Carolyn B. Maloney
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Carolyn Jane Maloney (née Bosher, February 19, 1946) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2013, and for from 1993 to 2013. The district includes most of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
's East Side, Astoria and
Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...
in
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
,
Greenpoint, Brooklyn Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brookly ...
, as well as
Roosevelt Island Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. Running from the equivalent of East 46th to ...
. Maloney is a member of the Democratic Party. She ran for reelection in 2022 but lost the primary to 10th district incumbent
Jerry Nadler Jerrold Lewis Nadler (; born June 13, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician who since 2013 has served as the U.S. representative for , which includes Manhattan's west side and parts of Brooklyn. A member of the Democratic Party, he is in ...
after redistricting drew them both into the 12th district. Maloney was the first woman to represent New York City's 7th Council district (where she was the first woman to give birth while in office). Maloney was also the first woman to chair the
Joint Economic Committee The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) 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 c ...
. On October 17, 2019, she became the first woman to chair the
House Committee on Oversight and Reform The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the main investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee's broad jurisdiction and legislative authority make it one of the most influential and powerful panels in the ...
following the death of
Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951October 17, 2019) was an American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1996 until his death in 2019, when he was succeeded by his predecess ...
. On November 20, 2019, Maloney was formally chosen to succeed Cummings.


Early life, education, and career

Carolyn Jane Bosher was born in
Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...
, on February 19, 1946. She attended Greensboro College. After graduating, she visited
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1970, and decided to stay. For several years, she worked as a teacher and an administrator for the
New York City Board of Education The Panel for Educational Policy of the Department of Education of the City School District of the City of New York, abbreviated as the Panel for Educational Policy and also known as the New York City Board of Education, is the governing body of ...
. In 1977, she obtained a job working for the
New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an officia ...
, and held senior staff positions in both the State Assembly and the State Senate. In 1976 she married Clifton Maloney, an
investment banker Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with ...
.


New York City Council

Maloney was elected to the
New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, the performance of ...
in 1982, defeating incumbent Robert Rodriguez in a heavily Spanish-speaking district based in
East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, ...
and parts of the
South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Mott Haven, Melrose, and Port Morris. In the early 1900s, the South Bronx was orig ...
. She served as a council member 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 partnership A domestic partnership is a legal relationship, usually between couples, who live together and share a common domestic life, but are not married (to each other or to anyone else). People in domestic partnerships receive benefits that guarantee ...
s, including those of
same-sex couple A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. '' Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries ...
s. She was the first person to give birth while serving as a council member, and the first to offer a comprehensive package of legislation to make day care more available and affordable.


