Congressman John Sweeney

Category: Government & Law
Published: November 2006

Success Magazine spoke with John Sweeney about his life, how he became involved in politics, and his work for the 20th district of New York.

Success Magazine: Congressman Sweeney, what does Success mean to you?

John Sweeney: Success is the fulfillment of accomplishing a goal or a mission. To have peace of mind and the good feeling you have of being able to enjoy life with your loved ones. So it's really a balance between the two. It's accomplishing the goals and missions that you set out to do, and having that in conjunction with quality of life with your family. In the specific sense it means that professionally I do everything in my power to better the lives of the 660,000 people in my district and making sure that our nation is stronger. That's how I approach the process of determining success.

SM: Congressman Sweeney, you were not born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you did it the hard way and with that, you have set goals and objectives. I'm sure when you were in high school and people asked what you wanted to be in life you said that you wanted to be a congressman.

JS: Hardly, back then I wanted to be the centerfielder for the Yankees. It took me years to figure out that I couldn't hit a curve ball or catch a pop fly like Johnny Damon. Finally, I realized that there were things I wanted and needed to do in order to reach my full potential. My mom and dad gave me an incredible work ethic. They were firm believers in our country, and I remember my mom specifically saying things to me like, "If you set out to do anything in your life, in this country you can do it." And that is the definition of freedom, and that is the definition of success and that is the definition of being an American-that can-do attitude and perseverance. It wasn't until much later in my life that I pictured government to be the area that I wanted to excel in. I was in my early thirties before I really decided to dedicate myself to public service and to the political process. And it wasn't until 1998 when the idea of being a congressman came to be my focus. If you remember Congressman Soloman had been in office for years, and he had an incredible record of success. I remember that I could not believe that he was going to retire. I was in the executive branch of the government, and was responsible for among other things, negotiating the state budget and as usual it was an inordinate process. We went late into the year, and we had been up all weekend going back and forth. The announcement came, as I remember seeing it on CSPAN, with little warning, at 4am. I remember believing I dreamt it and not believing it was real. It wasn't until I was touring the state doing radio interviews explaining what was in the state budget, that it was mentioned to me by one of the interviewers who asked for my thoughts. He then asked, "Who do you think will run in his place, and what about you?" And it was at that point that I really started to understand that it was an option, and ten days later I was in and running.

SM: And you won.

JS: And I won. I won the primary and then won the general election and made a commitment, a number of commitments when I went in, the biggest one was that I was going to transform this job and help this area by doing the best things we could and getting as many federal resources dedicated to the area. We committed to continue to uphold the solemn traditions of a strong America and traditional values.

SM: What congressional committees are you on?

JS: I am on the Appropriations Committee

SM: Which is a powerful committee.

JS: Which is a powerful committee. There are two what they call exclusive committees in congress: The Ways and Means Committee which does mostly tax policy, and the Appropriations Committee which is really the only committee mandated to pass bills at any particular year. There are twelve appropriations bills. It is mandated in the constitution that it is a congressman's responsibility to control the power of the first, and so I went to the committee which had the most defined and powerful responsibility. I went with it, because it is my belief and my strong conviction that if we in this area built our own infrastructure, then we will be in the forefront of the nanotech revolution. It's our turn for the federal government to be focused on us here and help us rebuild in some respects, or at least bring us all up to date in this competitive world. On Appropriations I am on three subcommittees: we have the Homeland Security subcommittee, I was an original member of the Homeland Security authorizing committee and the Appropriations committee. They were formed subsequent to the attacks of September 11th, and I was viewed as one of the New Yorkers that had to be on that, because I was very much involved in the response to September 11th, especially as it related to New York. I am on the Foreign Operations committee, which oversees the State Department, a number of activities relative to our role around the world, and finally I am the Vice Chairman of the Treasury Transportation subcommittee, which is really the Terminal Transportation committee, but we have the Treasury Department under our offices as well.

