Senator James Donovan served his district for more years than any other senator, as the chairman of the Senate Education Committee for fourteen years. Prior to that role, he also served as chairman of the Committee on Roads and Public Works and the Committee on Mental Hygiene and Addiction Control.
One of James Donovan’s most important accomplishments was his enhancement of programs which worked to reduce teenage pregnancy and to promote literacy within the teenage population of New York. He also reduced the bureaucracy and red-tape required to begin construction by creating the New York City School Construction Authority.