Highlights Of Carrie P. Meek's Political Career

Miami FL

16 December, 2021

7:44 PM

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From the Miami Times Dec 14, 2021 Congresswoman Carrie P. Meek was a political legend like none before or after her. • Created hospice care legislation (Meek's first act as a new state representative, 1979) that still serves as the nation's model of Medicare funding for hospice care. • Passed shared employment legislation to help tk-time workers enhance their benefits package. • Shaped enterprise zone legislation used to spur economic development in blighted communities. • Passed the Documentary Surtax law, landmark legislation for the United States which was created under Meek's leadership to dedicate a source of funding for affordable housing. • Established the Virgil Hawkins Fellows Program, which awards 15 scholarships to minority law students at the University of Florida and Florida State University each year. • Appropriated funds for the creation of the Miami Dade Community College Entrepreneurial Education Center, which is an incubator for businesses. • Secured funding to build the Jackson Memorial Maternity Center in Opa-locka. • Spearheaded Florida's reapportionment effort for African Americans and was able to increase the number of African American representatives from four to 12, and the number of senators from zero to two. • Created, during her final term as a Florida State Senator, three congressional districts for African Americans without disturbing the balance of existing tk. • Elected to United States Congress in 1992. • Made history by winning an appointment to the House Appropriations Committee as a freshman in January 1993. • Introduced a bill to require employers to make Social Security payments for domestic workers and to ease paperwork requirements. The so-called "Nanny" bill was signed into law. • Demonstrated a mastery of the appropriations process channeling hundreds of millions of dollars to Miami-Dade County to rebuild its infrastructure, homes, businesses, schools and public facilities. • Appropriated $122 million to rebuild homes; $85 million for community development; $7.6 million for Homestead Air Force Base; $30 million for Miami-Dade County schools; and $5.7 million from the Small Business Association budget to plant 17,000 new trees at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park and other public green spaces. • Convened the HIV-AIDS Summit Dade County to address the growing epidemic, and earmarked funding from the Appropriations Committee to fight HIV/AIDS in communities of color. • Appropriated $2.4 million for community development in Miami's poorest neighborhoods. The "Meek Fund" restored businesses and created jobs in Overtown. • Improved the environment by securing more than $25 million in new funds for land acquisition, study, restoration and improvements in Everglades National Park and the Everglades system. • Protected the environment by appropriating millions of dollars in funding for: o University of Miami's Rosenstiel School's National Center for Atlantic and Caribbean Reef Research. o Storm protection and renourishment of Miami-Dade County beaches. o Water quality improvements in the Florida Keys. o Science and environmental education provided by the National Audubon Society for minority youngsters in Miami-Dade County. o The dredging of contaminated sediments from Miami River water, and wastewater and sewer infrastructure improvements in the cities of Opa-locka and South Miami. o Dredging and channel improvements in the Port of Miami the Center for Biological Control at Florida A&M University to study the use of beneficial insects and other non-chemically based pest controls. o Designated nearly $10 million for the South Florida Water Management Districts and other Florida water districts to develop alternative sources of water. • Engineered the effort to bring more than 50 Haitian children with relatives in Miami to the U.S., before the U.S. imposed an economic embargo against the Haitian military regime. • Created a new law that enabled 50,000 Haitian immigrants to get green cards; Meek was the prime mover in this landmark legislation. • Earmarked funding for the following educational initiatives and institutions for: o New teachers in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. o A new program to improve teaching techniques for college students with disabilities. o Miami-Dade County Schools and Jackson Memorial Hospital to pay for services for immigrants. o Miami Dade Community College to develop, along with NASA, a technology-oriented business incubator in Homestead. o Department of Defense funds for Florida Memorial College for minority aviation training programs with the United States Air Force. o Department of Energy funds for Florida International University science and technology development research. o MAD DADs of Miami-Dade (Men Against Destruction, Defending Against Drugs and Society Disorder) for crime prevention community-based programs. o The Culinary Education Training program at Johnson and Wales University for at risk youth. o The restoration of the historic building housing the Black Archives at Florida A&M University, the largest collection of Civil War artifacts in the southeastern United States. o For the operation of the only university-based satellite dish in the Southeastern U.S. at University of Miami's National Center for Tropical Remote Sensing Applications and Resources. • Improved transportation in Miami-Dade County by appropriating funds for new buses for the Metro-Dade Transit Agency, for the Dade Expressway Authority to reduce lines for drivers, to widen and deepen the Miami Harbor Channel and for the extension of the Metro-Rail to Pro-Player Stadium. • Secured millions of dollars for the construction of a new U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami, for urban Empowerment Zones nationwide (one of which is in Miami-Dade County), and for the provision of housing within the Liberty City/Model City neighborhoods for public housing residents displaced by changes in public housing. • Secured funding for improved health care: o To benefit the Economic Opportunity Family Health on 79th Street between 22nd and 23 avenues. o To benefit the Pediatric Oncology and Batchelor Children's Research Center at the University of Miami – Jackson Memorial Hospital Medical Center. o To enhance cancer prevention and control initiatives focused on Miami's minority communities by the Sylvester Cancer Center, the Courtelis Center for Research and Treatment, and the Batchelor Children's Center. • Provided the leadership for public recognition for significant contributions to our community of prominent residents by having six United States Post Offices names after these residents: Garth Reeves Sr., M. Athalie Range, Essic Silva, Billy Rolle, Helen Miller and Marjory Williams Scrivens. • Retired from public office in 2002, after nearly 30 years of service to her country. Republished from The Miami Times on April 23, 2003. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.