SM: That's a lot to undertake. What bill did you sponsor and represent that gave you the greatest test of your perseverance and the greatest joy in bringing it to this region?

JS: The bills I think that are the most critical and what has the most significance are the bills on the health, safety, and welfare of the people I represent. It is my legislation of Homeland Security relative to threat-based formulas for the funding of Homeland Security assets and resources. There are two things that have great value. Developing a general formula that says, all federal dollars that go for the purposes of developing a national defense system called Homeland Security must be based on a threat based concept. Where do threats exist? And we literally wrote a formula that had ten categories on how threat was going to be evaluated. What the vulnerabilities presented by an attack on any jurisdiction would be, in other words how prepared was the jurisdiction to defend whatever assets it has or whatever target it might be, and what are the consequences of an attack on it. The first time I introduced that on the floor of the House of Representatives, I got seventy votes, and it was hammered. I passed it down not once, but three times in three different forms. We need to get the senate to pass it, we will eventually. The President has said in the State of the Union address that he believes in it, and the call for that kind of funding from the executive branch shows the importance of my legislation because, to be honest, I think it is the best way that we can ensure against a future attack. We keep telling citizens that they need to be vigilant, and the government needs to be just as much. The thwart of the recent attack against airliners with bombs entering America was an example of how it worked, because the various agencies were connected, the dots were connected. The Pakistani, British and the United States intelligence services were coordinated. We have to be successful every time, the terrorists, unfortunately, only have to be successful once. That's the reality of the new world. The other part of that is we also, as part of that formulation, have developed a thing called the High Density Urban Security Act for high population urban centers

SM: What are your thoughts on the Patriot Act?

JS: It's a real sticking point. I'm a supporter of the Patriot Act. I voted against the last bill because it didn't have the high threat formulation in it and I was making a statement. I knew it was going to pass; I am a substantial supporter of it. I am a supporter of the NSA surveillance program, I think the left and the mainstream media is really skewed, to the detriment of the nation, the arguments and the realities of what this nation is doing and has had to do to protect itself. I think that it vilifies very substantial and good programs. Hopefully, events like yesterday [editor's note: The August 10th terror threat at Heathrow Airport had happened the day before] help to remind and refocus the average citizen on the fact that the threat exists, is real, and is not going away in the short term. We, in this nation, want to fight our battles in a milder traditional way and the reality is the world isn't going to cooperate with us on that. Our enemies are going to win the flags of the nation state. They may be supported by some nation states and how we respond to that is critically important, but this is an insidious enemy and it's as bad and evil and misdirected as any that has ever existed and that includes Adolph Hitler. But Hitler was easier to understand, and frankly back in that day and maybe even in the late 30s when capitulation was happening throughout Europe and even some places in the United States, we should today take a lesson from that. That we can't capitulate, that we have to confront it in a unified fashion. And if we don't, it will only perpetuate itself and become worse. There already are signs of evidence that that could be happening, and what you have compounding the problem frankly is the media here in the states that is almost complicit with it. That's why you need strong response. That's why frankly my opponent is nowhere near being able to come into this job, and even talk about it. She's got all these flowery statements about some things, but in the end she represents a capitulation society, we have to stand stronger.

SM: How close are you to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan? Do you know anyone who has been sent over there?

JS: One of the things that I am most proud ofis that two of the people on my staff, and actually three over the course of time and many of the relatives of people on my staff have served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. And I'm proud of that because I think these are patriots and heroes who recognize that this is a very tough road that we're on now.

SM: Within your congressional district, you help a lot of hospitals. Why? And what plans do you have to assist other hospitals in the region?

JS: Well, access to health care, especially in a district as expansive as this, is and always has been a substantial key issue. If you lived in a certain part of the district and your loved one has taken ill it shouldn't be the case that you have to drive over an hour to a facility to receive care. A secondary part of that is that in many of the regions of my district, the hospitals are the largest or second largest employer, so they are a very important part of the rural community. I have obtained a lot of aid for many of the hospitals and fire departments in my district. Health, Safety, Security; I think my job, principally is about making sure that you and your family have the services you need around you to live the most fulfilled life you can.

