Romano Mazzoli
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromKentucky's3rd district
In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	William Cowger
Succeeded by	Mike Ward
Member of theKentucky Senate from the35th district
In office January 1, 1968 – December 1970
Preceded by	Martin J. Duffy
Succeeded by	Lacey Smith
Personal details
Born	Romano Louis Mazzoli (1932-11-02)November 2, 1932 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	November 1, 2022(2022-11-01) (aged 89) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Helen Dillon ​ ​ (m. 1959; died 2012)​
Children	2
Education	University of Notre Dame (BS) University of Louisville (JD) Harvard University (MPA)
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1954-1956
Rank	Specialist Third Class
Romano Mazzoli's voice Mazzoli speaks in support of theNational Voter Registration Act of 1993 Recorded June 16, 1992

Romano Louis "Ron"^[1] Mazzoli (November 2, 1932 – November 1, 2022) was an American politician and lawyer fromKentucky.

He representedLouisville, Kentucky, and its suburbs in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1971 through 1995 as aDemocrat. He was the primary architect, with SenatorAlan Simpson, of major immigration reform legislation.

Mazzoli, whose father immigrated to the United States from northern Italy, was born in Louisville and was a 1950 graduate ofSt. Xavier High School, aXaverian Brothers boys preparatory school.^[2][3] He won the 1950 Kentucky boys high school doubles tennis championship with fellow St. Xavier 1951 alumni George D. Koper.^[2] He graduatedmagna cum laude from theUniversity of Notre Dame inNotre Dame, Indiana, in 1954 and from theUniversity of Louisville School of Law, first in his class, in 1960. Mazzoli served in theKentucky Senate from 1968 through 1970.^[2] In 1969, he ran for mayor of Louisville, and came third in the Democratic primary.^[2]

Mazzoli was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970, defeating Republican incumbentWilliam Cowger by 211 votes, the closest House election of that year.^[2] Serving for the next 24 years, he was Chairman of the House of Representatives' Immigration, International Law and Refugees Subcommittee for twelve years. He also served on the Small Business, Intelligence and District of Columbia Committees.

In 1981, Mazzoli, ananti-abortion Democrat, introduced, along withRepublicanHenry Hyde, theHuman Life Amendment,^[4] a proposed constitutional amendment which would ban all abortions by granting legal protection to all unborn children in the United States. Ultimately, the amendment failed to amass the two-thirds majority necessary to pass.^[5]

Mazzoli authored the Simpson-Mazzoli Immigration Reform and Control Act, later known as theImmigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, and cosponsored it with Republican SenatorAlan K. Simpson. The bill enacted the first U.S. laws to sanction employers who hired undocumented aliens; it also granted an amnesty for aliens already living and working in the United States. After five years of debate and compromise, theSimpson-Mazzoli Bill was ultimately signed into law in November 1986.^[3] Also in 1986, Mazzoli was one of theHouse impeachment managers who prosecuted the case in theimpeachment trial of JudgeHarry E. Claiborne. Claiborne was found guilty by theUnited States Senate and removed from his federal judgeship.^[6]

Mazzoli did not run for reelection in 1994, leaving office in January 1995. The104th United States Congress, the first in nearly a quarter century without Mazzoli, passed legislation (P.L 104–77), signed by PresidentBill Clinton on December 28, 1995, renaming the Federal Building in his hometown of Louisville, the Romano L. Mazzoli Federal Building.

After leaving Congress, he taught atBellarmine University and was the Ralph S. Petrilli Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Louisville Law School for the Fall 1995 semester, returning later to the law school as faculty.

In 2002, Mazzoli was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics atHarvard University'sJohn F. Kennedy School of Government. He graduated with a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in June 2004. While studying for his degree, he lived on campus, where he metPete Buttigieg, then an undergraduate student. In 2012, Mazzoli officiated Buttigieg's inauguration as mayor ofSouth Bend, Indiana.^[3]

In September 2006, Simpson and Mazzoli co-authored an article that appeared inThe Washington Post revisiting their 1986 immigration legislation.

Mazzoli married Helen Dillon in 1959. They had two children and remained together until her death in 2012.^[2]

Mazzoli died at his home in Louisville on November 1, 2022, one day before his 90th birthday.^[2]

• United States Congress."Romano Mazzoli (id: M000291)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• September 2006 article, co-authored with Alan Simpson, revisiting their 1986 immigration reform legislation in the current political climate
• Romano L. Mazzoli Oral History Collection, University Archives and Records Center, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
• Romano L. Mazzoli Papers, 1920s - 2010, University Archives and Records Center, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky

• 1932 births
• 2022 deaths
• 20th-century American lawyers
• American people of Italian descent
• Bellarmine University faculty
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky
• Harvard Kennedy School alumni
• Harvard Kennedy School staff
• Kentucky lawyers
• Democratic Party Kentucky state senators
• Democratic Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives
• Military personnel from Louisville, Kentucky
• Politicians from Louisville, Kentucky
• University of Louisville School of Law alumni
• University of Notre Dame alumni
• 20th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly
• 20th-century United States representatives

• Articles with short description
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• Use mdy dates from November 2022
• Articles with hAudio microformats
• People appearing on C-SPAN