U.S. House of Representatives


Elections

In 1992, Maloney ran for Congress in what was then the 14th district. The district had previously been the 15th, represented by 15-year incumbent Bill Green, a progressive Republican. She won with 51% of the vote. The district, nicknamed the "silk stocking district", had been one of the few in the city in which Republicans usually did well; in fact, they held the seat for all but eight of the 56 years between 1937 and Maloney's victory. But it had been made significantly friendlier to Democrats by redistricting. The old 15th had been more or less coextensive with the
Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the we ...
, but the new 14th included Long Island City, portions of the Upper West Side, and a sliver of Brooklyn. Maloney also benefited from
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
's strong showing in the district. The core of Maloney's district was the Upper East Side, an area with a history of electing moderate Republicans. Their dominance waned throughout the 1990s, and by the early 2000s Democrats dominated every level of government. This was exemplified in 1994 (the year of the
Republican Revolution The "Republican Revolution", "Revolution of '94", or "Gingrich Revolution" are political slogans that refer to the Republican Party (GOP) success in the 1994 U.S. mid-term elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of ...
), when a serious challenger to Maloney, Republican City Councilman
Charles Millard Charles Hibbert (Charlie) Millard (August 25, 1896 – November 24, 1978) was a Canadian trade union activist and politician. Early life He was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, the son of a railroad repairman, and first trained as a carpenter. Mil ...
, lost badly. No Republican has gotten more than 30% of the vote in the district since. In 2004, Maloney faced a potential Democratic primary challenge from Robert Jereski, a former
Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
political candidate and unsuccessful candidate for delegate to the
2004 Democratic National Convention The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North ...
on the slate of
Dennis Kucinich Dennis John Kucinich (; born October 8, 1946) is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008. He ran fo ...
. Jereski opposed the
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
while Maloney had initially voted for the resolution to authorize force; she later renounced the war, including at a town hall meeting in her district with antiwar Congressman
John Murtha John Patrick Murtha Jr. (; June 17, 1932 – February 8, 2010) was an American politician from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Murtha, a Democrat, represented Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district in the United States House of Represent ...
, where her comments made headlines. Jereski failed to qualify for the ballot because his petition was found to have invalid signatures, leaving him four short of the 1,250 required. In December 2008, Maloney hired a public-relations firm to help bolster her efforts to be named by Governor
David Paterson David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...
as
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
's successor in the U.S. Senate. She toured parts of the state, but was overshadowed by Caroline Kennedy's promotional tour for the same seat. Maloney interviewed with Paterson for 55 minutes. Public opinion polls placed Maloney's support for the Senate seat in the single digits, trailing the front-runner, then-State Attorney General
Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cuo ...
, although her bid was endorsed by the
National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...
Political Action Committee, the Feminist Majority Political Action Committee, ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' columnist Nicholas Kristof, and other columnists and editorial boards. On January 23, 2009, Paterson chose Representative
Kirsten Gillibrand Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand (; ; born December 9, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from New York since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as member of the U.S. House of ...
. Since Gillibrand is from upstate, many in NYC's political circles urged Maloney to primary Gillibrand in 2010. Despite leading Gillibrand in the polls, she instead ran to retain her congressional seat. A decade later, Maloney was the sole member of Congress to endorse Gillibrand's 2020 presidential campaign. In the Democratic primary for Congress on September 14, 2010, Maloney defeated a well-funded opponent,
Reshma Saujani Reshma Saujani (born November 18, 1975) is an American lawyer, politician, civil servant, and the founder of the nonprofit organization Girls Who Code, which aims to increase the number of women in computer science and close the gender employment ...
, a 34-year-old
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hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as ...
lawyer, by 62 percentage points. That night, Saujani said, "I'm definitely running again", but three months later announced publicly that she would not challenge Maloney again. In 2012 Maloney's Republican challenger was Christopher Wright, who took a leave of absence from J. P. Morgan to campaign. Maloney won with 80.9% of the vote, a margin of over 120,000 votes. In 2014, Maloney defeated Republican nominee Nicholas Di Iorio, a financial contractor with Pfizer, with 80% of the vote. In the 2016 Democratic primary, Maloney defeated Pete Lindner with 90.1% of the vote. She defeated Republican Robert Ardini in the general election with 83.2% of the vote. In the 2018 Democratic primary, Maloney defeated progressive candidate
Suraj Patel Suraj Patel is an American lawyer, professor, and politician. Patel is a member of the Democratic party, and was a candidate for the newly-created 12th congressional district in Manhattan, New York City. The district covers the northern end of Ce ...
with 59.6% of the vote. In the general election she defeated Republican nominee Eliot Rabin with 86.4% of the vote. In the 2020 Democratic primary, Patel challenged Maloney again, as did progressive Democrat Lauren Ashcraft and housing activist Peter Harrison. Erica Vladimer, a co-founder of New York State's Sexual Harassment Working Group, withdrew from the race before the primary. By July 29, 2020, it was revealed that Maloney led Patel by about 4% and 3,700 votes. On August 4, 2020, local election officials declared Maloney the winner of the primary. With redistricting in 2022, the process consolidated parts of the 12th and 10th Congressional districts that forced Maloney to face fellow incumbent
Jerry Nadler Jerrold Lewis Nadler (; born June 13, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician who since 2013 has served as the U.S. representative for , which includes Manhattan's west side and parts of Brooklyn. A member of the Democratic Party, he is in ...
in the Democratic primary. In August, Maloney lost the primary to Nadler by thirty points. As of March 30, 2022, Maloney is 20th in seniority in the House.