SM: You are a proponent for raising funds for the Luther Forest Technology Campus. We recently released more information about the AMD site $3.2 billion contract that is coming to our area. What have you done to assist in this endeavor and what benefits will this have for our congressional district?

JS: Luther Forest and AMD were a dream and in many ways are big commitments by a number of us. Specifically Joe Bruno and I, and it's becoming fulfilled. It starts with a broader concept. I got very involved with helping the Albany State University Campus because I believe, even though it wasn't physically in my district, it gave the citizens of my district some better opportunities. It gives us anchor holds into some technology fields, businesses that we didn't have before. Growing up in a blue collar family, I really know the personal impact and I remember the pain that my family went through when my dad lost his job and I want to help avoid the next generation of children of having to go through that. We have to reestablish our economic identity here and that's what we're doing. So getting involved in Luther Forest was a natural. And the double bonus for me was it was in my district. I got very involved on the national level with the semi-conductor industry and helped them with a number of proposals that included tax issues, trade issues, it began out of commercial interest issues that they have, and I became a forefront leader for them in Washington on those issues.

You know what, the other day we were talking about the success we had in obtaining the AMD contract and here's why that's important. Dresden, Germany, a place that was destroyed during World War II, bombed out, smothered and oppressed during the Cold War, is one of the most progressive cities in all of Europe because of the AMD experience. It has transformed the place into a modern center of life and activity. It is bringing about real advancements economically, 10,000 jobs or more. It really transformed the place. I believe in AMD, and we are in a better position than Germany because we haven't been bombed out, we haven't been oppressed for 30-40 years in a totalitarian system, so they're going to do better here. I believe that we will have a great experience with AMD which I think is going to lead to a new economic revival for the area that will mirror what General Electric or the shirt cutting industry was for this region.

SM: Right, and not just locally, but it will reach out at least 300 miles. And all the support services and construction industry.

JS: We will become world leaders, we really will be.

SM: Within our area, we have AMD coming in; we have 2,000 new construction jobs, 10,000 new potential jobs in the very near future. If you want to buy a home in Saratoga now it costs $400,000. What can you do to improve upon low-income housing and the gas crunch for people who will be working in our area?

JS: Growth is good, growth is great. And with it comes traveling. There will be congestion issues. There are many issues, and the most critical one will be affordable housing. Because the reality is it is two fold we are expanding here and that will bring more people and create the need for more housing. The other thing we have frankly is the phenomenon of the post September 11th world. A lot of new families are coming out of New York City with a lot of cash in hand, putting down huge sums of money for homes, escalating the value of homes, and potentially pricing the people who live here out of the housing market. This will cause different types of migration that make the market more complex.

We've done a couple things. First, I formed a taskforce of housing professionals to look at affordable housing issues in each of the ten counties. Then I requested a study as to what could be done to ensure that when the area expands, the service employees that work in the communities are not pressured out of the area. We are trying to help especially with the low-income families that we have, and I'm already doing that. As Vice Chairman of the Transportation Treasury Subcommittee we prepare housing and urban development budgets, so I am positioned in a great place to have a real impact. We brought the HUD Deputy Secretary in a month ago to meet with our housing taskforce. We are coordinating with all levels of government and we're staying focused on the planning process for this expansion that we're going to experience. We're bringing some federal dollars in for subsidies, especially on the low income end of things that will help us develop a broader and more affordable plan for all income levels to afford houses. And it's really going to be a question of coordination and planning to get our answer. It's according to need and it's really going to be a crisis if we don't act on it before it gets out of hand.

SM: What about the gas crunch?

