News From Congressman Joseph Crowley

Chairman Crowley to ICE Director: Unacceptable For You to Address Hate Group

  House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley (D-Queens, the Bronx) wrote a letter to Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan expressing dismay over the ICE director’s plan to address a known hate group.

Homan is scheduled to address the Center for Immigration Studies, a racist anti-immigrant hate group that has a long track-record of demonizing immigrants, on Tuesday. Crowley told Homan that it is disqualifying for a government official, especially one charged with interacting with immigrant communities, to address the group.

“It is highly inappropriate for a senior official of a federal agency to engage with a group that spreads such abhorrent viewpoints, including white supremacism and anti-Semitism, and I urge you to immediately retract your plans to speak,” Crowley wrote.

The Center for Immigration Studies is part of a network founded by white nationalist John Tanton, and in a wide-ranging study, the Southern Poverty Law Center found that CIS has circulated “white nationalist content thousands of times” and has a “record of publishing reports that hype the criminality of immigrants" according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“Lending legitimacy to a hate group and splitting children from families does not in any way protect national security and public safety, nor does it demonstrate the integrity and fairness that is expected of a federal agency. Instead, it fosters an environment in which extremist viewpoints come to be seen as acceptable and justified by the highest levels of your agency,” Crowley wrote. “Speaking to a group like this is disqualifying for a federal official entrusted with acting in the best interests of the general public.”

You can read the letter here.

Congressman Crowley Calls For $10 Billion Investment to Build New Schools for Communities in Need

  Congressman Joe Crowley (D-Queens, the Bronx), Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, introduced legislation to invest $10 billion toward building new schools to address chronic overcrowding in primary, middle, and high schools.

The School Overcrowding Reduction Act is part of Congressman Crowley’s Better Deal for Queens and the Bronx, a comprehensive plan put forward by Congressman Crowley to improve the lives of families, working men and women, and students in New York’s 14th Congressional District. 

“Our nation’s students deserve a world-class education, but we have failed to allocate the resources necessary for them to flourish,” said Congressman Crowley. “My district is home to some of the most overcrowded schools in the country, including Corona, Queens, where there is a need for more than 5,000 additional classroom seats. There’s no time to waste on half-measures. Surely if my Republican colleagues can spend $2.3 trillion doling out tax breaks to the 1 percent, we can invest a fraction of that into the next generation of American innovators and leaders.”  

“Students succeed when they’re in schools equipped with the resources, tools and conditions that promote high-quality teaching and learning,” said Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers. “The teacher walkouts this year in Arizona, Oklahoma, West Virginia and elsewhere made clear that putting public education on the budgetary chopping block has resulted in overcrowded classrooms nationwide, making it more difficult for educators to effectively reach individual students and cater to diverse needs. More than a quarter of states lack class-size restrictions, yet state governments are still failing to budget for new schools and additional teachers. This bill does just that. Lowering class size is crucial to student success, and we’re proud to support Rep. Crowley’s legislation. It seeks to meet a critical need in our public schools, investing much-needed dollars in overcrowded districts and reducing student-to-teacher ratios specifically in disadvantaged communities.”

"The Rebuild America's School Infrastructure Coalition (BASIC) is pleased that Cong. Crowley is showing the leadership needed to address overcrowding in our nation's public schools,” said Mary Filardo, Executive Director of the 21^stCentury School Fund. “The recent protests by teachers all across the country is an expression of the growing frustration they feel about their working conditions and the state of their school facilities. Many Classrooms are over crowded and crowded conditions make unhealthy classroom environments even worse. We appreciate Cong. Crowley's recognition that over crowding in our nation's public schools is also an equity issue - giving every child the opportunity to have a first class education." 

“Here in New York City, about 300,000 students are in classes of 30 or more, and more than half a million are crammed into overcrowded school buildings, saidLeonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters. “Yet the city’s capital plan is only half-funded. One cannot ensure either educational equity or excellence under these conditions. This bill will provide critical federal funds to help alleviate overcrowding and excessive class sizes in NYC and the nation as a whole.”

This legislation would invest $10 billion in federal funding for new school construction to reduce the number of overcrowded schools in areas like New York City and help students succeed. Research conducted by the U.S. Department of Education shows that class-size reduction can significantly improve student performance and additional studies show that smaller classrooms allow teachers to better accommodate the unique learning styles of their students.

New York City classrooms have become overly crowded in the past two decades. Some of the largest classrooms in New York City, which boast more than 30 students per class, are located in Queens and the Bronx. According to the NYC DOE, the city’s largest 6^th grade classes are all located in the Bronx and Queens is home to the largest class sizes for grades K-3.

Chairman Crowley has championed policies that support our nation’s students and teachers throughout his time in Congress. Last month, he introduced legislation to combat noise pollution in schools, an issue that acutely impacts New York City schoolchildren. In April, Chairman Crowley advocated for additional funding for federal aid programs that benefit low-income college students in the 2019 government funding bill. He has also partnered with local elected officials to ensure the needs of students living in Queens and the Bronx are fully satisfied.

Chairman Crowley’s Better Deal plan for Queens and the Bronx can be read here.

Crowley Statement on the Republican Sabotage of Medicare

Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley released the following statement on the 2018 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report:

“Today’s Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report presents a bleak picture for our nation’s seniors and vulnerable individuals by providing new proof that the campaign by President Trump and congressional Republicans to destroy the Affordable Care Act has had devastating impacts on Medicare. By repealing the individual mandate, driving up individual market premiums, and increasing the rate of uncompensated care, the Republican tax bill has threatened the future health care by cutting the life of the Medicare trust fund by three years. This is irresponsible governing from Republicans.

“Still, today’s report provides evidence that Social Security is an essential program, which makes it all the more important that Congress focuses on ways to grow, strengthen, and expand Social Security - and not succumb to efforts by Republicans to undermine and slash Americans’ hard-earned benefits. This is how Democrats intend to govern. I hope Republicans will join us.”