Rep. James Howard; Head of Influential House Panel

Rep. James Howard of New Jersey, influential chairman of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee, died Friday. He was 60.

Howard had suffered a heart attack Thursday on a suburban Maryland golf course. It was the third such attack for the New Jersey Democrat, and he never regained consciousness.

Howard, who came to Congress in 1965, was known among colleagues as one of the House’s toughest horse traders. Yet, while repeatedly reelected in an otherwise Republican-dominated district, he was rarely in the national spotlight.

The committee he headed since 1981 was one of Congress’ least glamorous, but most influential. The panel has jurisdiction over multibillion-dollar highway and water projects, as well as the airline and trucking industries.

Howard was criticized for traveling and being entertained on the expense accounts of groups seeking his influence. He also was one of the largest House recipients of business-related campaign contributions.

In 1985, Massachusetts lawmakers mounted a plan to legalize dumping of their state’s sewage off the New Jersey coast. Suddenly, money for a much sought-after Boston Harbor tunnel slipped to the bottom of the Public Works Committee’s agenda.

He also was quick with a quip. The day before he was stricken, he was approached in a House office building hallway by someone asking him if he was New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean. Kean had just met with Howard and other Garden State lawmakers in a nearby room.

Howard, pointing to the aristocratic Kean, said: “It’s the guy with the money over there.”

Howard, who represented the 3rd Congressional District, along New Jersey’s central shorefront, was a Wall Township schoolteacher and principal before his election in 1965, on the coattails of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 victory.