Tenure

In 2009, the ''National Journals annual ranking placed Maloney as the 114th-most liberal (or 314th-most conservative) member of Congress, with more liberal scores on foreign policy than on economic and social policy. Her score of 75.5 ranked her as modestly more liberal than the New York Congressional delegation as a whole. In 2011, a ''Daily News'' survey found that Maloney ranked first among New York's 28 representatives for activity with 36 proposed bills, resolutions, and amendments. In the 2013 legislative session, Govtrack.us scored her third among House Democrats for "Leadership," third among all representatives for "Powerful Co-sponsors," third-highest in the New York delegation for "Working with the Senate," and fifth-highest among all representatives for "Bills Sponsored." During the 2014 election cycle, the ''New York Daily News'' ran a story that said, "Maloney has proposed more legislation than any other House member, according to records", and called her "James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, giving compensation to
Ground Zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the grou ...
workers who have fallen ill, as big a bill for the New York area as any in the last decade." For the 2015 legislative session, Govtrack.us scored Maloney first for "Leadership" among House Democrats, based on sponsoring the most bills. It scored her second among all representatives for having the most co-sponsors, second for "Working with the Senate" and fourth among House Democrats for having powerful cosponsors. She was ranked in the top 10% of all representatives for bills introduced ("Maloney introduced 26 bills and resolutions in 2015"). As a U.S. Representative, Maloney was a superdelegate at presidential conventions. In the 2016 election cycle she was an early supporter of former Secretary of State and Senator
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
. According to her 2018 GovTrack Report card Maloney ranked in the 80th percentile among House members for getting bicameral support for the bills she has introduced; she ranked sixth among House Democrats. In 2019, Govtrack.us ranked Maloney as the top legislative leader in the House. This analysis ranked her second among all representatives for the most co-sponsors on her bills, in the top 5% for the number of bills introduced, and in the top 10% for getting her bills out of committee. For her tenure as chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee in the 116th Congress, Maloney earned an "A" grade from the nonpartisan Lugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index. In 2021 the Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked Maloney the third-most effective lawmaker in the House.


9/11-related issues

Following the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
, Maloney advocated for federal help for New York's recovery and security efforts. Her efforts prompted Wayne Barrett of the ''
Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
'' to write that Maloney was "like a tiger in the House on every dollar due New York." On February 25, 2019, she introduced her Never Forget the Heroes Act, HR1327 in the 116th Congress—a bill to establish Permanent Authorization of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund Act. The $10.2 billion authorization was signed into law, establishing that both the World Trade Center Health Program and September 11 Victim Compensation are effectively permanent, with the WTCHP authorized to operate until 2090 and the VCF until 2092.


National security issues

After the
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 attacks", includin ...
published its findings, Maloney co-founded the bipartisan House 9/11 Commission Caucus and helped write and secure the enactment into law of 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 secure the passage and enactment of her bill to reform the system for vetting foreign investments in the United States. She has supported Scientology's "
New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project The New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project was founded in New York City in 2003 with the stated purpose of treating rescue workers for toxins inhaled from the smoke of the September 11 attacks. It has two clinics: Downtown Medical on F ...
". On October 1, 2020, Maloney co-signed a letter to Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo Michael Richard Pompeo (; born December 30, 1963) is an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served under President Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2017 to 2018 and as the 70th United State ...
that condemned
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
’s offensive operations against the Armenian-populated enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik, and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is m ...
, denounced
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
’s role in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaij ...
, and criticized "false equivalence between Armenia and Azerbaijan, even as the latter threatens war and refuses to agree to monitoring along the line of contact." Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee, called on FBI Director
Christopher A. Wray Christopher Asher Wray (born December 17, 1966) is an American attorney who is the eighth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, serving since 2017. From 2003 to 2005, Wray served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Crimin ...
to open a probe into social media platform
Parler Parler () is an American alt-tech social networking service associated with conservatives. Journalists have described Parler as an alt-tech alternative to Twitter, and users include those banned from mainstream social networks or who oppose t ...
, writing, "The company was founded by John Matze shortly after he traveled in Russia with his wife, who is Russian and whose family reportedly has ties to the Russian government."


Gun control

In response to a number of high-profile incidents of gun violence, Maloney sponsored two bills to address the issue. The Gun Trafficking Prevention Act of 2013 would make gun trafficking a federal crime for the first time and substantially stiffen the penalties for "straw buyers" who knowingly help convicted felons, domestic abusers, the violently mentally ill and others, obtain guns. In 2014, she joined Senator
Ed Markey Edward John Markey (born July 11, 1946) is an American lawyer, politician, and former Army reservist who has served as the junior United States senator from Massachusetts since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. represent ...
in sending President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
a letter asking him to insert $10 million into the budget for the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georg ...
to resume research on gun violence and "conduct scientific research on the causes and prevention of gun violence." In 2022, as chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Maloney held a hearing that examined leading gun manufacturers' marketing and sales practices.


