Congresswoman Kathleen Rice represents New York’s fourth congressional district, which covers parts of Nassau County, NY, a diverse suburban community located on Long Island. First elected to Congress in 2014, Kathleen emerged as a leading Democratic voice on national security issues and served as a member of the Homeland Security Committee and the top Democrat on the Transportation Security Subcommittee, where she passed legislation to improve airport security screening in her first year. As a member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Kathleen established herself as a fierce advocate for veterans and for accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and she authored bipartisan legislation to boost rates of veteran employment, which passed unanimously in the House in 2015 and again in 2017. Kathleen was reelected to a second term in 2016, and now serves as the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
After serving as a prosecutor for more than two decades, Kathleen is using her experience in law enforcement to help lead the fight to combat gun violence and reform our criminal justice system. She serves as a Vice Chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, and helped organize a working group made up of former prosecutors from both parties to help develop bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation. Kathleen is also a passionate advocate for working families, women and children, and seniors, fighting to boost wages and improve benefits for all American workers, ensure that women get equal pay for equal work and that all workers get paid leave, protect reproductive rights, improve public education for students most in need, and protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security. And as the representative for a district that was devastated by Superstorm Sandy, Kathleen knows that combating climate change is a priority for all Long Island communities and an opportunity to create good jobs by investing in clean energy and green technology. Kathleen has worked to secure major federal investments to help communities in the district recover from Sandy and invest in more resilient infrastructure to prepare for future storms, and she introduced bipartisan legislation to reform the National Flood Insurance Program after many Long Island homeowners experienced improper claims denials and underpayments in the aftermath of Sandy.
In Congress, Kathleen has continued to be a national leader in the fight against drunk driving. In 2015, Kathleen introduced the End Drunk Driving Act, which seeks to expand the use of advanced anti-DWI technology that has the potential to keep drunk drivers off the road entirely. And in 2016, Kathleen and Mothers Against Drunk Driving President Colleen Sheehey-Church announced new legislation that would set national standards for individuals convicted of driving drunk with a child passenger in the vehicle.
In 2005, Kathleen ran for District Attorney of Nassau County, NY and shocked the Long Island political establishment by defeating a 31-year incumbent, becoming the first woman elected District Attorney in Long Island history. Kathleen served as DA from 2006-2014, and received national acclaim for her efforts to combat drunk driving, which led to a statewide overhaul of DWI laws and Long Island’s first DWI-related murder convictions. Rice also focused on combating public corruption, launching investigations that led to significant government reforms and the convictions of dozens of officials from both parties who violated the public’s trust.
Rice began her career in public service as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, NY, where she prosecuted cases of domestic violence and gang activity before joining the office’s elite Homicide Bureau. In 1999, Kathleen was appointed an Assistant U.S. Attorney, where she went on to an award-winning career as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Philadelphia office.
Kathleen resides in Garden City, NY, where she was raised with her nine brothers and sisters, and she is the proud owner of a Maltese-Yorkie rescue named Pearl. Kathleen is a graduate of The Catholic University of America (1987) and earned her law degree from Touro Law Center (1991).