New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell Dies At Age 87

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), a long-serving member of the House, died Wednesday morning, according to a statement posted on his social media account.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce that Bill Pascrell Jr., our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, passed away this morning,” the statement posted on X said.

“As our United States Representative, Bill fought to his last breath to return to the job he cherished and to the people he loved. Bill lived his entire life in Paterson and had an unwavering love for the city he grew up in and served. He is now at peace after a lifetime devoted to our great nation America.”

Pascrell had been hospitalized in July to be treated for a respiratory infection.

He was a 14-term lawmaker and a fixture in his hometown of Paterson for more than four decades. Pascrell was the city’s mayor from 1990 to 1996, when he ran for Congress. He was set to run for a 15th term in the fall.

Pascrell was a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the nation’s tax laws, and he was a Democratic proponent of obtaining former president Donald Trump’s tax returns. He went so far as to criticize his own party’s leadership for not demanding the returns, under a tax disclosure law granting Congress access to private tax information, as soon as they controlled the House in 2022.

“There’s no reason to delay anymore,” Pascrell told HuffPost in February 2019. “In fact, there’s every reason to act now.”

Ways and Means Committee chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) requested the returns the following April, initiating a legal battle that Democrats eventually won. In December 2022, they released the returns, revealing shortcomings of a presidential audit program.

“Trump paid a pittance in