Helping Constituents Biggest Thrill as Lowey Seeks 14th Term
Rep. Nita Lowey may be completing her 26th year in the House of Representatives but she hasn’t lost her zest and passion for serving the country and residents of her district.
During another grueling campaign, where despite her experience she refuses to take the outcome for granted, Lowey, 78, rises early to greet commuters at train stations and bus stops throughout the reconfigured 17th Congressional District, which for the first time takes in all of Rockland County in addition to much of central and northern Westchester.
“You know what gives me the greatest joy of all? Helping people,” said Lowey, a Harrison resident who is running on the Democratic and Working Family lines against first-time candidate, Republican Chris Day. “I love being able to help people and making a difference in their lives. Whether it’s an individual case with the veterans or whether it’s providing $4 million to Head Start, you really make a big difference in people’s lives.”
Part of making a difference is not only tending to the big issues of the day but on the smaller ones that affects the public regularly. Throughout her congressional career, Lowey has focused on health-related issues, such as introducing legislation requiring clear and concise information regarding food allergens. She also helped lead the legislation that helped set the national standard of a .08 blood-alcohol for intoxication.
The health issue facing the international medical community today is preventing the Ebola virus from mushrooming into a global crisis. Most recently, Lowey met with regional hospital directors to hear their plans for testing, isolation and treating patients afflicted with the virus. Properly treating Ebola patients will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each and Lowey has pledged to fight for greater federal funding for hospitals to deal with the challenge.
She brushed aside Day’s criticism of the Obama Administration acting too slowly. Cutting off flights from certain countries, for example, is unrealistic in a global economy.
“They don’t come directly from Liberia,” Lowey said. “What are you going to do, cut off all flights from Great Britain?”
Another major concern for Lowey is the spiraling cost of college tuition. She said she has pressed her congressional colleagues to allow students to refinance their college loans With so many recent graduates $50,000 to $60,000 or more in debt, refinancing would ease their burden and help the economy.
“Big business can do it, why shouldn’t students?” Lowey asked.
Lowey said the threat of terrorism would not force her to support placing American troops on the ground in Iraq to fight ISIS at this time. She agrees with the formation of the coalition that should be led by many of the countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
“Some like (General Martin) Dempsey have said this can’t be done without troops on the ground but we’re not doing this alone,” Lowey said. “It’s not the United States of America versus ISIS, so I applaud the president for moving in a very thoughtful and strategic way and building a coalition.”
Lowey took issue with her opponent’s characterization that she is anything less than one of the staunchest supporters of Israel in the U.S. Congress. She acknowledged that the brief interruption of commercial flights this summer was wrong when unrest flared but through her leadership the U.S. was able to quickly restore them and continue helping Israel with funding.
As the ranking Democrat of the Appropriations Committee, Lowey said she has 12 subcommittees that report to her, influence she is able to use to help fund initiatives she feels is crucial to the district, such as more money for Head Start.
While Lowey is pleased that the stock market continues to be near record highs despite a recent pullback and unemployment is at its lowest since the Great Recession, she is worried about those who can’t find jobs. She wants to see more resources placed in educating today’s students for careers related to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Training in those fields, particularly the energy industry, is crucial as the country steadily moves away from dependence on foreign oil and explores alternatives, Lowey said. She said she wants to see nuclear energy phased out at Indian Point and eventually converted to another source.
“That is why I’m so focused on education, preparing our young people for the jobs of the future so we’re ready,” she said.
Lowey said she was able to help get toward construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge, but waiting until federal funds are in place to build the bridge wasn’t realistic, funding Day said he would fight to obtain.
“If he thinks as a back-bencher he’s going to influence the Tea Party crowd and the Republican Party, I have some questions,” Lowey said.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
