Yvette Clarke

Yvette Clarke, a Democrat, has represented the 11th Congressional District of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007.

Environmental record
For more information on environmental legislation, see the Energy and Environment Policy Portal

Claims to have graduated from Oberlin
Clarke's 2004 campaign website and 2005 city council biography listed her as having graduated from Oberlin. She did not, however, earn a degree from the institution, though she did attend. Clarke blamed the error on a lapse in memory and not realizing that credits that she had done during her last semester at Medgar Evers College in New York had not transferred back to the Ohio school. 

Biography
Clarke was born in New York City in 1964 to parents who had immigrated from the Caribbean prior to her birth. She attended Oberlin College, but did not graduate from the school. In 2001, Clarke was elected to the New York City Council seat that had been occupied by her mother, Una, for the previous 10 years. Before coming to the City Council, Clarke was Director of Business Development for the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation and was the first Director of the Bronx portion of the New York City Empowerment Zone. 

While a member of the council, Clarke used her position in city government to speak out on national issues that go well beyond her area of actual jurisdiction. She co-sponsored City Council resolutions that opposed the war in Iraq, criticized the federal Patriot Act and called for a national moratorium on the death penalty. She has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, and has spoken out against budget cuts by Bush and the Republican Congress on the following federal programs: Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Elimination of the Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA), the elimination of nutritional food stamp programs and early education services for low-income children and families.

2006 elections
In the 2006 congressional elections, Clarke defeated Republican Stephen Finger to replace Rep. Major Owens, who retired.

Money in politics
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Committees and Affiliations

 * House Committee on Education and Labor
 * Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
 * Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities
 * House Committee on Homeland Security
 * Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight
 * Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection
 * House Committee on Small Business
 * Subcommittee on Contracting and Technology
 * Subcommittee on Rural and Urban Entrepreneurship

Resources

 * Yvette Clarke for Congress, official campaign site.

Local blogs and discussion sites

 * Simply Left Behind

Articles
Ben Smith and Celeste Katz, "Pol admits she didn't get degree," New York Daily News, August 24, 2006.