-profit organization of 292 Junior Leagues in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom and the United States. Junior Leagues are educational and charitable women's organizations aimed at improving their communities through volunteerism and...
.
External links
- U.S. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney official U.S. House site
- Carolyn Maloney for Congress official campaign website
- Collected news and commentary at The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
- Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act - Text of bill introduced by Maloney
- 504 Democratic Club — Carolyn B. Maloney's 2006 congressional screening questionnaire response
- 504 Democratic Club — Carolyn B. Maloney's 2008 congressional screening questionnaire response