Politics

With Brandon Johnson Set to Appear, What Happened the Last Time a Chicago Mayor Testified Before Congress

The last time Chicago’s mayor flew to Washington, D.C., to field questions from a congressional committee, the iPhone was just a few months old.

It was June 2007, and then-Mayor Richard M. Daley was riding high, having just been reelected to an historic sixth term with the support of more than 71% of Chicago voters, speeding him on his way to eclipsing his father as the city’s longest-serving mayor.

Dogged by scandals despite his electoral prowess, Daley made the fight against what was then best known as global warming the centerpiece of what would turn out to be his final term in office and seized the chance to tout his initiatives during a hearing held by the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

Alongside mayors from Gainesville, Florida, and Portland, Oregon, Daley boasted about his efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by encouraging residents to use public transportation while pushing businesses to build energy efficient and environmentally friendly buildings.

But the famously inarticulate mayor found himself in the crosshairs of U.S. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., a Republican from Wisconsin, who mocked Daley for failing to respond to a report from the Chicago Tribune that found Chicago’s greenhouse-gas emissions had actually risen since 2001, despite the city’s best efforts.

Daley waved away the Tribune story, saying it had “discrepancies” and that it “has nothing to do with what we’re here for. We’re here for the environmental movement.”

Decades before fake news would become a cliche, Daley offered a preview of coming attractions.

“Remember, you can’t believe everything you read in the newspaper about a public official,” Daley said.

That mostly harmonious appearance was actually the second time Daley traveled to the nation’s capital as mayor. His successors, Mayors Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot, never made the trip in their official roles, records show.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is set to make a high-profile appearance Wednesday before the U.S. House Oversight Committee to testify on the city’s self-proclaimed sanctuary city status.

In his first congressional appearance as mayor, Daley testified in March 2002 alongside then-Gov. George Ryan to urge lawmakers on the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to enshrine their agreement to expand O’Hare and build a third Chicago-area airport at Peotone.

That pact, which would have also kept Meigs Field open until 2026, was blocked from becoming law by former U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, an Illinois Republican, who accused Daley and Ryan of trying to prevent the Federal Aviation Administration from reviewing the modernization plan.

Despite Fitzgerald’s opposition, the $6 billion O’Hare Modernization Plan was eventually completed in 2021. It rebuilt two existing runways as well as four new parallel runways in an effort to prevent gridlock at one of the world’s busiest airports.

Peotone is still without an airport, much to the chagrin of elected officials from the suburbs south of Chicago.

Less than a year after Daley testified that he would keep Meigs Field open as part of the deal to modernize O’Hare, he shut down the small downtown lakefront airport by carving six large Xs into its runway in the dead of night.

Four years after his testimony, Ryan was convicted of 22 charges of racketeering, bribery, extortion, money laundering and tax fraud and sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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