By Miranda Neubauer
Brooklyn’s clout in the new U.S. Congress will be greatly diminished come January. Despite easy victories in November, the borough’s three most powerful congressional representatives will be removed from leadership posts in three House committees when the new Republican majority is sworn in.
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D), who represents Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bushwick and Sunset Park, among other areas, will lose her chairmanship of the House Committee on Small Business that she has held since 2007.
One organization that is set to receive $750,000 in federal funding this year through Congresswoman Velazquez’s position is the Brooklyn Kings County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The money will fund a not-for-profit business incubator program.
The loss of her position on the committee “will be a detriment to the aspiring entrepreneurs and to the small business community in general, ” said its President Rick Miranda.
The organization, which has existed since 2005, also offers loans through the Small Business Administration, helps minority owned businesses obtain certification to do work for the city and hosts educational and networking forums.
“Someone like Congresswoman Velazquez, who came from a pretty poor background herself, … she realizes that the middle-class citizens that contemplate and dream about opening up a business can never take the plunge because they never have the money or the savvy or the education,” said Miranda. Miranda also pointed out that the group’s business incubator could sponsor six businesses per quarter, amounting to 24 a year. “A huge mouthful in this economy.”
Without Velazquez, said Miranda, he fears such funding for small business might dry up. The new Republican majority “should take a real hard look at what is available and continue to assist those programs that are doing well and not just say we need to cut our spending on these programs.” The new majority should not “choke us in our ability to execute services to the small business community.”
The weakening of the power of other Brooklyn congressmen will have more national effect.
Rep. Edolphus Towns (D), who represents Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville and East New York, among other areas, will lose his position as chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee—a position he has held since 2009.
The change in chairmanship of the committee has a national impact, Julian Phillips, Towns’ spokesperson said. “The congressman was such a strong ally for the president … now that he will more than likely be taking a lesser role, obviously the kind of power and influence he was able to wield as chairman will no longer be the case.” Over the summer, Towns held a hearing in Brooklyn to examine a case of fraud at a Brooklyn census office, after two managers were fired for fraudulently filling out census forms.
As chairman of an investigative committee with subpoena power, Towns has also investigated the BP oil spill and the Toyota recall, among other major issues. “The new chairman may have a different agenda,” Phillips said. While Towns will be able to serve the community as Congressman and as ranking minority member, “his powers will be less than what they were.”
In fall 2009, Director of the National Urban League Marc Morial testified at an Oversight Committee hearing about the impact of the economic crisis on minority communities. With the change in leadership, Morial said, “you’re not going to have as much of an examination of policies and solutions [related to] the disparities of the recession and the disparities of the subprime crisis.” Foreclosure rates have been highest in areas with high minority populations, such as Bushwick.
Jerrold Nadler (D), representing Coney Island, Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge, will go from high ranking to minority status in the Judiciary and Transportation and Infrastructure committees.
Nadler’s spokesman Ilan Kayatsky also said it is too early to tell how the new majority will play out. “We will still be fighting for the same transportation reforms, such as seeking more funding for mass transit and high speed rail.”
Kayatsky added that “more debates and disagreement on how much and where and why” would be expected with Republicans in the majority. Democrats, he said, will no longer be “driving the house agenda” as negotiations get underway. With a new six year transportation up for reauthorization, Kayatsky said that for Nadler, “it’s really about funding mass transit as much as possible.” The congressman’s priority, he went on to say, was increasing sustainable transportation options and expanding rail freight with “less focus on cars and roads.”
Last July, Nadler helped to secure $ 450,000 for a Brooklyn Waterfront Transportation Study, which will explore the transportation improvements necessary to develop a container port at South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park. According to the congressman’s summer press release, “the development of deep water port facilities in New York Harbor will create tens of thousands of jobs in New York City and the region, and will protect New York’s position as the East Coast’s major gateway to global trade.”
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