Second-Oldest House Lawmaker Dies

Rep. Bill Pascrell, who served 14 terms in the House and was seeking a 15th, has become the third House Democrat to die in office this year. The 87-year-old former mayor of Paterson, New Jersey, was the second-oldest member of the House, and, with the upcoming retirement of Rep. Grace Napolitano, would have been the oldest if he had won a 15th term, the New York Times reports. Napolitano turns 88 in December.

• Pascrell had a "combative approach to politics" and was known in later years for his fierce attacks on Donald Trump, the Washington Post reports. When he was 16, his uncle, a ward leader in Paterson, brought him to his first political meeting. "Ten minutes into the event, a chair goes flying by my head," he recalled, per the Post. "There were fights here, there were fights there. And I said to myself, 'I might like this.'"

• Pascrell, the grandson of Italian immigrants, was born in Paterson and served in the Army before becoming a high school history teacher, the Times reports. He served as a state legislator before becoming mayor of Paterson. He unseated one-term Republican Bill Martini when he was first elected to the House in 1996.
• The AP reports that Pascrell was a "longtime advocate for emergency responders and spearheaded the Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement Act, which delivers grant dollars directly to fire departments across the country."
• During his decades in the House, Pascrell said he focused on legislation addressing people's everyday problems and "helping regular Americans pay their bills," the Times reports. He was a strong critic of the ticketing industry and named legislation targeting Ticketmaster after Bruce Springsteen.

• Pascrell founded the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force after a high school football player in his district died in 2008, the Post reports.
• The Times notes that after the Onion published a satirical article in 2019 claiming the then-82-year-old had asked to join "the Squad," he asked for an invitation and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told him, "You're in."
• NBC News reports that Democratic county committee members have until Aug. 29 to select a new nominee to run against Republican candidate Billy Prempeh in New Jersey's 9th District.

(More House Democrats stories.)