New York Rep. Mondaire Jones is the most active freshman member of the United States Congress after serving a little more than four months as the nation’s first openly gay Black man to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Read More: Rep. Mondaire Jones says Breyer should retire from SCOTUS
Jones, 34, has in total sponsored and co-sponsored 287 legislative measures, according to data analyzed by Axios.
The freshman congressman’s activity on the Hill surpassed all other freshmen members of both the U.S. House and Senate, including some lawmakers who gained considerable national attention during the 2020 election. By contrast to Jones, for example, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) introduced one of the fewest measures with just 36.
Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), who is serving in the House seat that belonged to the late Rep. John Lewis before his passing, is the second most active member in Congress with 222 measures, data shows. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who also made history along with Jones as the first openly gay Black man to serve in the U.S. House, was in the top 5 active lawmakers having sponsored or co-sponsored 183 bills or resolutions.
“I came to Congress intent on meeting the numerous crises we face with the urgency that this period in our history demands, and in my first months in office that’s exactly what I’ve done,” Congressman Mondaire Jones said in a press release.
“My team and I have wasted no time getting to work for the people of Westchester and Rockland, and I’m thrilled to see that hard work reflected in the data. From crushing the COVID-19 crisis and jumpstarting our economic recovery to fighting to save our democracy and obtain racial justice in policing, we’ve made great progress, but our work has only just begun. I’ll continue advancing equity and justice for every person in our district and beyond.”
As evidenced by the numbers, Mondaire Jones has been very active on the Hill. The congressman, who represents New York’s 17th congressional district, has introduced several bills including the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, a comprehensive bill that would ensure access to high-quality and affordable child care. Jones introduced the bill along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) with several other co-sponsors.
He also authored the Juror Non-Discrimination Act of 2021, which would outlaw attorneys from discriminating against prospective jurors on account of their sexual orientation or gender identity during the jury selection process.
More notably, Jones introduced the Judiciary Act of 2021, which would expand the U.S. Supreme Court by four more seats, citing the need to “restore balance to the nation’s highest court after four years of norm-breaking actions by Republicans led to its current composition and greatly damaged the Court’s standing in the eyes of the American people.”
Before being elected to Congress, Jones, a graduate of Harvard Law and Stanford University, worked in the U.S. Department of Justice during the Obama Administration and worked as a litigator in the Westchester County Law Department.
He currently serves on the House Judiciary, Education and Labor, and Ethics Committees.
Congressman Jones is one of the several progressive members of the House who has not minced words when it comes to race and civil rights. Last month, Jones went viral after he admonished his Republican colleagues as “racist” for their opposition to D.C. statehood.
“My goodness, with all the racist trash my colleagues have brought to this debate I can see why they’re worried about having a place to put it,” Jones said on the House floor.
Jones’ remarks on the House floor drew an immediate eruption from across the aisle and calls from Republicans to have his statement withdrawn from the record, to which Jones ultimately obliged before finishing his floor speech.
The congressman doubled down on his remarks after his floor speech, tweeting “I had no idea there were so many syllables in the word ‘white.'”
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