Born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico on October 24, 1943, Serrano moved to the Bronx with his family when he was a young boy. He grew up in Mill Brook Houses in Mott Haven and attended local public schools. From 1964-66, Serrano served in the 172nd Support Battalion of the U.S. Army Medical Corps. After an honorable discharge from the Army, he returned to the Bronx and worked in a bank and as a school administrator before his election to the New York State Assembly in 1974.
Assemblyman Serrano chaired the Committee on Education for eight years, during which he authored legislation that doubled state funding for bilingual education programs in 125 languages and provided $50 million in funding for New York City to combat the school drop-out crisis. He also served as Chairman of the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection.
Congressman Serrano was first sworn in as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in March 1990 after he won a special election in what was then New York's Eighteenth Congressional District. He was subsequently reelected to serve a full term in the 102nd Congress in November of that year. Following a statewide decennial redistricting in 1992, he has continued to represent the Bronx from its Sixteenth Congressional District. Serrano is now the most senior Member of Congress of Puerto Rican descent.
Early in his tenure in the House, Serrano quickly established a legislative record that reflected, and continues to reflect, his core political values of equal opportunity and fair treatment for all citizens. In particular, Serrano believes that government should work to ensure that the prosperity of our country is shared by the neediest and most vulnerable members of our society- the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and children- in the form of participation in government, educational opportunities, access to housing and affordable health care. As a member of the Committee on Education and Labor in his first term, Serrano authored legislation, signed into law in November 1990, to provide funding for successful school drop-out prevention programs.
During the 102nd Congress (1991-1992), Serrano continued to build on this record of accomplishment by introducing more legislative initiatives along these themes. His Voting Rights Language Assistance Act of 1992, signed into law, mandated that voter materials continue to be provided in different languages. He also introduced the Classroom Safety Act, which would have provided program models and grants to assist local educational agencies in efforts to reduce and prevent violent crime in elementary and secondary schools.
In 1993, Serrano joined the Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for shaping expenditures of discretionary federal funds. Because Appropriations is an exclusive Committee, he was required to give up his seat on Education and Labor. That same year he was also elected by his colleagues to serve as Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) during the 103rd Congress. As Chairman, Serrano's strong leadership contributed to the passage of several bills of interest to Hispanics and other minorities. During this same period, the CHC helped to defeat of a number of pieces of legislation that were widely criticized as attempts at "immigrant-bashing" and veiled bigotry. Serrano continues to be an active participant in the CHC as a member of its Civil Rights Task Force.
In 1995, when the House Republicans became the majority and reduced the Appropriations Committee in size, Serrano was appointed to the House Judiciary Committee, in which he served on the Subcommittee on the Constitution. The Democratic Caucus re-appointed him to the Appropriations Committee in March of 1996, and he resigned from the Judiciary Committee to return to that committee.
As an appropriator, Serrano has managed to secure millions of dollars in federal funding for his Bronx Congressional District. He has directed funding to countless local initiatives, including environmental projects, improvements to Bronx parks, educational programs for disadvantaged students and displaced workers and funding for various local charitable organizations, whose goals range from providing access to the arts to developing small businesses.
Perhaps the most notable of all these projects have involved the environmental restoration of the Bronx River. Serrano has been a tireless advocate for the urban river since taking office, and was an early supporter of naming the river an American Heritage River. Through the appropriations process, furthermore, Serrano has been able to secure millions in funding, as well as technical and managerial assistance from various federal agencies, for Bronx River environmental studies and cleanup projects since fiscal year 1999. In recognition of his long record of successful advocacy on behalf of the river, the Bronx community named Congressman Serrano the Honorary Chairman of the Bronx River Golden Ball in 2003.
In addition to advocating strongly for projects in the Bronx, Serrano has worked tirelessly in his capacity as Ranking Minority Member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary, to fight against Administration cuts in a number of programs important to Bronx residents. Such programs include the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which provides technical assistance to increase the competitiveness of small manufacturers, the Legal Services Corporation, which funds legal aid programs to ensure equal access to the judicial system for low income americans, and the COPS program, which provides crucial support for state and local law enforcement. Serrano has also pushed strongly for resource allocations to fulfill the United States' overseas commitments, including the payment of UN dues, funding for peacekeeping operations and security for U.S. personnel stationed abroad.
