Joseph Michael McDade (September 29, 1931 – September 24, 2017) was an American politician who was a member of the
United States House of Representatives, having represented
Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district
Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district is located in the south-central region of the state. It encompasses all of Dauphin County as well as parts of Cumberland County and York County. The district includes the cities of Harrisburg and York. ...
.
Early life and career
McDade was born in
Scranton, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the
University of Notre Dame in 1953, and earned his
LL.B. from the
University of Pennsylvania. McDade served a clerkship in the office of
John W. Murphy, chief federal judge for the
Middle District of Pennsylvania. He opened his own law practice in 1957. McDade was elected Scranton City Solicitor in 1962.
However, just after taking office as city solicitor, he was elected to Congress as a
Republican. He barely held onto his seat in 1964 amid
Lyndon B. Johnson's gigantic landslide that year, winning by just over 2,800 votes over James Haggerty. However, he would never face another contest nearly that close, and even ran unopposed in 1990.
In 1966, along with seven other Republican members of Congress, McDade signed a telegram sent to Georgia Governor
Carl E. Sanders
Carl Edward Sanders Sr. (May 15, 1925 – November 16, 2014) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 74th Governor of the state of Georgia from 1963 to 1967.
Early life and education
Carl Sanders was born on May 15, 1925 in ...
regarding the
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directly ...
's refusal to seat the recently elected
Julian Bond in their state House of Representatives. This refusal, said the telegram, was "a dangerous attack on representative government. None of us agree with Mr. Bond's views on the Vietnam War; in fact we strongly repudiate these views. But unless otherwise determined by a court of law, which the Georgia Legislature is not, he is entitled to express them."
McDade was a longtime member of the
House Appropriations Committee. After the Republicans gained control of the House in 1994, he served as vice-chairman of the full committee, chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and vice chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security.
Unlike most Republicans, McDade had strong ties to organized labor. This served him well, since 60% of the 10th's vote was cast in the heavily
Democratic and thoroughly unionized city of Scranton.
McDade was conservative on social issues. He was a member of the
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
and cosponsored several bills attempting to ban abortion and flag burning.
He was also a strong supporter of tax and welfare reform, but also was an opponent of free trade agreements.
Regionally, McDade was the principal advocate for the Tobyhanna Army Depot and was instrumental in establishing the
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, the
Steamtown National Historic Site
Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) is a railroad museum and heritage railroad located on in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). The museum is buil ...
, and the National Fishery Laboratory in Wellsboro. The government acquisition of
Steamtown, U.S.A.
Steamtown, U.S.A., was a steam locomotive museum that ran steam excursions out of North Walpole, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont, from the 1960s to 1983. The museum was founded by millionaire seafood industrialist F. Nelson Blount. T ...
and spending on the National Historic Site was criticized as
pork barrel
''Pork barrel'', or simply ''pork'', is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district.
The usage originated in American English, and i ...
spending.
McDade retired from the House in 1999. He suffered from
Parkinson's disease.
Indictment, acquittal and the "McDade Amendment"
In 1992, McDade was indicted on bribery charges. He was charged with racketeering and conspiracy after allegedly accepting gifts and trips in exchange for allegedly diverting government contracts to specific groups. He was
acquitted after a jury trial in 1996.
[ Time Magazine]
''Pennsylvania''
Nov. 04, 1996. Retrieved February 19, 2007. Nevertheless, the indictment resulted in him being passed over for the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee in 1995, even though he was the committee's most senior member. The chairmanship instead went to
Bob Livingston of
Louisiana, who was first elected to the House in 1977.
Following his acquittal, Congressman McDade sought to restrict the DOJ's attempts to set its own standards for ex parte contacts of represented persons and parties. He also objected to DoJ's view that its attorneys should be exempt from the ex parte contact rules of the states in which they are licensed and in which they practice. See generally Charles A. Weiss, Lawyers Bypassing Lawyers, 28 Litigation, Winter 2002, at 42.
McDade was successful in his efforts to ensure DOJ attorneys adhere to state bar ethics standards. The text of the statutory change he authored, commonly referred to as the "McDade Amendment," is as follows:
:(a) An attorney for the Government shall be subject to State laws and rules, and local Federal court rules, governing attorneys in each State where such attorney engages in that attorney's duties, to the same extent and in the same manner as other attorneys in that State.
:(b) The Attorney General shall make and amend rules of the Department of Justice to assure compliance with this section.
:(c) As used in this section, the term "attorney for the Government" includes any attorney described in section 77.2(a) of part 77 of title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations and also includes any independent counsel, or employee of such a counsel, appointed under chapter 40.
For the codified text of this law see 28 U.S.C. § 530B (2000). To see the implementing regulations, see 28 C.F.R. § 77.2 (2006).
The McDade Amendment principally applies to DOJ lawyers but is also applicable to attorneys from other federal government departments and agencies working with the DOJ. See Memorandum for Command Counsels, Office of Command Counsel Newsletter (U.S. Army Material Command, Office of the Command Counsel, Ft. Belvoir, Va.), Dec. 1999, at 52–53.
Death
McDade died on September 24, 2017 in
Fairfax, Virginia.
['Former congressman Joseph McDade dies,' The Times-Tribune, Borys Krawczenuik, September 25, 2017]
Places named for McDade
*
McDade Park
McDade Park is a community park located in Scranton in Lackawanna County, in northeastern Pennsylvania. It is named after former U.S. Representative Joseph M. McDade. The park is located on of land, containing an outdoor pool, a fishing pond a ...
– The Lackawanna Valley was scarred by coal mine surface "strippings", and one such surface mine was the Old Continental in the Keyser Valley. Congressman McDade secured funding and support to reclaim the Old Continental strip mine and convert it to a recreational park. The park has served as an environmental laboratory to learn more about how such reclamation work could be done. In 1978, McDade Park was dedicated and became the flagship of the Lackawana County's park system.
* McDade Airport Terminal – In 2006 the
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport Terminal building was named in honor of Congressman McDade. Congressman McDade's father played a key role in helping the Airport open. specifically, in 1941, John B. McDade, the congressman's father and president of the Heidelberg Coal Co., donated (0.49 km
2) on which part of the Airport now sits. John B. McDade donated this land to "help the national defense in time of war." Thanks to land donated by John McDade, and purchased from others, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Airport opened June 1, 1947. In the 1990s the Airport infrastructure needed updating. Congressman McDade secured federal budgets and grants to accomplish this task.
*
University of Scranton McDade Center for Literary and Performing Arts – The University of Scranton honored Congressman McDade by naming its Center for Literary and Performing Arts after him and by creating the McDade Center for Technology Transfer.
*
McDade Trail
References
*
[Political Graveyard:The Political Graveyard]
* [Library of Congress:]
External links
*
Photo of Congressman Joseph McDade
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McDade, Joseph M.
1931 births
2017 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American politicians
Pennsylvania lawyers
People acquitted of corruption
People from Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania
People with Parkinson's disease
Politicians from Scranton, Pennsylvania
University of Notre Dame alumni
University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania