MAURICE HINCHEY FOR CONGRESS

Maurice Hinchey is one of the leading progressive voices in the United States Congress.  Serving New York’s 22nd District, which spans eight counties from the Hudson Valley to the Finger Lakes, Maurice has earned a reputation as a hard-working and effective advocate for the middle class. 

Born to a working class family in New York City’s Lower West Side and raised there and in upstate New York, Maurice has always recognized the enormously positive role that government can have on the lives of Americans.  And as a Navy veteran, he recognizes the solemn responsibility that he and other elected officials in Washington have to ensure our military is used wisely and effectively and that our servicemen and women are treated with the respect and honor they deserve both in the military and later when they leave and become veterans.  

Maurice is one of only 20 House and Senate members on the Joint Economic Committee where he has helped lead the effort to prevent abusive corporate practices and ensure fair economic policies that strengthen the middle class and create jobs in all sectors of the economy.  He is a strong supporter of tax cuts for middle class families and small businesses.  And in order to rein in the risky and manipulative investment practices that led to the recent economic collapse, Maurice is also one of the strongest proponents of comprehensive Wall Street reform -- authoring legislation to break up the largest banks and putting in common-sense protections to safeguard the public from another economic collapse.

Recognizing that the renewable energy sector will increasingly play a leading role in our economy, Maurice has worked tirelessly to position upstate New York as a world leader in the high-tech, clean energy manufacturing job revolution.  With the goal of establishing a national and international hub for solar energy research, development and manufacturing, Maurice helped establish The Solar Energy Consortium -- a not-for-profit entity in upstate New York that brings together private solar companies and research institutions throughout the state to develop new ways to efficiently and effectively develop economically viable solar technologies.  The results have been extraordinary.  In just three years, Maurice and TSEC have attracted numerous companies to upstate New York and helped create more than 400 solar energy-related jobs with 1,000 jobs expected by the end of next year.  As a result of these efforts, upstate New York is gaining the reputation as a premiere place to conduct renewable energy business.

Prior to his election to Congress, Maurice served in the New York State Assembly where he was the first Democrat elected to the state legislature from Ulster County since 1912, and only the second since the Civil War.  As Chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Conservation, he conducted a successful investigation into the causes of "Love Canal," the nation's first major toxic dumpsite, and developed landmark environmental legislation including the nation's first law to control acid rain.  He also led an investigation into organized crime's control of the waste-hauling industry that led to the conviction of more than 20 criminal figures.  Maurice also successfully led the fight -- first in Albany and later in Washington -- to force the cleanup of toxic PCBs that were dumped into the Hudson River.  In the Assembly, Maurice established the Hudson River Valley Greenway, and upon arriving in Congress he authored the legislation that led to the creation of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage area, which has brought greater attention and resources to the region. 

Upon graduating from high school, Maurice enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving in the Pacific on the destroyer U.S.S. Marshall.  After receiving an honorable discharge, he worked for two years as a laborer in a Hudson Valley cement plant.  He then enrolled in the State University of New York at New Paltz and put himself through college working as a night-shift toll collector on the New York State Thruway.  He went on to earn a master's degree at SUNY New Paltz and did advanced graduate work in public administration and economics at the State University of New York at Albany.
Maurice has three children.  He and his wife, Allison, live in Hurley, New York.