Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke released the following statement on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s State of the City address, in which he proposed a series of initiatives to reduce the enormous income inequality that exists in New York City and has increased in recent years.

Mayor de Blaio proposed the establishment of a living wage that allows workers to support a family, a program of early childhood education available to everyone, and Municipal Identification cards that will allow men and women without legal status to access services.

“In his State of the City address, Mayor de Blasio established our moral commitment to reduce income inequality, both to increase opportunity and to affirm the dignity of every person. In recent years, millions of people – for example, Americans without legal status and people who cannot find jobs – have been forced to the margins of society, and their interests have been ignored. Our belief in genuine democracy, in which each person’s voice contributes to the conversation, must inform our efforts.”

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.