A member of the tax-writing U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), FCRH ’59, said he is not slowing down at all. “I may be up there in years, but I still have a fight left in me,” he said. (Courtesy of Instagram)

A member of the tax-writing U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), FCRH ’59, said he is not slowing down at all. “I may be up there in years, but I still have a fight left in me,” he said from his office in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Pascrell has represented New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District for 26 years. Despite some challenges, he said he feels confident that at age 86, he can continue to serve his district well.

Pascrell said he attributes his strength to his time as a student at Fordham and the values he attained there that are critical to the Jesuits. “Those values include saying it like it is, don’t camouflage what you’re trying to get across, say it, don’t be afraid,” he said. “We say at Mass many times, in fact, we sing it, be not afraid. You go to Fordham, you’re not afraid. It seems that everyone at Fordham knows how to speak their mind so that definitely helps.”

He doesn’t act or sound like what one typically assumes of an octogenarian. Pascrell joked, spoke boisterously and insisted that his energy level has not changed.

His storied career has taken Pascrell from Fordham and the New Jersey General Assembly to Mayor of Paterson — New Jersey’s third largest city — and leadership in Congress to the co-chairmanship of the Congressional Law Enforcement Caucus, where he uses his post to watch out for the interests of community police departments across America. He also serves as co-chair of the Italian-American Congressional Delegation and is a frequent visitor to the Bronx’s Arthur Avenue. “Arthur Avenue is a favorite — my wife and family love it,” he said. “I take my friends there and go eat before Fordham basketball games. Or, on a Saturday, we go to a game and eat afterwards.”

And now, Pascrell said he sees an opportunity to focus on legislative priorities like Social Security, taxes, Medicare, health policy and international trade.

The tale of Pascrell’s path to public service began in 1955 at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx.

Then-18-year-old Pascrell was a journalism major who was considering working as a reporter, but jobs were few and far between. He went to graduate school right away, got his master’s degree also at Fordham and went right into the Army. “My degree from Fordham gave me an opportunity to help my community and make it better and that is the way I looked at it,” said Pascrell. “After that, I came out of the service and started to teach and I taught for 10 years before going into public service and became Director of Policy for the City of Paterson,” he said. “I was Mayor of the city until I left in 1996 when I ran for Congress.” 

He said he can still remember the day he was sworn into Congress after he was elected as if it was yesterday. “The only thing I could think about was how am I going to help my community in this position,” said Pascrell. “Some people go to Congress to change the world, but I didn’t. That comes after you can help your own household, your own street, your own town and your own district when you’re a congressman.” He said that’s what representatives are primarily there for, people who have problems and don’t know who to turn to. “They turn to their congressman,” he said. “You have got to be everything — a sociologist, a teacher, everything. It’s a great job.”

Over the course of the next two and a half decades, Pascrell climbed into House leadership roles. He said he partly attributes his success to the 9th District because he grew up there.

“Where I grew up in South Paterson, there were no lawyers, no people that graduated college,” he said. “Very few — and it was as different from a place where you are expected to go to college.” According to Pascrell, it was a blue-collar area. “My father had a sixth-grade education and went to work for the railroad. You have to face up to problems. You cannot run from them, and you can’t be a coward. We have too many cowards in public life that are afraid to say what they believe in, and many times don’t. They vacate their job while they’re still at it. I exist to help the working man and working families. I like union work. I like it a lot. The salt of the earth. The saltier the better,” Pascrell said.

He said the best advice that he would give a student at Fordham on how to approach their experience at the school to have a successful outcome after graduation is to focus on the professors. “Anything you can extract from a professor at Fordham even under threat of death, get from them,” he said. “Because you’re never going to have that opportunity again. Particularly when you’re in college and you’re a young Turk looking for all the answers and direction. Listen to what they say. I had great professors in my freshman and sophomore year. I knew the problems I was going to have on certain courses, and they helped. Your job is to live up to your responsibilities as a citizen of the greatest of all countries. That’s what I believe.”