Himes to Lead Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth

Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes’s past, it turns out, is prologue for a new, high-profile, assignment.

Himes was selected by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve as Chairman of a newly created Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, leading the Congressional effort to respond to a growing disparity that has been exacerbated - and more blatantly exposed - by the pandemic. 

The new Congressional committee – to include Democrats and Republicans - has been tasked with finding potential policies to intervene in the nation’s growing economic disparities.

“I'm honored and excited to lead the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth,” said Himes. “In the past fifty years, the economic gap between Americans has grown into a yawning chasm, and the pandemic has made this crisis painfully apparent to all. This growing disparity offends our moral sensibility, destabilizes our democracy, and thwarts our global competitiveness; it is time to act.”  

Himes represents Connecticut’s 4th District in the United States House of Representatives where he is serving his seventh term.

“Sadly, my district in Southwest Connecticut reflects this issue: I represent some of the wealthiest and the poorest communities in the nation, all within a short drive of each other, and all filled with people who aspire to make a good living and provide for their families. Along with the diverse perspectives of those joining me on the committee, my experience serving Southwest Connecticut will inform our vital mission of examining how we arrived here, determining the depth of the problem and those affected, and setting a course in which everyone can benefit as our economy grows.”

Himes resume, as well as his stature in Congress, underscores the rationale behind his selection.

Prior to his service in Congress, Himes ran the New York City branch of The Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing the unique challenges of urban poverty. According to his official biography, his team led the way in financing the construction of thousands of affordable housing units in the greater New York metropolitan region, often using new green technologies to achieve energy efficiency and reduce utility costs.

He began his professional career at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he worked his way up to Vice President over the course of a 12-year career. He worked extensively in Latin America and led the bank’s telecommunications technology group. Himes was born in Lima, Peru to American parents, and spent the early years of his childhood in Peru and Colombia, fluent in English and Spanish, before moving to the U.S. at age 10. 

Connecticut is often cited as having among the highest level of income inequality in the country; the Congressional District represented by Himes, for example, includes Bridgeport and Greenwich, among the poorest and wealthiest in the state and nation. 

A Pew Research Center study last year found that the wealth gap between America’s richest and poorer families more than doubled from 1989 to 2016; middle-class incomes have grown at a slower rate than upper-tier incomes over the past five decades; and income inequality in the U.S. is the highest of all the G7 nations.

An analysis in April 2021 by TIAA found that nearly one-third of all Americans (29%) say they are worse off and approximately one quarter (24%) report that they are better off financially, reflecting how the economic impact of COVID has varied at opposite ends of the economic spectrum.  The American Medical Association reported earlier this year that “an analysis of county-level health data shows that high levels of income inequality are associated with poor outcomes.”

“Our initial challenge is to get people to leave their political armor and weaponry at the door,” Himes told the Washington Post. “I would be really disappointed if this became yet another stage to air our partisan disagreements. I would consider that a failure.”

The Committee’s Democratic members will include:  Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Angie Craig of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Sara Jacobs of California.   The Republicans have not yet been named. 

"Economic inequality has been a growing concern for years — one that has intensified during the pandemic. The widening chasm between CEO compensation and worker pay has gone from unfair to immoral. There is recognition that our economy, which is based on free market capitalism, has not served many Americans well. And it has become clear that the stagnation of workers' pay is a historic picture of injustice," Pelosi said in a letter to Congressional colleagues announcing formation of the Committee.

According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2019 – prior to the pandemic - the gap between the haves and have-nots in the United States had grown to its highest level in more than 50 years of tracking income inequality. The areas with the most income inequality, the data indicated, included the District of Columbia, New York and Connecticut.  A 2019 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that in regards to income, Fairfield County was the most unequal place in America.