Yvette Clarke

Clarke supported the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument Preservation Act (H.R. 1501; 113th Congress), a bill that would direct the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and feasibility of designating the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn as a unit of the National Park System (NPS).

Clarke argued the bill was a good idea because "this monument commemorates not only the sacrifices of soldiers in the Revolutionary War who dedicated themselves to the cause of liberty, but a reminder that even in wartime we must protect basic human rights. These thousands of deaths were an atrocity that should never occur again."

Yvette Diane Clarke (born November 21, 1964) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 9th congressional district since 2013.

Clarke was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on November 21, 1964, to Lesley Clarke and former city councilwoman Una Clarke, both immigrants from Jamaica.

She graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School and earned a scholarship to enroll at Oberlin College in Ohio, which she attended from 1982 to 1986.

While studying at Oberlin, she spent a summer interning in the Washington, D.C.

office of Representative Major Owens, where she told Roll Call that she worked on legislative issues involving Caribbean-American trade.

Clarke was elected to the 40th district of the New York City Council in 2001.

She succeeded her mother, former City Council member Una S. T. Clarke, who held the seat for more than a decade, making theirs the first mother-to-daughter succession in city council.

She cosponsored City Council resolutions that opposed the war in Iraq, criticized the federal USA PATRIOT Act, and called for a national moratorium on the death penalty.

She was a frequent critic of the Bush administration's policies, and opposed budget cuts by Bush and Congress on several programs addressing women's rights and poverty.

She later voted against extending provisions of The Patriot Act after the election of President Barack Obama.

Clarke represented the 40th district in Brooklyn on the New York City Council from 2002 to 2006.

In August 2006, Crain's New York Business and the Daily News reported that Clarke's Oberlin transcripts indicated that she had not graduated, contrary to what her campaign literature claimed.

Clarke initially said she thought she had earned sufficient credits to graduate from Oberlin, then later said she had completed her degree by attending courses at Medgar Evers College.

A member of the Democratic Party, she first entered Congress in 2007, representing New York's 11th congressional district until redistricting.

In April 2007, Clarke was the sole member of Congress to oppose a bill to rename the Ellis Island Library after British-born Bob Hope, saying in a statement, "Bob Hope is a great American and a fantastic human being, [but] I see the museum and all aspects of the island to be greater than any one human being."

On September 29, 2008, Clarke voted in support of HR 3997, the Emergency Economic Stability Act of 2008.

The act failed, 205–228.

She wrote legislation to improve the process of removing the names of individuals who believe they were wrongly identified as a threat when screened against the No Fly List used by the Transportation Security Administration, which passed 413–3 on February 3, 2009.

In November 2009 she was one of 54 members of Congress to sign on to a controversial letter to President Obama, urging him to use diplomatic pressure to resolve the blockade affecting Gaza.

In 2009, she voted against H.R. 867, which sought to condemn the controversial Goldstone Report commissioned by the United Nations.

On March 25, 2010, she introduced the International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act – H.R.4962.

Some of her stances have subjected her to public criticism by constituents in her district, which is roughly 20% Jewish according to 2010 Census estimates.

In 2010, Clarke signed two petitions urging Obama to pressure Israel to resolve the Gaza Blockade, which she later retracted.

In 2011, Clarke suggested that she planned to finish her degree at Oberlin by completing independent academic projects.

Before entering politics, Clarke worked as a childcare specialist and trained community residents to care for the children of working parents.

Later, she served as an assistant to State Senator Velmanette Montgomery of Brooklyn and Assemblywoman Barbara Clark, of Queens.

Clarke also worked as director of business development for the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation and was the second director of the Bronx portion of the New York City Empowerment Zone.

She has earned high ratings from interest groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood for her votes against legislation to place restrictions on abortion rights, including the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act of 2011, which would have prohibited federal funds from being used to cover abortions.

Her ratings with anti-abortion organizations such as the National Right to Life Committee have been correspondingly low.

Clarke's district, redrawn from the 11th in 2013, includes Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach, Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Midwood, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Park Slope.

On September 17, 2013, Clarke introduced the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act (H.R. 3107; 113th Congress), a bill that would require the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to undertake several actions designed to improve the readiness and capacity of DHS's cybersecurity workforce.

DHS would also be required to create a strategy for recruiting and training additional cybersecurity employees.

Clarke has said she supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

In 2015 Clarke indicated she would vote for the JCPOA, known as the Iran nuclear deal, despite appeals from some of her Jewish constituents and local advocacy groups to vote against it.

Explaining her decision, Clarke said in a statement, "Iran is on the verge of creating a nuclear bomb, right now. The JCPOA provides a pathway that holds great potential to forever change this reality."

In 2015, Clarke attended Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before a joint session of Congress after initially expressing uncertainty.

She voted to provide Israel with support following 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Clarke has stated that she is pro-choice.