House passes bill renaming Great Falls park for Pascrell

After Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) died last year, his longtime friend, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), quickly launched an effort to rename parts of Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park in the late congressman’s honor. Yesterday evening, that effort began gathering steam to make its way through Congress.

Pallone’s bill – co-led by Pascrell’s successor in the 9th congressional district, Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), and co-sponsored by New Jersey’s entire House delegation – passed the House yesterday on a 362-50 vote. (All 50 no votes came from Republicans; none were New Jerseyans.)

“Few public servants have shaped Paterson or New Jersey more than Bill Pascrell,” Pou said. “He understood the importance of honoring our past while fighting for our future. Every brick and every drop of the Falls tells a story about Paterson and America, and now those stories will include Bill.”

“Bill Pascrell spent his life fighting for the city that raised him,” Pallone said. “He believed in Paterson, in its people, and in preserving its proud place in our national story. Without Bill, the Great Falls wouldn’t be a national park, and the story of Paterson’s contribution to the American industrial revolution might have been lost to history. Renaming these sites in his honor is a small but lasting way to recognize everything he did to lift up his community and preserve its legacy.”

An equivalent bill has yet to be introduced in the Senate; last session, it was sponsored by interim Senator George Helmy and Senator Cory Booker.

Back in 2009, the Great Falls, an awe-inspiring waterfall just a few blocks away from Paterson’s downtown, was established as a historical landmark following years of advocacy by Pascrell, a former Paterson mayor. The congressman’s connection to the falls prompted Pallone to kickstart his renaming effort after Pascrell died last year at age 87, but amid a busy election and lame duck session, it didn’t make it through either chamber of Congress. That changed yesterday.

Pallone has also pushed for a separate measure renaming the nation’s traumatic brain injury surveillance and registry program after Pascrell; that bill was originally meant to pass via a government funding package last year that was sunk by Republicans, and a new version of the bill this session has yet to come up for a vote.