[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 195 (Thursday, November 30, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1629-E1630]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING MAURICE HINCHEY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. PAUL TONKO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 30, 2017

  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor our former colleague and my 
friend Maurice Hinchey, who passed away last week.
  All told, Maurice served 18 years in the New York State Assembly and 
20 years in the House.
  The story goes that after some youthful indiscretions, a judge gave 
him the option of joining the Navy or else . . .
  Following his Navy service, he returned home to Saugerties, New York 
and worked at a cement factory, and then as a toll collector on the New 
York State Thruway while earning his degree at SUNY New Paltz.
  He eventually ran and won a seat in the New York State Assembly in 
1974, becoming the first Democrat to represent Ulster County since 
1912.
  I had the privilege of serving with Maurice in both the State 
Assembly and Congress.
  As a freshman in the Assembly in the 1980s, I was assigned to serve 
on the Environmental Conservation Committee, which Maurice chaired.
  During that time, I saw firsthand as he worked to expose illegal 
waste dumping by organized crime, which led to many convictions.
  I saw him investigate toxic contamination of Love Canal in Niagara 
Falls, which would become the nation's first Superfund site.
  He passed hundreds of bills, including the nation's first acid rain 
law to protect New Yorkers from harmful pollution, especially in the 
Adirondacks, and the Hudson River Valley Greenway Act.
  Governor Mario Cuomo called him the ``environmental conscience of New 
York State.''
  Maurice was elected to Congress in 1992, where he represented a 
serpentine district, from Poughkeepsie to Ithaca--including parts of 
the Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountains, and Southern Tier.
  It was a tough district with disparate interests, but you could not 
have found a more fitting representative than Maurice.
  No one was as equally as comfortable at a pool hall in Binghamton, a 
lecture hall in Cornell University, or one of Levon Helm's Midnight 
Rambles in Woodstock.
  Throughout his career, Maurice blended his progressive and populist 
beliefs in tireless support of America's working families.
  Maurice was a fighter--especially for the underdog, the voiceless, 
and the environment.
  He was a rare breed of politician--not a weathervane--he stuck to his 
convictions. He knew that the best choice was not always the easiest or 
most popular one.
  As a freshman in Congress, despite requests from the President, he 
opposed NAFTA, knowing it would result in the loss of American 
manufacturing jobs and suppress wages.
  He opposed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for fear that it would 
encourage media ownership consolidation.
  He opposed the repeal of Glass-Steagall because it would allow banks 
to become too big to fail and encourage riskier investment behavior.
  He opposed the unconstitutional, discriminatory Defense of Marriage 
Act. Maurice knew it was just as wrong then as it is today. And he 
wasn't afraid to say so.
  He was a fierce and vocal opponent of the Iraq War.
  He had the courage and vision that many lacked to be on the right 
side of those issues when it mattered, when the votes were casts.
  He was on the losing side of those votes, but history has vindicated 
his positions.
  His passion and courage should serve as a model for anyone who enters 
public service.
  Maurice will be remembered most for being a champion of our 
environment. And I say our environment, because he believed without 
politics, without the efforts of so many engaged members of the public, 
there would not be conservation, or national parks, or wilderness. Only 
through acts of government and relentless advocacy have those national 
treasures been preserved to be cherished by all Americans.
  He led the effort to establish the Hudson River Valley National 
Heritage Area and fought for the cleanup of PCBs that contaminated the 
river . . .
  He secured funding to rehabilitate an old railroad bridge that became 
the Walkway Over the Hudson, which has attracted millions of visitors 
since its opening.
  He supported renewable energy, and sought to prohibit oil and gas 
development in protected wilderness areas. That effort led him to work 
on requiring the disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemicals and 
secure an EPA study on the impacts of fracking on drinking water.
  Every two years the Almanac of American Politics writes an entry for 
every Member of Congress.
  They tend to be fair and well-researched, but I take issue with one 
description of Maurice, where year after year he was described as a 
``leader of lost causes.''
  For 20 years in the House and 18 in the State Assembly, Maurice 
sought to give a voice to the voiceless and defend the weak against the 
powerful.
  These are tiring, uphill battles; often frustrating and always 
difficult, but he never thought they were lost; never hopeless. He 
believed in them, and so do I.
  We do not live in a perfect world, and we never will. There will 
always be those among us who are disadvantaged and in need. They will 
always need a champion, a Maurice Hinchey.
  Our nation needs leaders who will dedicate their lives to carrying 
the banner of these so-called ``lost causes'' and the courage to fight, 
even when it is hard.
  Maurice spent his life fighting for working and middle-class 
Americans and protecting the Hudson Valley and America's environment 
and natural beauty.
  He was one of the most principled and courageous public servants I 
have ever known.
  I want to express my deepest condolences to his wife, Ilene Marder 
Hinchey, and his children, Maurice, Joseph, and Michelle.

[[Page E1630]]

  In the last year of his life, Maurice and his family worked to raise 
awareness for frontotemporal degeneration. I hope his experience can 
help others understand this terrible condition.
  Rest in peace, Maurice.

                          ____________________