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Joseph P. Addabbo
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromNew York
In office January 3, 1961 – April 10, 1986
Preceded by	Albert H. Bosch
Succeeded by	Alton Waldon
Constituency	5th district (1961–63) 7th district (1963–83) 6th district (1983–86)
Personal details
Born	Joseph Patrick Addabbo (1925-03-17)March 17, 1925 Queens, New York
Died	April 10, 1986(1986-04-10) (aged 61) Washington, D.C.
Resting place	Saint John's Cemetery, Queens
Political party	Democratic
Children	Three, includingJoseph Addabbo Jr.
Alma mater	City College of New York St. John's Law School

Joseph Patrick Addabbo (March 17, 1925 – April 10, 1986) was aNew York City politician who served as aDemocrat in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1961 until his death in 1986. As the chairman of theUnited States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense in the 1980s, he was a noted critic of PresidentRonald Reagan's defense spending increases.

Addabbo was born inQueens, New York, and lived in the borough his entire life. He was a 1946 graduate of St. John's Law School and practiced law inOzone Park, New York before his election to Congress in 1960.

Addabbo was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1960. He was the Democratic nominee to replace Queens Rep.Albert H. Bosch, a Republican who left Congress to begin a judicial career.

Addabbo became chairman of the defense spending subcommittee in 1979. In the post, he frequently sparred with President Reagan and was a favorite media source for accounts of the epic military spending battles in the early 1980s. Addabbo created a yearly routine of calling for deep cuts to the administration's budget. In 1983, he proposed slashing Reagan's defense spending plan by $30 billion. Though Addabbo's efforts were usually unsuccessful, he managed to eliminate funding forMX andPershing II missiles in 1982.

Although he usually sailed to reelection in his overwhelmingly Democratic and Italian-American SouthwesternQueens district, a reapportionment following the 1980 census spelled trouble for Addabbo in his final two campaigns. His district absorbed a considerably larger number of African Americans inJamaica, Queens than had previously been in the district. His old district was 35 percent black, while his new district was 65 percent black. Some of his Italian-American base were moved into the district of fellow DemocratCharles Schumer while others were moved into the district of fellow Italian-American DemocratGeraldine Ferraro, who had won a closer-than-expected election two years earlier. This left him open to a surprisingly strong primary challenge from black real estate developerSimeon Golar in 1982. Two years later, Golar ran again with the active backing of then-presidential candidateJesse Jackson, but Addabbo won again.

Addabbo's health started to fail shortly after his 1984 re-election. In 1985, he spent four months in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center with a cancer-related kidney ailment. After returning to work for two months in early 1986, he fell ill at a luncheon in March and lapsed into a coma on March 12. He died a month later, aged 61, and was buried inSaint John's Cemetery, Queens.

In 2001, Addabbo's son,Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., was elected as theNew York City Council representative for District 32 in Queens. He was elected to theNew York State Senate in 2008.

The Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center in Queens is named after Addabbo for his work in championing affordable healthcare while in Congress.^{[1][better source needed]}

• List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1950–1999)

• United States Congress."Joseph P. Addabbo (id: A000052)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Office of the Clerk. U.S. House of Representatives. Election Information.

• 1925 births
• 1986 deaths
• St. John's University School of Law alumni
• Politicians from Queens, New York
• Burials at St. John's Cemetery (Queens)
• People from Rockaway, Queens
• Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C.
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state)
• 20th-century New York (state) politicians
• 20th-century United States representatives

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