JS: We need to make a serious effort in the nation on fixing this problem. This starts with the dependence on foreign sources of energy. That needs to come to an end. We need to be more self-sustaining in this new world. The war on terror will be a war that will be fought for many years, the need to be self-reliant is more self-evident. Therefore we have to increase the capacities we have in this nation. I am going to support the idea of expanding our capabilities in terms of either drilling for more oil, or creating more refineries, but at the end we are to say that fossil fuel is inefficient and is not particularly clean. And in fact the industry itself is very high-level maintenance. We need to increase caf standards so that we are eventually building vehicles that are less dependent on the need for fossil fuel. We must move away from fossil fuel and into other sources like fuel cells. I think hydrogen offers us a great, efficient and a clean option, we just have to develop it so it can be affordable and we're not anywhere near that. I think wind power offers us other opportunities for electricity and replacement for electrical heating. That's why I support the proposal for wind farms in the Adirondacks. I want my kids to be healthy, I want all children to be healthy, but we have to do it with some common sense and balance. You can't say that you are sick and tired of fossil fuel emissions, and its effect on your environment, i.e. acid rain, etc. and then say you are going to oppose wind farms that are going to eliminate, at least in our area, the energy needs that we will have. You can't say that and be realistic about it. You can't have it both ways. So the short-term answer is that we have to absolutely increase capacity. What I don't want to do is increase dependence on fossil fuel sources. I think because there are advances in technological research and development, we are at a very important point where we need to accelerate our interest in alternatives. We can do it if the federal government makes a heavy commitment to research and development. I will be pushing them very hard to do just that, because at the end of the day, this is about financial security.

SM: What are the key issues in your campaign for reelection? How do you differ from your opponent on the key issues, and what would you like to accomplish if reelected?

JS: I think the key issue is about qualification. And this is on two fronts. One is experience, and the other is the record of experience. Experience, if you really haven't lived here, you haven't known your family here, and you haven't been committed here, you can't possibly be qualified to represent the area in such an important position. Your learning curve is going to be too great and you're not going to be able to accomplish the critical things that need to happen now. The fact of the matter is my opponent is not qualified in that sense. The best she can claim is that she has lived here for a year and a half and there are technical issues as to whether she truly has or not. So she is really just not as committed. With regard to that aspect of qualification as well, I'm pretty comfortable in that I started in local government and worked in the private sector, then I went to the state government and then I served in the federal government. I think I have real experience and I think it shows-all the things that you and I have talked about show that I am really plugged in and that it's easy to be passionate about our community. Locally and federally I have an understanding of all levels of how to get my job done and how to move things along. So I think in a broad sense that is the issue in the campaign. Then I think the more specific issues are obvious. It's safety and security; it's ensuring that our homeland and our families are protected during an age of terror, and during the war on terror. It's making sure that the economy of the families of this area are protected, that there is a future. AMD is an example of that future. It's ensuring that the safety and security of our health care is protected. The work we have done with our hospitals is an example of that. And then it's ensuring that our education system continues to move forward and improve. We talked about just one example of the need to develop an accelerated math/science curriculum. I think those are the real issues that affect the lives of the people here, and the political back and forth move is really just chatter. And it's especially chatter coming from someone who really doesn't have any experience in accomplishing any of what we have discussed today.

SM: You've gone through the highs and lows of life, for example we discussed the time that your dad lost his job. He was down and out, but he never quit. What are the best attributes that you have taken from your parents and how did that help you to persevere?

JS: I think that the best attribute is the sense that we live in the greatest place, in the greatest country in the world, and that anything we have a passion for, or our heart is committed to, can be accomplished. It can be accomplished through dedication, work and commitment. That you have to stand your ground when you think you're right, If you really believe in something you have to just, commit to it. And you can obtain it. I think that is one of my qualifications for this job. I think that I have shown that once I'm there, and I am fully committed to something, there's a pretty good chance that you're going to have success with it. We're going to get there, and that's what I bring to this job.