The late U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, who represented New Jersey in the Senate for nearly 30 years over the course of two non-consecutive terms, was posthumously given the Presidential Medal of Freedom today by President Joe Biden.
Lautenberg is the first senator or representative from New Jersey to receive the medal – the highest civilian award in the United States – since it was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
“He is remembered for his critical work on environmental protection and consumer safety across a number of fields,” reads the White House’s official statement on Lautenberg.
Lautenberg, the longest-serving senator in New Jersey history, was one of nineteen people announced today as a recipient of the medal, alongside former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Al Gore, murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers, and others.
A native of Paterson, Lautenberg spent his early career in the private sector, becoming quite wealthy from his time working in insurance and payroll management. In 1982, he launched a campaign for U.S. Senate as a first-time candidate; he was initially seen as a longshot, but used his own wealth to narrowly win the Democratic primary against a field of more established politicians and defeat popular Rep. Millicent Fenwick (R-Bernardsville) in the general election.
He was re-elected twice more before unexpectedly deciding in 2000 not to run for a fourth term. That wouldn’t be the end of his Senate career, however; two years later, when Senator Robert Torricelli withdrew from his own re-election campaign due to a federal ethics probe, Democrats chose Lautenberg as their last-minute nominee to replace him. Finding a second political wind, Lautenberg won re-election once more in 2008 before dying in 2013 at the age of 89.
Over the course of those 29 non-consecutive years, Lautenberg became good friends with Biden, who was a senator from Delaware for most of Lautenberg’s tenure (and who was sometimes known as “South Jersey’s third senator” during his Senate career). Biden was among those who delivered eulogies at Lautenberg’s funeral in 2013.
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), a fellow Paterson native who served with Lautenberg in Congress for 14 years (though never in the same chamber), said today that the Medal of Freedom was a richly deserved honor.
“Frank Lautenberg was a proud son of Paterson, a World War II veteran, a self-made multi-millionaire, and a damn good United States Senator for the people of the greatest state,” Pascrell said. “To my mind, Frank is the model of public service: he got into office to do right and fight for his neighbors and he did both as well as anybody in office. He would be so happy to get this recognition.”