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Member Number: 161
Gary Leonard Ackerman (born November 19, 1942) is presently serving his twelfth term in the United States House of Representatives. Ackerman represents the Fifth Congressional District of New York, encompassing the North Shore of Long Island, including West and Northeast Queens and Northern Nassau County (map). It includes areas like Corona, Flushing, Jamaica Estates, Bayside, Whitestone, Douglaston, and Little Neck in Queens, as well as Great Neck, Sands Point, Port Washington, Searingtown, Albertson, Manhasset, and Roslyn in Nassau County.
Congressman Ackerman was first elected to Congress in a special election of 1983. Born in Brooklyn to Eva and Max Ackerman, Ackerman was raised in Flushing, Queens. He attended local public schools, Brooklyn Technical High School and graduated from Queens College in 1965. After college, Ackerman became a New York City School teacher where he taught social studies, mathematics, and journalism to junior high school students in Queens.
Following the birth of his first child in 1969, Ackerman petitioned the New York City Board of Education for an unpaid leave of absence to spend time with his newborn daughter. But his request was denied under then existing policy which reserved unpaid "maternity-child care" leave to women only.
In what was to be a forerunner of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, then teacher Ackerman successfully sued the Board in a landmark case which established the right of either parent to receive unpaid leave for child care. A quarter of a century later, now a Congressman, Ackerman in the House-Senate Conference Committee, signed the report of the Family and Medical Leave Act which became the law of the land.
Ackerman's second career move occurred in 1970, when he left teaching to start a weekly community newspaper in Queens called The Flushing Tribune which soon became the Queens Tribune. Ackerman served as its editor and publisher.
Ackerman was first elected to public office — the New York State Senate — in 1978. State Senator Ackerman was then elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1983 in a special election. Ackerman represented the central Queens area until 1992, when reapportionment reconfigured his district to the north shore of Queens , Nassau and Suffolk Counties . Then redistricting in 2002 slightly redrew the boundaries again to its present configuration of communities in Queens and Nassau County.
Ackerman, who sports a white carnation boutonnière each day, lives on a houseboat named the Unsinkable II while in Washington, D.C. and otherwise resides in Jamaica Estates, Queens with his wife Rita. The Ackermans have three children: Lauren, who married Paul, Corey, who married Lena, and Ari. Representative Ackerman is a very amateur photographer, an avid stamp collector and a boating enthusiast. Ackerman is an Eagle Scout.
At the 2006 meeting of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians (ICJP), Ackerman was unanimously elected to serve as the executive of the organization.
Congressman Ackerman was named an Honorary Graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy for his continued support of the service academy located in Kings Point, New York.
Among Ackerman's significant legislative undertakings, was the passage of his Baby AIDS legislation. The measure requires mandatory HIV testing of newborns and disclosure of the results to the mother. It also forbids insurance companies from terminating the health insurance of anybody who undergoes an AIDS test, regardless of the results.
Ackerman championed the issue of newborn testing after discovering that 45 states, including New York, tested babies for HIV but did not disclose the results to the mothers, using the data for mere statistical purposes. As a result, thousands of mothers brought their infants home from the hospital, never aware that their children had tested positive for HIV. This legislation, which became the subject of profound debate nationwide, garnered such support that it was the only bill that session of Congress to have a majority of all the House Democrats and Republicans as cosponsors. In addition, Ackerman stopped the anonymous testing from being reinstated in years that followed.
The Congressman was also successful in getting enacted, his bill that created the "Heroes" postage stamp (the one with the three firefighters raising the American flag at ground zero), the revenue from which helps the families of rescue workers killed or permanently disabled while responding to the September 11 attacks.
Ackerman also scored a victory in his efforts to ban downed animals from being sold as meat in supermarkets, restaurants and butcher stores. For a decade, Ackerman warned that use of such livestock was not only inhumane treatment of animals but also risked causing a Mad Cow disaster in the United States. His legislation fell on deaf ears until December 2003, when his warning became prophetic and the Bush Administration — among those who had opposed the bill — finally imposed his ban through regulation.
Also law of the land is Congressman Ackerman’s measure requiring banks and financial companies to notify consumers when negative information is placed on their credit reports. The Congressman also sponsored legislation which is now law that in the wake of the Enron, WorldCom and other corporate scandals, prohibits accounting firms from consulting for the companies they audit.
Other highlights include the Congressman authoring legislation that required President George W. Bush to impose sanctions against the Palestinian Authority for not complying with peace agreements it signed with the U.S. and Israel. Ackerman was also successful in getting Medicare to cover testing for prostate cancer.
Enacted as well was his measure that prevents war criminals and human rights abusers who have perpetrated genocide, torture, terrorism or other atrocities, from entering the U.S. and deports those who have slipped in. In addition, Ackerman sponsored the first federal legislation to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving.
On October 10, 2002, Gary Ackerman was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq.
- U.S. Congressman Gary Ackerman official House site
- Gary Ackerman at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Federal Election Commission — Gary L Ackerman campaign finance reports and data
- On the Issues — Gary Ackerman issue positions and quotes
- OpenSecrets.org — Gary Ackerman campaign contributions
- Project Vote Smart — Representative Gary L. Ackerman (NY) profile
- SourceWatch Congresspedia — Gary Ackerman profile
- Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Gary Ackerman voting record
- BSA Fact Sheet
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