Yvette Clarke

Yvette Clarke
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 9th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Bob Turner
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 11th district
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Major Owens
Succeeded by	Michael Grimm
Personal details
Born	Yvette Diane Clarke (1964-11-21) November 21, 1964 New York City, New York
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	single
Residence	Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Alma mater	Oberlin College Medgar Evers College
Occupation	economic development specialist
Religion	Episcopal

Yvette Diane Clarke (born November 21, 1964) is an American politician who has been a member of the United States House of Representatives since 2007. Clarke, a member of the Democratic Party, is ranking member of the United States House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science and Technology. Before entering Congress, Clarke was a member of the New York City Council, representing the 40th council district in Brooklyn.

Clark's district was numbered as the 11th district from 2007 to 2013, and as the 9th district since 2013. The district from 2002 to 2013 included much of central Brooklyn, including Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Midwood, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Park Slope.

Early life, education and career

Born the child of Jamaican immigrant parents, Clarke has lived all her life in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush. Upon graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School, she earned a scholarship to Oberlin College in Ohio, from which she received her bachelor's degree. Clarke worked as Director of Business Development for the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation and was the second Director of the Bronx portion of the New York City Empowerment Zone.^{[citation needed]}

New York City Council

Brooklyn's 40th council district elected Clarke to the New York City Council in 2001. She succeeded her mother, former City Council member Una S.T. Clarke, who held the seat for more than a decade.

As a member of the Council, she instituted an HIV/AIDS Task Force, a Sanitation Task Force, a Youth Task Force and organized an Ad Hoc Clergy Committee. She was chair of the Contracts Committee and was also co-chair of the Council's Women's Caucus. Clarke also served on the Education; Fire & Criminal Justice Services; Health; Land Use; Planning, Dispositions & Concessions; and, Rules, Privileges & Elections committees.

Clarke is an advocate for the empowerment of women and minorities and introduced legislation that resulted in the Council's Minority & Women-Owned Business Empowerment (MWBE) study that that found women and minority-owned businesses are not awarded their fair share of city contracts. This finding forced New York City to end its system of economic discrimination.^{[citation needed]} As co-chair of the New York Council's Women's Caucus, Clarke secured $9.5 million in funding for organizations that addressed the issues of domestic violence prevention, breast cancer awareness, housing and HIV/AIDS counseling for women.

She cosponsored City Council resolutions that opposed the war in Iraq, criticized the federal USA PATRIOT Act, and called for a national moratorium on the death penalty. She was a frequent critic of the Bush administration's policies, and opposed budget cuts by Bush and the Republican Congress on several programs addressing women's rights and poverty. Ironically, she later voted to extend provisions of the Patriot Act after the election of President Barack Obama.

U.S. House of Representatives

House Policy Positions

Abortion

Clarke is pro-choice and during her tenure in the House of Representatives she has consistently voted against legislation that would place restrictions on a woman’s right to choose or decrease the availability of contraceptives, including voting against passage of the Prohibiting Tax Payer Funding of Abortion Act of 2011, which sought to prohibit federal funds from being allocated to cover abortions. Her pro-choice and pro-contraceptives voting patterns have led interest groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America (Positions) and Planned Parenthood (Positions) to give her high ratings (100% each) while her ratings from pro-life organizations like the National Right to Life Committee (Positions) have been correspondingly low (0%) within the last two years.

Budget, Spending and Tax Issues

Clarke received a 92% rating from the National Journal for being liberal on economic policy in 2011, while she received a low 15% rating from the National Tax Payers Union for her positions on tax and spending in 2011 and a 2% rating from the Citizens Against Government Waste in 2010. Clarke has consistently opposed legislation which seeks to reduce government spending and increase tax cuts, including voting against the Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act of 2012 which sought to extend tax cuts established during George W. Bush’s administration through the end of 2013.

Environmental Policy

Clarke received 100% ratings from Environment America (Positions), The League of Conservation Voters (Positions), and the Sierra Club (Clean Water Positions) in 2011 while she received a low rating of 14% over the period 2008-2011 from the Global Exchange for her loyalty to the finance, insurance, and real estate lobbies. Clarke has opposed legislation which gives priority to economic over conservation interests, such as the Stop the War on Coal Act of 2012 and the Conservation and Economic Growth Act of 2012, while she has supported legislation which favors increased conservation efforts and government regulation of industry, such as the Offshore Drilling Regulations and Other Energy Law Amendments Act of 2010.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management
• Committee on Small Business
  • Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access
  • Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce

In April, 2007, Clarke was the sole member of Congress to oppose a bill that renamed the Ellis Island Library after British-born Bob Hope.

On September 29, 2008, Clarke voted in support of HR 3997, the Emergency Economic Stability Act of 2008. The act failed, 205-228. There was also legislation written by Clarke to improve the process of getting names off the No Fly List. It was passed 413-3 on February 3, 2009. In November 2009 she was one of 54 members of Congress that sent a letter urging President Obama to use diplomatic pressure to resolve the blockade affecting Gaza. She has since retracted her support of the letter.

On March 25, 2010, Clarke introduced the "International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act - H.R.4962" before Congress.

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Arts Caucus
• Congressional Black Caucus (Secretary)
• Progressive Democratic Caucus

Political campaigns

Yvette Clarke (right) with fellow congresswomen Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio (left) and Laura Richardson of California (center).

In 2000, Una Clarke ran in the Democratic primary against U.S. Congressman Major Owens, losing to the incumbent. In the 2004 election cycle, Yvette Clarke, with only two and a half years’ service as an elected official, ran for Owens' seat in the 2004 election cycle, narrowly losing.

2006

See also: United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2006#11th District

In May 2006, another Caribbean-American candidate, Assemblyman N. Nick Perry, withdrew from the race to succeed Congressman Major Owens, leading some observers to contend that Clarke's chances for winning the race would improve now that another candidate from the same community was no longer competing.

On September 12, 2006, Clarke won the nomination to Congress with just 31.20% of the vote. (In multi-candidate congressional elections in New York, a plurality is sufficient to nominate.) This practically assured her of election in this overwhelmingly Democratic, black-majority district. In the general election on November 7, Clarke was elected to the House of Representatives with 89% of the vote against token Republican opposition.

2008

See also: United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2008

Clarke was re-elected on November 4, 2008 by a large margin.

2010

See also: United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2010#District 11

Clarke was re-elected on November 2, 2010 by a large margin.

2012

See also: United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2012#District 9

External links

• U.S. Representative Yvette Clarke official U.S. House site
• Yvette Clarke for Congress official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Financial information (federal office) at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance (federal office) at LegiStorm.com
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Voting record at The Washington Post
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Profile at SourceWatch

Political offices
Preceded by Una Clarke	New York City Council, 40th District 2002–2006	Succeeded by Mathieu Eugene
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Major Owens	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 11th congressional district 2007–2013	Succeeded by Michael Grimm
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Bob Turner	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 9th congressional district 2013–present	Succeeded by Incumbent
United States order of precedence
Preceded by Kathy Castor D-Florida	United States Representatives by seniority 209th	Succeeded by Steve Cohen D-Tennessee