Ex-US Rep. Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat who chaired powerful House Appropriations Committee, dies

NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, a agelong serving New York Democrat who was the archetypal pistillate to seat the almighty House Appropriations Committee, has died. She was 87.

Lowey's family, successful a connection shared by the Westchester County Democratic Committee, said she died Saturday aft battling metastatic bosom crab with the “same tenacity and spot that she fought passim her 32-year vocation successful Congress for women, children and families."

The household said she passed distant peacefully successful her location successful Harrison, New York, surrounded by her husband, children and grandchildren. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who served with Lowey successful Congress, ordered flags flown astatine half-staff Sunday done Monday successful grant of her erstwhile colleague.

“A nationalist servant successful the truest sense, she was guided by the Jewish halfway worth of ‘Tikkun Olam,’ repairing the world,” the family's connection read. “She was an indefatigable combatant and worked crossed the aisle to present results for her constituents and each Americans."

Lowey represented suburban communities northbound of New York City, including parts of Westchester County and the Hudson River Valley.

She was elected to Congress successful 1988 and served until she opted to discontinue alternatively than question reelection successful 2020.

In her decades successful the House, Lowey pushed for national backing to combat AIDS and for economical assistance to processing nations.

She supported women’s wellness attraction and acquisition initiatives and notably led a palmy combat to supply contraception sum to national workers via their national wellness security plans successful the precocious 1990s nether the Republican-controlled House.

“Frankly to person a occupation that I emotion truthful precise overmuch made this a precise hard choice,” Lowey, who became seat of the House Appropriations Committee successful 2018, told The Associated Press of her determination to retire. “But I conscionable felt it was time.”

Connecticut U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, present the ranking Democrat connected the appropriations committee, remembered Lowey Sunday arsenic a "fierce negotiator and loyal nationalist servant" who was “courageous, humorous, and tenacious with a grin that lit up adjacent the darkest rooms.”

She said Lowey was a tireless advocator connected a scope of important issues, from wellness attraction and the situation to after-school programs and nationalist broadcasting.

U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican who present represents Lowey's legislature district, praised her "bipartisan spirit, committedness to our community, and dedication to the country."

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said Lowey “championed integrity, honesty and the values of bully government" and said she had been a “mentor, a person and ever a beacon of hope.”

Lowey's household said a backstage ceremonial and burial volition beryllium followed by a memorial work astatine a aboriginal date.

“We volition miss her much than words tin accidental and instrumentality large comfortableness successful knowing that she lived a afloat and purposeful life," the connection said. “Her representation volition everlastingly beryllium a blessing to each who had the grant of knowing and loving her, and to the millions of radical whose lives she touched.”