Government transparency

Maloney introduced a bill in October 2003 intended to enforce transparency in relation to military contracting in
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and subject the
Coalition Provisional Authority ) , capital = Baghdad , largest_city = capital , common_languages = Arabic Kurdish English (''de facto'') , government_type = Transitional government , legislature = Iraqi Governing Council , title_leader = Administrator , leader1 = Ja ...
to federal procurement law. In 2008, after reports of corruption among military contractors in both Iraq and
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
, she secured House passage of a further bill to create a database to better monitor all federal contracts, the key provisions of which were adopted into law as part of the defense budget. In 2010, the
Project On Government Oversight The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, that investigates and works to expose waste, fraud, abuse, and conflicts of interest in the U.S. federal government. According to its webs ...
, 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
Minerals Management Service The Minerals Management Service (MMS) was an agency of the United States Department of the Interior that managed the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf (OCS). Due to perceived conflict of inter ...
and her support of a Federal Contractor Misconduct Database similar to POGO's. In 2019, Maloney introduced a bill that would require corporate entities to disclose the identities of beneficial owners to
FinCEN The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terr ...
, making it harder for them to hide assets and avoid taxes through a series of limited liability companies.


Health care

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. She advocated for providing federal support for medical monitoring and health care for rescue and recovery workers who were exposed to toxic smoke and dust at the
Ground Zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the grou ...
site after the 9/11 attacks. Maloney authored the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act and led the fight for years to push for its passage. In 2010 Obama signed the bill into law. It provides $4.3 billion in federal funds to provide 9/11 responders and survivors with treatment and compensation for their injuries. In June 2012, it was announced that the program would be expanded to cover care for a variety of cancers of the lung, trachea, stomach, colon, rectum, liver, bladder, kidney, thyroid and breast. In 2015 when roughly 33,000 responders and survivors were battling an assortment of ailments, Maloney led the effort to extend the bill permanently. After a prolonged and very public push, a total of $8.5 billion in funding was included in the Omnibus Spending bill that passed in 2015 and extended the life of the monitoring and health insurance coverage for 75 years. In the 111th Congress, Maloney introduced The Breastfeeding Promotion Act to protect
breastfeeding Breastfeeding, or nursing, is the process by which human breast milk is fed to a child. Breast milk may be from the breast, or may be expressed by hand or pumped and fed to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that bre ...
in the workplace under
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
law and make it illegal for women to lose their jobs or otherwise be discriminated against for expressing milk during lunchtime or on breaks. She has advocated for international women's health and family planning programs supported by the
United Nations Population Fund The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies a ...
. A co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Working Group on
Parkinson's Disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...
, Maloney serves on the board of the Michael Stern Parkinson's Research Foundation and previously served as an honorary board member of the
Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation The Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation is an American nonprofit organization that supports research into the causes and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The organization's mission is to “understand the causes of Alzheimer's dis ...
. Maloney has promoted scientifically discredited claims of a link between vaccines and autism. On several occasions, she has introduced legislation that would direct the federal government to conduct studies into the alleged links between
autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
and vaccines. In a 2012 congressional hearing, Maloney equated concerns over a link between autism and vaccines to concerns over a link between smoking and cancer. She said that it was "common sense that mokingwas bad for your health... The same thing seems to be here with the vaccinations." Maloney's views on vaccines changed, and she led efforts to bring COVID-19 vaccine sites to North Brooklyn and western Queens. She partnered with The Floating Hospital and the New York City Housing Authority to establish a modular site to provide COVID-19 testing and vaccination services at Astoria Houses in northwest Queens.


