[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 139 (Monday, September 9, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H5081]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   MOMENT OF SILENCE IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE LATE HONORABLE WILLIAM J. 
                             PASCRELL, JR.

  (Mr. SMITH of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I rise to 
convey our deepest sorrow on the passing of our longtime friend and 
colleague, 14-term New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell of the Ninth 
District in New Jersey.
  We offer our prayers and heartfelt condolences to his wife, Elsie, 
and three sons, Bill, David, and Glenn, the rest of the family, and, of 
course, close family friends as well.
  Bill's life was marked, Mr. Speaker, by exemplary service, having 
served in the United States Army, and as a high school history teacher 
and adjunct professor before becoming a State assemblyman for 5 terms, 
mayor for 2, and then Congressman for 28 years.
  He was dedicated to New Jersey families and an outspoken advocate for 
our law enforcement community, our firefighters, and our Nation's 
veterans. He is the author of the Bulletproof Vest Partnership 
Reauthorization.
  His Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement Act created the 
groundbreaking Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program, which 
provides funding for protective equipment, emergency vehicles, 
training, and other critical support for aid to our firefighters. Since 
its creation in 2001, this incredible program has awarded over $10 
billion to fire departments across the country, including almost $200 
million to our own State of New Jersey.
  As co-chair and founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, 
Bill also helped lead the charge to advance brain health. His 
bipartisan Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act of 2018 provided 
critical funding to help patients with brain injuries and their 
families, enhance breakthrough research, and for the first time ever 
create a national concussion surveillance system to improve prevention, 
care, and recovery efforts for traumatic brain injuries.
  Bill was also devoted to preserving New Jersey's beautiful natural 
resources and led efforts to designate Paterson Great Falls, the 
stunning 77-foot tall waterfall in the Passaic River as a national 
historic park.
  Please join us in offering our heartfelt prayers for him and his 
family.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), 
my good friend and colleague.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chris for yielding. I just thank so 
many people on both sides of the aisle who came to the beautiful 
funeral that we had for Bill Pascrell in the Cathedral of St. John the 
Baptist in Paterson with the Bishop.
  One of the things you heard was that he spent his whole life in 
Paterson, New Jersey, and Paterson was how he identified: a tough, 
gritty, industrial city. He said what he pleased and always looked out 
for the little guy. That was true in Congress as well.
  The things that Chris Smith mentioned were all issues that the 
average person cared about: Having a good police force and fire 
department, being able to have good healthcare, consumer issues like 
the TICKET Act to make sure that the fans were properly cared for. This 
is what he was all about. He looked at Paterson and he looked at this 
place from the view of his neighbors.
  I thank what we call the Pennsylvania corner. They are not all from 
Pennsylvania, but they all were his biggest boosters in Congress. He 
saw them as his neighbors and his close friends in the same way that he 
saw the city of Paterson.
  I have one quote that I just have to read because it kind of 
summarizes everything about it. It is from the American author Tim 
O'Brien, who I think a lot of you know. It says: He was like America 
itself, big and strong, full of good intentions, always there when you 
needed him, a believer in simplicity, directness, and hard labor. That 
was Bill Pascrell.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Larson).
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding. As he said, he was one of us. He loved this place and so many 
of you. Monsignor Sylva, at that beautiful funeral that Frank was 
talking about, typified Bill by saying he was a man of justifiable 
anger.
  Then he went on to say how Bill was driving someplace. He was 
supposed to appear at the church with the priest. He called the priest 
on the phone, and he said: Look, I am running about half an hour 
behind, could you hold the church service up until I get there? That 
was our guy.
  The priest also went on. He had a beautiful way of putting this. He 
said that hope has two beautiful daughters: anger and courage--anger at 
the way things are and then the courage to step up and want to change 
that. That was Bill Pascrell at his core, as authentic, as original as 
they make them, not a phony bone in his body.

  It should be called Pascrell's corner, and we appreciate the flowers 
that were put over there today. We plan to have an event. There will be 
a planning committee meeting Wednesday night in the Ways and Means 
Committee after votes, and they will be planning not only another 
memorial, but we are going to have, believe it or not, a little party 
in honor of Bill Pascrell.
  The SPEAKER. The Chair asks all those present in the Chamber as well 
as Members and staff throughout the Capitol to please rise for a moment 
of silence in remembrance of the late Honorable William J. Pascrell, 
Jr., of New Jersey.

                          ____________________