Engel says experience, power will serve district well

Eliot Engel has been elected and re-elected to represent the 16th Congressional District 16 times now, and he’s running for at least one more.

Now the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Engel wields considerable power in Congress, and says that’s something not to be taken lightly.

“The seniority system, of course, is something that works, where if you do have seniority, if you are a committee chair, you’re treated very well by your colleagues and by the structure,” Engel said. “If you’re a chairman, you get treated with some deference, and it helps me. For instance, I got $5 billion in funding for New York hospitals, which was five times more than any other state got.”

His many years as a congressman and his position mean people pay attention when he walks into a room and starts to negotiate.

He’s particularly proud of what he’s done on that committee, including working with NATO during the Clinton administration’s bombing of Yugoslavia in reaction to the region’s genocide of Albanians.

“I was very proud if the role I played with President Clinton,” Engel said. “And the Albanian community — as a result the country of Kosovo — put my picture on a postage stamp, and they have named a number of places, streets, after me. They realized I was very instrumental in preventing genocide and keeping them free.”

Another international agreement Engel worked out was the Harkin-Engel Protocol after he and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin learned about child laborers harvesting cocoa in the Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.

“Children were working on farms, doing manual labor, not going to school,” Engel said.

“And we did a whole thing with the companies — the sugar companies, chocolate companies — to try to see that these kids had an avenue to go to school, and that we were largely successful in achieving that. There’s always more work to do, though, but we were very proud of the work that we did.”

He’s also supported social justice movements, including sitting in the minority voting against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which effectively banned same-sex marriage in the United States.

“It was widely regarded as an anti-gay bill, it got lots of votes,” Engel said. “Democrats and Republicans supported it. There were only, I believe it was 57 people who voted ‘no’ out of 435. And I was one of those people. I led the charge.”

Whoever wins the election could face some hard times, especially in Engel’s district, which was home to one of the first “clusters” of coronavirus infections in New York. The New Rochelle outbreak closed the first schools in the state — SAR High School and SAR Academy in North Riverdale — which are also part of Engel’s district. The Bronx led the five boroughs in both rates of infection and deaths.

As the city and state slowly reopen in the wake of the pandemic, Engel says it’s hard to know if the worst is ahead of the country, or already passed. But he’s keeping an eye on new developments in hearings and meetings in Washington.

“I’m hopeful that perhaps, by the spring, we could have a vaccine,” Engel said. “But the truth is we don’t really know. If I had to guess, I would say April or May of next year seems like a likely time. But everyone’s just guessing.”

Driving through New Rochelle recently, it felt strange to see people eating outside for the first time in months, he said.

Although he may not have been there personally during the crisis, his office was.

“I’m also very proud of our constituent services,” Engel said. “We have three offices, the one here in Riverdale is probably the most active, on Johnson Avenue. It’s probably the most active one of all of them. We’ve helped thousands upon thousands of people with problems, constituent problems.”

If he’s reelected, Engel plans to spend some of his time over the next two years trying to undo some of the damage he says has been done by the Trump administration, using his foreign affairs committee post to hold people in the White House accountable.

“I’ve been rattling the cages because I cherish our democracy, and I don’t want to see them trash it,” Engel said. “And believe me, they’d trash it if we didn’t hold their feet to the fire.”

Ultimately, Engel said, he’s asking voters to renew his two-year contract.

“I’m asking the same thing, I have great respect for the voters,” he said. “It’s an honor and a pleasure to serve them, and as long as I serve them, I’m delighted to make the lives of people better.”