Financial and economic issues

Maloney serves on the
Committee on Financial Services The United States House Committee on Financial Services, also referred to as the House Banking Committee and previously known as the Committee on Banking and Currency, is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees t ...
and the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the main investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee's broad jurisdiction and legislative authority make it one of the most influential and powerful panels in the ...
, and is the Ranking Democratic member of the Joint Economic Committee. She previously chaired the Democratic Task Force on Homeland Security. From 2009 to 2011, Maloney chaired the
Joint Economic Committee The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) 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 c ...
, the first woman to do so. Maloney was the author of the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, or the
Credit CARD Act of 2009 The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 is a federal statute passed by the United States Congress and signed by U.S. President Barack Obama on May 22, 2009. It is a comprehensive credit card reform legis ...
, while serving as chair of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, in the 110th Congress. A 2014 Social Science Research Network study estimated that since its passage, the CARD Act has saved consumers $11.9 billion per year. Credit card companies fiercely opposed the measure, but it drew praise from editorial boards and consumer advocates. The bill was passed as the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act by both houses of the 111th Congress, prompting
Money magazine ''Money'' is an American personal finance brand and website owned by Ad Practitioners LLC and formerly also a monthly magazine, first published by Time Inc. (1972–2018) and later by Meredith Corporation (2018–2019). Its articles cover the g ...
to dub Maloney the ''"''best friend a credit card user ever had.''"'' Obama signed the Credit Card Bill of Rights into law in a Rose Garden ceremony Maloney attended 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 The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (, also known as the 2008 U.S. Farm Bill) was a $288 billion, five-year agricultural policy bill that was passed into law by the United States Congress on June 18, 2008. The bill was a continuation ...
, Maloney hosted a
fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...
event that netted $9,500 in contributions from sugar growers and refiners, according to
Federal Election Commission The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency of the United States whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Cam ...
records. Her election attorney, Andrew Tulloch, called the timing of the July 31 fundraiser "pure coincidence." The bill passed the House by a 282–144 vote. The
Sunlight Foundation The Sunlight Foundation was an American 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocated for open government. The organization was founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States ...
pointed out that among the 435 members of the House, Maloney has the ninth-highest amount of investment in oil stocks. She received a perfect 100 rating from the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund in 2007, a perfect 100 rating from Environment America in 2008 and a perfect 100 from the League of Conservation Voters in 2008. And in 2008, Maloney introduced the Minerals Management Service Improvement Act (HR 7211) as a House companion to Integrity in Offshore Energy Resources Act (S. 3543). The legislation would impose dramatically tougher ethics rules for the Minerals Management Service, which was at the center of a major corruption scandal stemming from its employees' relationships with oil company representatives.


Women's, children's and family issues

Maloney has been active on many other 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. The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network called it "the most important anti-rape legislation ever considered by Congress". Maloney's bill, included in the Justice for All Act of 2005, was named the
Debbie Smith Act The Debbie Smith Act of 2004 () provides United States federal government grants to eligible states and units of local government to conduct DNA analyses of backlogged DNA samples collected from victims of crimes and criminal offenders. The Ac ...
in honor of Debbie Smith, a rape survivor. The effort to enact the bill was later the subject of a
Lifetime Television Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...
movie, ''A Life Interrupted: The Debbie Smith Story'', in which Maloney was played by Lynne Adams. Maloney also co-authored and helped secure passage of bipartisan legislation to curb the demand for sex trafficking. Maloney introduced the Child Care Affordability Act of 2007 to increase access to child care by providing tax credits. Her 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 The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...
. 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. In 2011, Maloney sponsored the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, known as the Campus SaVE Act. It became part of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act of 2013. The measure guarantees counseling, legal assistance, and medical care on campuses for victims of sexual assault, establishes minimum, national standards for schools to follow in responding to allegations of sexual assault and sexual violence, and makes explicit that schools must provide to both the alleged perpetrator and the alleged victim the same rights, including access to advisers, written notifications, as well as appeals processes during campus disciplinary proceedings. Saying that "for too long, women's stories have been left out of the telling of our nation’s history", Maloney began work in the 1990s on establishing a Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum on the National Mall. After years of effort, her bill passed and was signed into law in 2020. After Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA, Maloney and
Jackie Speier Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier ( ; born May 14, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving in Congress since 2008. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 12th Dis ...
introduced a resolution to recognize that the ERA had met all legal requirements to be considered the 28th amendment to the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...
. In March 2022, Maloney sent U.S. archivist David Ferriero a letter urging him to fulfill his statutory duty and publish the ERA.


District issues

Maloney has helped secure funding for major
mass transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
projects, resulting in the commitment of billions of federal dollars for New York State. She has been hailed as a champion of the
Second Avenue Subway The Second Avenue Subway (internally referred to as the IND Second Avenue Line by the MTA and abbreviated to SAS) is a New York City Subway line that runs under Second Avenue on the East Side of Manhattan. The first phase of this new line, ...
.Newman, Philip, "MTA's East Side Tunnels Will Create Jobs: Maloney", ''Astoria Times'' (NYC), February 4, 200

