Rep. Kelly begins 6th term

WASHINGTON-U.S. Rep. Sue Kelly has been sworn in to her sixth term in Congress as representative of New York's 19th Congressional District, which includes Monroe and Woodbury. The Republican incumbent has said that fighting terrorism, continuing to grow the economy and create jobs, and easing the tax burden on families and small businesses will be among her top priorities in the legislative year ahead. Kelly also cited improving education, increasing funding to local veterans hospitals, advocating the needs of Orange County farmers, and obtaining grants and other federal aid to benefit residents of Monroe and Woodbury. Kelly serves on three House committees: Financial Services, Transportation and Infrastructure and Small Business. Earlier this month, she was voted for the House Republican Conference ethics rules changes. In November, the Republican majority changed the rules that would have prevented a House member from holding a leadership position while under indictment. The vote in January reversed that position, among other issues. In a letter to a constituent about the issue, Kelly wrote: "The intention of the proposed rule change was to provide a presumption of innocence for those accused, similar to what exists in our judicial system. However, the Conference ultimately decided that it is more important to hold our party leaders to the past party standard and maintained the rule. You might be interested to know that the House Democratic Caucus had never maintained such an ethical standard for its party leadership, and adopted a similar provision for the first time just this year."