Congressman Chaka Fattah is serving in his 16th year in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a Member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. This committee is responsible for setting spending priorities of over $1 trillion in annual discretionary funds. Representative Fattah is also Chairman of the Congressional Urban Caucus a bipartisan group of 57 Members representing America's metropolitan centers. These Members work collaboratively with other stakeholders to address the unique challenges facing America's urban communities.

During the 111th Congress, Representative Fattah has led three major legislative victories. To date, The American Opportunity Tax Credit Act, a $14 billion program to provide a $2,500 tax credit for tuition and other expenses for college students or their parents, has assisted 12.5 million students in meeting their college expenses.

He secured $3.2 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants Program (EECBGP) that will assist over 1,041 local communities in the development of programs to implement various energy efficiency and conservation projects. Philadelphia and its region is the recipient of $39 million in EECBG funds.

Congressman Fattah created the Emergency Homeowners’ Relief Fund, which was included in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law by President Obama. The program, patterned after Congressman Fattah’s Pennsylvania Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP), will provide $1 billion in funds to help millions of responsible American homeowners avoid foreclosure. Targeted to recently unemployed borrowers, the program will keep families in their homes and mitigate the effects of recession.

Fattah is also the architect of the country’s most successful early college awareness and preparation program – Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), which he shepherded through reauthorization in 2008. Over the past 10 years, more than $3 billion in federal funds have been used to serve some 12 million students in 49 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. GEAR UP serves as an international model to aid underserved students in their preparation and pursuit of a college education.