/ref> Maloney co-sponsored the 2009 reintroduction of the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act (, originally introduced as in 2008) and the Research Works Act () introduced in 2011. Both bills aim to reverse the NIH's Public Access Policy, which mandates
open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
to NIH-funded research. Some scientists criticized the
Association of American Publishers The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP lobbies for book, journal, and education publishers in the United States. AAP members include most of the major commercia ...
-backed Research Works Act. In a ''New York Times'' op-ed, Michael Eisen said the bill would force the public to pay $15–$30 per paper to read the results of research they had already paid for as taxpayers. (Such results must now be published in
Pubmed Central PubMed Central (PMC) is a free digital repository that archives open access full-text scholarly articles that have been published in biomedical and life sciences journals. As one of the major research databases developed by the National Center fo ...
(PMC) after an embargo period of up to 12 months; this embargo period was imposed to minimize financial harm to publishers who were concerned that their readership would diminish if the results appeared concurrently in PMC, though authors of the paper are required to submit their papers to PMC as soon as their paper gets accepted for publication by a peer-review journal.) Some have suggested that Maloney supports the measure because she is the recipient of campaign contributions from
Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as '' The Lancet'', '' Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', ...
, the largest scholarly publishing company. On February 27, 2012, following a boycott of the organization, Maloney wrote to her constituents, "it is important to be mindful of the impact of various industries on job creation and retention. New York State is home to more than 300 publishers that employ more than 12,000 New Yorkers, many of whom live in or around New York City in my district. New York City scientific publishers represent a significant subset of the total, and more than 20 are located in Manhattan, publishing thousands of scientific journals and employing thousands of New Yorkers." Elsevier withdrew its support for the legislation. In 2021, Maloney protested the expansion of the
New York Blood Center The New York Blood Center (NYBC) is a community, nonprofit blood bank based in New York City. Established in 1964 by Dr. Aaron Kellner, NYBC supplies blood to approximately 200 hospitals in the Northeast United States. NYBC and its operating divi ...
, a nonprofit biomedical research facility, from a three story-headquarters to a 16-story tower on Manhattan's Upper East Side.


Committee assignments

*
Committee on Financial Services The United States House Committee on Financial Services, also referred to as the House Banking Committee and previously known as the Committee on Banking and Currency, is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees t ...
** Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets ** Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance * Committee on Oversight and Reform (chair) ** As chair of the full committee, Maloney may serve as an ''ex officio'' member of all subcommittees. * Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis *
Joint Economic Committee The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) 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 c ...
(Vice Chair)


Caucus memberships

*House 9/11 Commission Caucus *House Caucus on Women's Issues * United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus * Congressional Arts Caucus *Americans Abroad Caucus (founder and co-chair) *
Congressional Progressive Caucus The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is a congressional caucus affiliated with the Democratic Party in the United States Congress. The CPC represents the most left-leaning faction of the Democratic Party. " e Congressional Progressive Cau ...
* House Baltic Caucus *Co-chair, Congressional Hellenic Caucus *
Afterschool Caucuses The Afterschool Caucuses are bipartisan caucuses in the United States Congress established to build support for afterschool programs and increase resources for afterschool care. Senators Lisa Murkowski ( R- AK) and Tina Smith ( D- MN) chair the Se ...
*
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) is a caucus consisting of members of the United States Congress who are Asian American and Pacific Islander ( AAPI), and who have a strong interest in advocating and promoting issues and c ...
* U.S.-Japan Caucus * Medicare for All Caucus * House Pro-Choice Caucus * Congressional Skin Cancer Caucus (founder and co-chair)


Scores by interest groups

Maloney's ratings from various interest groups include the following: * The
American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...
(AAUW) gives her a 100. * NARAL Pro-Choice America gives her a 100. * Drug Policy Action gives her an A for 2015/2016. *
Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...
gives her a 100. * The Human Rights Campaign gives her a 100. * The Alliance for Retired Americans gives her a 100. * The League of Conservation Voters gives her a 96 for 2013 and 95 lifetime. * The Children's Defense Fund gives her a 90 for 2011. * The
National Education Association The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college stud ...
gives her an A. * The American Public Health Association gives her a 100. * The
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the largest trade union of public employees in the United States. It represents 1.3 million public sector employees and retirees, including health care workers, correcti ...
(AFSCME) gives her a 100. * The
AFL–CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...
gave her a 2019 core of 90%, and a lifetime score of 97%. * The Humane Society gave her a 100+ rating in 2013, and a 100 in 2020. * The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence gives her a 100. * The NRA gives her an F. * The Gun Owners of America gave her an F in 2010.


