Brian Higgins is a member of the United States House of Representatives serving New York’s 26th congressional district, which includes portions of Erie and Niagara Counties.
Widely accepted as the principal architect of waterfront development in Buffalo and Western New York, Brian led the fight for a quarter-billion dollar federal relicensing settlement from the New York Power Authority that continues to finance the transformation of Buffalo's long-neglected Inner and Outer Harbor waterfront areas. In our nation’s capital, Brian is an advocate for policies important to our regional and national economies. Brian is an avowed supporter of increased funding for biomedical research – an area creating jobs throughout the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus – and remains a strong voice for robust infrastructure investment, for “nation building here at home.”
For decades the U.S. has underinvested in our infrastructure and America’s roads, bridges, water systems and sewer lines are in desperate need of repair. Brian has fought to change that since his early years in Congress with his Nation Building Here at Home Act, investing over $1.2 trillion in America’s infrastructure, rebuilding our communities, creating economic opportunity and growing jobs. As a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Brian is a leading voice for infrastructure investment in Washington and helped to craft the $1.5 trillion Moving Forward Act, a comprehensive plan to repair and revitalize our country’s infrastructure.
Brian is a relentless fighter for Western New York’s fair share of federal transportation funding, delivering for notable projects such as: the redesign of the Niagara Street corridor, the return of cars to Main Street in Downtown Buffalo, Kenmore Avenue improvements along the Tonawanda/Buffalo border, and the transformation of a crumbling, one-way Fuhrmann Boulevard into the Outer Harbor Parkway.
Following the tragic crash of Flight 3407 in 2009, Higgins worked alongside the Families of Flight 3407 to push sweeping reforms through Congress to improve airline safety. In the years since, they have continued to fight for implementation of higher pilot training standards, measures to mitigate pilot fatigue, and rules to provide greater transparency for consumers.