Saying he’s frustrated with a House of Representatives where “it’s everyone demonizing one another,” Rep. Brian Higgins has decided to leave Congress after 19 years in which he cut a low profile in Washington while using the power of his office to reshape Buffalo’s landscape.
In an exclusive interview with The Buffalo News, Higgins, a 64-year-old Buffalo Democrat, refused to confirm what other sources told The News and other media outlets last week: that he’s leaving to become president of Shea’s Performing Arts Center. But he said he plans to resign from Congress in early February – and sounded glad to be leaving.
“Congress is not the institution that I came to 19 years ago,” Higgins said in an hourlong interview in his Larkinville office. “And, you know, it’s in a very, very bad place right now. I am hopeful, as I always am, that it gets better. But unfortunately, I think we’re at the beginning phases of a deterioration of the prestige of the institution.”
Over the course of nine and a half terms in the House, Higgins earned a reputation as a low-key lawmaker who focused far more on Buffalo’s future than the nation’s. Key to his legacy will be a $279 million settlement with the New York Power Authority that funded Buffalo’s waterfront revival, which Higgins pushed into reality over vehement opposition during his first term in Congress.
Speaking about that settlement along with other highlights of his tenure, Higgins sounded as if he thought his job in Washington was largely done.
“When I went to Congress 19 years ago, I didn’t go to change the world,” Higgins said. “I went with the plan of changing my community. And I think that’s what we have done, along with the extraordinarily talented people that work with me and have worked with me individually and collectively.”
Higgins’ pending resignation likely opens a chaotic race to replace him – one that could begin with a springtime…
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