Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Talks Gains in Congress, Wins for Brooklyn
On August 23, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries won his congressional primary in a landslide victory against Queen Johnson on the Democratic ticket for Brooklyn’s 8th District.
On November 8, he’ll square up against Republican candidate Yuri Dashevsky in the general election where he’s also expected to be a shoe-in.
A November win will mark a decade since Jeffries has occupied the same seat, and in that relatively short amount of time, as the chair of the House Democratic Caucus– and the caucus’ fifth highest-ranking member– Rep. Jeffries already is considered a congressional heavyweight.
Aside from a short bout with COVID in June, I guess you could say this year has been a good year for Jeffries: He’s finally enjoying a string of legislative victories led by Democrats and under the Biden Administration.
But what has that amounted to for Brooklyn’s District 8, which includes all of east Brooklyn and parts of north and south Brooklyn?
BK Reader recently sat down with Rep. Jeffries to discuss the impact of some of the most recent wins in the House– as it most concerns Brooklyn residents– as well as his legislative priorities for his constituents and the country, moving forward.
For starters, Jeffries helped play a leading role in the passage of The Inflation Reduction Act (also referred to as The Climate Bill) — the biggest investment in climate control in U.S. history and probably one of the most significant climate bills in the world right now. The legislation is quite comprehensive in its scope in that it also will lower energy costs, tax billionaires at 15%, lower healthcare costs, and help drive down the high price of prescription drugs for seniors.