U.S. House of Representatives
Elections In 1990, Serrano won a special election for the seat vacated by resigning U.S. Congressman
Robert García with 92% of the vote. He never won re-election with less than 92% of the vote in what is considered one of the safest seats in Congress. In 2004, Serrano faced an electoral challenge from Jose Serrano, an unemployed former loading dockworker with the same name who eventually dropped out of the race in July.
Tenure A member of the
Progressive Caucus, Serrano was widely regarded as one of the most progressive members of Congress. He was questioned about his
pork barrel spending by some fiscally conservative members of Congress.
Arizona Congressman
Jeff Flake once said of Serrano's $150,000
earmark to repair the roof at the city-owned Arthur Avenue Market (a historic indoor produce and prepared food market in the Bronx's "Little Italy"), "I would argue this is one
cannoli the taxpayer doesn't want to take a bite of." Serrano replied to Flake, "The more you get up on these, sir, the more I realize that you do not know what you are talking about. I make no excuses about the fact that I earmark dollars to go in the poorest congressional district in the nation, which is situated in the richest city on earth." In 1997 [HJR 19], 1999 [HJR 17], 2001 [HJR 4], 2003 [HJR 11], 2005 [HJR 9], 2007 [HJR 8], 2009 [HJR 5], 2011 [HJR 17], and 2013 [HJR 15], Serrano introduced a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the
Constitution of the United States to repeal the
22nd Amendment, thereby removing presidential term limits. Each resolution died without ever getting past the committee. Serrano paid attention to local
environmental issues in New York, with a particular focus on constructing greenways, acquiring parklands, and cleaning up the Bronx River, which ran through his district. In 2007, a beaver was discovered swimming in the river for the first time in 200 years, something seen as a testament to his efforts. The biologists who made the discovery named the animal José, after Serrano. Also that year, he engineered the purchase of the last privately owned island in New York harbor—
South Brother Island—for preservation in perpetuity by the City of New York as a wildlife refuge for rare shorebirds. Serrano was one of three New York-area congressmen on the
House Appropriations Committee, the others being
Nita Lowey of the
18th district and
Grace Meng of the
6th district. At the end of his tenure, he was the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, having previously served as the chair. As chairman, he successfully engineered the inclusion of language in the 2007 omnibus spending bill that guaranteed the extension of the
50 State Quarters program to include the minting of
six additional quarters to honor the District of Columbia and the five United States territories, including Serrano's native Puerto Rico. Serrano advocated for Puerto Ricans under FBI prosecution. In May 2000, he brokered an agreement with then-FBI Director
Louis Freeh, then-
Puerto Rican Independence Party Electoral Commissioner
Manuel Rodríguez Orellana and then-Puerto Rico Senate Federal Affairs Committee chairman (and future Puerto Rico Senate President and Secretary of State)
Kenneth McClintock that resulted in the release of nearly 100,000 pages of previously secret FBI files on Puerto Rican political activists. Serrano was a critic of the Bush administration's approach to handling President
Hugo Chávez of
Venezuela. In 2005, while the Venezuelan President was in New York City speaking before the United Nations, the congressman invited him to his district to speak to his constituency. After Chávez' death, Serrano published condolences via
Twitter, describing him as a leader who "understood the needs of the poor" and was "committed to empowering the powerless". Serrano's tweet prompted a response from the
Republican National Committee, which asserted that it was "simply insulting that a Democrat Congressman would praise the authoritarian ruler Hugo Chávez". In March 2019, Serrano announced that he would not seek
re-election in 2020 because he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Committee assignments •
Committee on Appropriations •
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies •
Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (
Ranking Member) •
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Caucus memberships •
Congressional Hispanic Caucus •
Congressional Progressive Caucus. •
Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety •
International Conservation Caucus •
Congressional Arts Caucus •
Afterschool Caucuses •
United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus Party leadership • Senior Whip ==Personal life==