As Congressional Career Ends, Mike Fitzpatrick Looks Back

It was cold, the skies were overcast and Republican Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, just a year into his first term, was working on what would become one of the proudest achievements of his career serving in congress.

On January 9, 2006, the congressman stood with Bucks County veterans, local politicians and then-Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson at a 200-acre tract of farmland off Dolington and Washington Crossing roads in Upper Makefield to announce the creation of Washington Crossing Veterans Cemetery.

After litigation with neighbors, controversies surrounding the land’s zoning and a lot of hard work, the cemetery became a reality a few years later and is expected to be the final resting place for thousands of military men and women who served on active duty.

To Fitzpatrick, whose time as congressman ended around noon Tuesday, his seat in the House of Representatives wasn’t about creating paperwork, the congressman was aiming to create results for his community.

Looking back on his 8 years in congress – 2005 to 2007 and 2011 to 2017 – last week during an interview with NewtownPANow.com, Fitzpatrick, a resident of Middletown’s Levittown section, recalled the work that went into the cemetery and spoke about his desire to serve his constituents.

Even in Fitzpatrick’s final days in congress, his ethos to serve the district as a lawmaker was clear and seemed just as strong as the day he stood in that barren Upper Makefield field on broken corn husks to announce the creation of the veterans cemetery.

“I was elected to serve,” he said.

As his days serving the Eighth Congressional District – which is comprised of all of Bucks County and the top portion of eastern Montgomery County – were winding down, Fitzpatrick made sure to keep his offices in Middletown and Washington D.C. open while some of his colleagues closed their offices during the holiday.

“You can tell more about an employee in their last two weeks than their first two years” he said.

“We’re working to the last day. There’s still [work] that needs to be handled.”

The congressman has continued to make frequent trips to Washington D.C. in hopes of moving some of his ideas and legislation forward in the next congress, the one where his younger brother Brian Fitzpatrick began serving at noon Tuesday.

“I was just in Washington this week and met with staff,” he said during the waning days of 2016. “I have the hardest working staff.”

In front of the congressman on a desk sat a more than 175-page December 15 congressional report titled “Stopping Terror Finance: Securing the U.S. Financial Sector.” The report was the product of the Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing and several hearings before the committee chaired by Fitzpatrick.

While he won’t be in a position to move the seven pieces of bipartisan legislation that resulted from the report forward, he hopes to get the incoming 115th Congress to pass laws that will help crackdown on the financial mechanisms terrorists use to fund their activities.

The congressman, one of eight kids raised by his parents in their Levittown home, said his time growing up in the Lower Bucks County community has helped sculpt him as a person and a lawmaker.

Another issue has help shape his congressional career is his experience working with the health care industry and his personal fight against cancer.

Fitzpatrick has been waging a quiet battle against cancer in the recent months. The diagnosis, he said, came after a routine cancer screening following his 2008 fight against Stage III colon cancer.

The congressman – a 53-year-old father to six children, grandfather to Jack and husband to Kathy – has managed to remain active in his efforts to govern and keep up at public appearances during his latest diagnosis. Even after two cancer-related surgeries in October, Fitzpatrick was back at work within days and wearing a baseball cap to keep the attention off his wounds.

“I’m doing good. I’m finishing treatment,” he said, adding that his outlook is bright.

When he returned to congress after a hard-fought 2010 election against Bristol resident and Democrat Patrick Murphy and his first bout with cancer, Fitzpatrick said he returned to the House of Representatives “with a new focus on health care.”

“I watched them talk about health care and the health care law – named after our president – and it was personal,” he said.

Fitzpatrick has voted against the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and supported an effort to overturn the law and implement a new nationwide prescription for health care.

“Health care doesn’t work the way it should,” Fitzpatrick said. “It doesn’t work the way it did.”

The best path is to overhaul current health care laws and allow free market solutions in addition to encouraging innovation and new technology, he said. Further explaining that health care needs to be reformed so that doctors and patients are back in control of their care.

With the Trump election and support for Republican lawmakers, Fitzpatrick said voters are asking for change in health care.

“It’s decision time,” he said. “You can’t just be against [Obamacare]; you have to be for something.”

Fitzpatrick said he is confident both parties will work together to find a solution for the health care crisis and rising insurance prices.

Moving past the Affordable Care Act, Fitzpatrick has made a name for himself while fighting for constituents impacted by dangerous medical devices, some that have even led to death for patients.

At the 2014 Yardley Christmas parade, Fitzpatrick met Dr. Amy Reed and her husband, Dr. Hooman Noorchashm. They wanted to talk to the congressman about a procedure Reed had that had inadvertently spread a previously undiagnosed cancer throughout her body.

Their discussion about the flawed power morcellation device used to remove growths from Reed’s uterus led to Fitzpatrick working with Republican and Democratic colleagues to try to raise awareness about the instrument and make sure problems with new medical instruments are investigated properly.

Fitzpatrick also worked with women from Bucks County and around the nation who were seriously injured by Essure, a female birth control tool made of copper coil.

A proposal to make the Food and Drug Administration and companies more accountable for medical device safety moved forward but died in the Senate.

The legislation on dangerous medical devices will hopefully gain more traction in the new congress and make it safer for patients, the outgoing congressman said.

During his tenure, Fitzpatrick has brought human trafficking to the forefront along with efforts to give workers displaced by foreign trade agreements job training and fill the skilled trade gap in the local economy.

Fitzpatrick said he hopes the new congress will work to support worthy bills that cross party lines and help Americans.

He said that much of his legislation was “inspired by constituents and real life problems.” He listed numerous pieces of law with local ties, including the Danny Mac bill and legislation to secure airline cockpits.

“I did my best. I wanted to raise real issues and solve real problems,” he said. “I wanted to serve the people the best way I could.”

The outgoing congressman had the following advice for his brother, the new congressman: “work hard, serve the people and set a term limit.”

Fitzpatrick’s self-imposed term limit is something he thinks the founding fathers would support. He added that he hopes other congress people set their own term limits as well.

Going forward, Fitzpatrick said he plans to return to practicing law and plans to continue to serve the community through volunteering with Conwell-Egan Catholic High School and Boy Scouts.

For Fitzpatrick, his time in congress wasn’t about making party leadership happy or just passing bills – it was about his neighbors. Something that harkens back to his efforts to bring the veterans cemetery to Bucks County.

“Some legislators look back at how many bills they passed,” he said. “I measure my time by how many people I helped.”