The House of Representatives on Monday approved a bill designating the Great Falls a national park.
The action followed an emotional debate during which Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, drew from Alexander Hamilton's legacy and Paterson's industrial heyday.
"This is a home run!" an elated Pascrell said Monday evening. "This is a big one for Paterson, the Falls, the whole district."
Republican opposition forced the vote on the bill into a House voting session Monday evening. But the final tally of 256-122 kept alive the bill that Pascrell sponsored.
"We bent over backward to get bipartisan support beyond the state delegation," Pascrell said. "We twisted their arms in New Jersey style."
The legislation now moves to the Senate, where fellow Paterson native Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D- N.J., both support the designation.
The Falls' proposed designation as a national park isn't only about venerating the city's past but is an effort to secure a more prosperous future for the city with the help of federal funding.
"The Great Falls could be transformed into an attraction for visitors," Pascrell said during the afternoon debate in Washington. "Federal resources could be leveraged to revitalize the Great Falls and the entire city."
Speaking in support the legislation, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D- Ariz., noted that the late President Gerald Ford designated the Great Falls as a national historic landmark in 1976 and that Congress established the surrounding historic district in the 1990s, paving the way for the area's restoration.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said the bill should be struck down based on a 2006 National Parks Service study that recommended against designating the Great Falls' 109-acre area as a national park.
The 100-page report estimated construction and management costs of the site could be as much as $21 million and expressed concerns about approving Paterson's 77-foot falls to compete for funding with the other 391 areas already in the cash-strapped national park system.
"Why are we ignoring their expert judgment that this should not be a national park?" Gohmert said. "We do not even know what the costs are, nor does the Parks Service know how it would manage the area."
