113th Congress: Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y. (18th District)

By Kevin Whitelaw, CQ Staff

A self-described “Bill Clinton Democrat,” Sean Patrick Maloney is hoping for an assignment to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “I’ve spent years of my life working on transportation issues,” says the Clinton administration veteran, who also served in the New York governor’s office under Eliot Spitzer and David A. Paterson.

In New York, Maloney helped create a public-private partnership commission to look at privatizing public assets. “I want people working on projects like the Tappan Zee Bridge tomorrow,” he says, adding that creating jobs is his top priority. “We have a number of projects here that with the right federal partner can be putting people to work.” He also plans to draw on his experience running a software company for three years. “The government will never replace the private sector as the job creation engine in America.”

Beyond transportation issues, he says, the biggest priority for him will likely be related to protecting the environment. That includes putting the brakes on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” activity in the Hudson River Valley.

Maloney, who is openly gay, was involved in drafting state legislation in 2007 to legalize gay marriage. It passed quickly in the Democratic-controlled Assembly, but took several more years to get through the state Senate. “We drafted that legislation so it would attract Republican support,” Maloney says. “It’s not my first rodeo.”