Bill Pascrell, 87, dies after in-and-out hospital stays

Longtime Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) died on Wednesday morning, his family announced after more than a month of in-and-out hospital stays.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce that Bill Pascrell Jr., our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, passed away this morning,” Pascrell’s family said in a post to the congressman’s X account. “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’s death comes a week after he returned to the hospital despite being discharged just days before from a nearly four-week stay. The 87-year-old Democrat, who was the second-oldest member of the House of Representatives, checked himself into the hospital on July 14 for a fever and was diagnosed with a respiratory infection.

The congressman faced a “setback” in July that required “breathing assistance,” but Pascrell’s staff had told the New Jersey Monitor that doctors expected him to make a full recovery.

Pascrell was known for being a strong liberal advocate and critic of Republicans like former President Donald Trump. He was first elected to the New Jersey State Assembly in 1987, became mayor of Paterson in 1990, and made his way to the House of Representatives in 1997 after defeating a Republican freshman member in the 1996 elections.

The congressman was one of the original members of the House Homeland Security Committee when it was created in June 2022, later serving as the ranking member of the Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee. He was a longtime member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and he was one of 81 Democrats who voted in favor of the United States’s invasion of Iraq in 2002.

At 87, he was going to be the oldest member of the House due to Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) retiring after this year. Pascrell had intended to run for reelection this year, defeating his primary challenger who targeted the congressman for ignoring the views of Arab American constituents due to the war between Israel and Hamas.

Pascrell was set to face GOP challenger Billy Prempeh, whom Pascrell has defeated twice before — 55% to 44% in 2022 and 66% to 32% in 2020, when the district was bluer — in the November elections. When it was speculated Pascrell could drop out of the race, counties in New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District had until Aug. 29 to select a new candidate.

The congressman’s health problems extended past this month; he had been briefly hospitalized once before in 2020 after he visited the hospital for nausea and heartburn, requiring a heart bypass surgery due to blockage in his arteries.

Pascrell is survived by his wife of 61 years, Elsie, his three sons, and five grandchildren.

The New Jersey Democrat is the latest House member to die this term of Congress. Longtime Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX) died on July 19, just one month after announcing that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 

Pascrell’s fellow New Jerseyan, Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-NJ), died in late April after suffering a “cardiac episode” on April 6 that kept him on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.