Controversies


Wearing burqa on House floor

On October 16, 2001, Maloney wore an
Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pash ...
burqa A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Examp ...
while giving
speech
in the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
in support of Afghan women's rights and American military involvement against the
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
. It was the first time an Islamic veil had been worn on the House floor, and was technically not allowed under an unenforced 1837 hat ban. In a 2018 ''
Foreign Policy A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through ...
'' article,
Rafia Zakaria Rafia Zakaria is a Pakistani-American attorney, feminist, journalist, and author. Zakaria is a columnist for Dawn. She has written for The Nation, Guardian Books, The New Republic, The Baffler, Boston Review, and Al Jazeera. In 2021, she publish ...
, a
Pakistani-American Pakistani Americans ( ur, ) are Americans who originate from Pakistan. The term may also refer to people who also hold a dual Pakistani and U.S. citizenship. Educational attainment level and household income are much higher in the Pakistani-Am ...
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
author and journalist, called Maloney's display "theatrical" and an example of " American feminist exceptionalism, in which American women—intrepid and veil-free—are beacons of freedom with a duty to evangelize their particular brand of empowerment, even if it means using bombs."


Use of the N-word

On July 20, 2009, Maloney apologized after saying the ethnic slur "
nigger In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
" while quoting a phone call she had received about
U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and power ...
Kirsten Gillibrand Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand (; ; born December 9, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from New York since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as member of the U.S. House of ...
in an interview with ''City Hall News''. At the time, she was a week away from announcing an official campaign against Gillibrand in the 2010 United States Senate Democratic Primary election in New York. The quote, as reported by ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', was: Civil rights activist Al Sharpton criticized the remark and called Maloney's casual use of the word "alarming" but said he did not believe she was
racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
. She apologized and dropped out of the race on August 7, 2009, reportedly for different reasons.


2022 primary

During the 2022 primary, Maloney campaigned on her work within the district, as well as her gender in the wake of ''
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', , is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both ''Ro ...
''. She claimed that her opponent, fellow incumbent
Jerry Nadler Jerrold Lewis Nadler (; born June 13, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician who since 2013 has served as the U.S. representative for , which includes Manhattan's west side and parts of Brooklyn. A member of the Democratic Party, he is in ...
, was "senile" and accused him of taking credit "for a woman's job". Many of Maloney's activities were scrutinized, including her comments and legislation promoting the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. During a debate with Nadler, Maloney attracted attention for saying that she believed President Joe Biden would not run for reelection in 2024. She also told ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' that she thought he should not run in 2024. Maloney later apologized and said that Biden should run again, though she maintained her belief that he would not.


Alleged Met Gala solicitation

In 2022, the House Ethics Committee was investigating Maloney for allegedly casting around for an invitation to the Met Gala. Investigators alleged Maloney had sought an invitation for herself after being cut from the invite list in 2016. Maloney called former president of the Met, Emily Rafferty, to request an invitation, according to testimony Rafferty gave investigators. Investigators also found that Maloney might have requested an invitation to the 2020 Met Gala, citing an email thread with a staffer in which she asked whether she was invited and how to contact the Met's government affairs staffer. In a February 2022 report, the Office of Congressional Ethics said it found "substantial reason to believe that Rep. Maloney may have solicited or accepted impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala."


Personal life

Maloney and her husband, Clifton Maloney, raised two daughters. Her husband died on a climbing expedition in 2009, after climbing the world's sixth-tallest peak,
Cho Oyu __NOTOC__ Cho Oyu (Nepali: चोयु; ; ) is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the ''Khumbu'' sub-section of the Mahalangur ...
in
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
.Thrush, Glenn
"Rep. Maloney's husband dies in Tibet"
Politico, September 2009


See also

* Women in the United States House of Representatives


References


Further reading


Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act
- Text of bill introduced by Maloney


External links


Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney
official U.S. House website
Carolyn Maloney for Congress
* * , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maloney, Carolyn 1946 births 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American writers 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American writers American feminist writers American Presbyterians Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) Female members of the United States House of Representatives Greensboro College alumni Living people Members of the Junior League New York City Council members People from the Upper East Side Politicians from Greensboro, North Carolina Women New York City Council members Writers from Greensboro, North Carolina Writers from Manhattan Equal Rights Amendment Autism pseudoscience