The IAFF lost one of its greatest friends on Capitol Hill this week.
Representative Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) died in a New Jersey hospital on Wednesday morning. He was 87-years-old.
Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Pascrell dedicated his life to serving others. Whether as a high school teacher, an adjunct professor, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, or a member of the United States Congress, he never stopped working to improve the lives of those in his community and his country.
“Bill Pascrell was a true champion of the fire service,” said General President Edward Kelly. “For more than 27 years, he never wavered in his commitment to improving the lives of fire fighters and emergency medical workers and the communities we serve across the United States.
“More than his leadership, we’ll miss the Congressman’s friendship,” Kelly said. “Our prayers are with his wife, children, grandchildren, family, and friends.”
Pascrell was first elected to Congress in 1996. An original member of the House Homeland Security Committee, he eventually became the ranking member of the Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee. It was in this role that Pascrell developed his passion for fire fighter and first responder issues.
In the early 2000s, Pascrell introduced the original legislation that created both the Assistance for Fire Fighter Grants (AFG) and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) programs. These grants are essential to ensuring fire departments have the staffing, training, and equipment needed to keep the public safe. Most recently, Pascrell led the House version of the Fire Grants and Safety Act – bipartisan legislation to reauthorize AFG and SAFER funding for an additional five years, which President Joe Biden signed into law last month.
He was also committed to reducing cancer rates in the fire service. In 2018, Pascrell was the leading House Democrat calling for the creation of the National Fire Fighter Cancer Registry (NFR) with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The NFR is critical to improving our understanding of the threat cancer poses to those in the fire service.
For more than 27 years, he never wavered in his commitment to improving the lives of fire fighters and emergency medical workers and the communities we serve across the United States.
IAFF GEneral President Edward Kelly
A long-time supporter of death benefits to assist the survivors of fallen fire fighters, Pascrell introduced the Honor Our Fallen Heroes Act this Congress which is aimed at expanding the PSOB program to cover occupational cancer deaths. In 2003, he endorsed legislation to add heart attacks and strokes to the Public Safety Officer Benefit (PSOB) program, and fought during the pandemic to expand PSOB coverage to include deaths and disabilities resulting from COVID-19.
Additionally, in his role on the House Ways and Means Committee, Pascrell fought to repeal the “Cadillac tax” on health insurance plans many fire fighters receive, led efforts to repeal caps on State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions, and championed the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) through his backing of the Social Security Fairness Act.
He also supported legislation, known as the Tax Fairness for Workers Act, which would allow union members to deduct their dues payments from their taxes.
Pascrell spent most of his years in Congress serving as the co-chair of the Congressional Fire Service Caucus – a bipartisan group of House lawmakers working to address the needs of the U.S. fire service.
In 2007, the IAFF awarded Congressman Pascrell the Alfred K. Whitehead U.S. Congressional Leadership Award to honor his decades of work fighting for IAFF members and fire fighters across the country.
