Politics
The Congresswoman Wore an F.D.N.Y. Jacket
In her official portrait, former Representative Carolyn Maloney posed in the jacket, which referenced her support for health benefits for 9/11 workers.
Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll find out why former Representative Carolyn Maloney wore a firefighter’s jacket for a just-unveiled portrait. We’ll also get details on the bribery investigation involving Mayor Eric Adams’s former chief adviser.
Credit…Sharon Sprung
Some of the portraits in the hallways and hearing rooms around the U.S. Capitol show former senators and House members in suits and ties. Some show lawmakers in shirtsleeves. One portrait shows a former committee chairman at his desk with his poodle in his lap.
Former Representative Carolyn Maloney, whose portrait was unveiled on Wednesday, is the only one wearing a firefighter’s jacket.
Maloney, who represented a district that included the Upper East Side from 1993 until last year, did not expect the artist Sharon Sprung to paint her in the jacket. Maloney received it when she was pressing for compensation and health benefits for 9/11 victims and for emergency workers who responded to the attacks.
Maloney also did not expect her first encounter with Sprung to go the way it did, either.
“She came over,” Maloney said. “She goes through my closet and pulls out my fire jacket.” Maloney recalled the “offhand statement” she made in 2019 that she would not take the jacket off until Congress approved a measure extending funding for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund through 2090. That guaranteed benefits for those who became ill from the toxins at ground zero.
