John E. Porter, who represented Chicago’s northern suburbs for two decades in Congress and helped increase funding for biomedical research has died, his family announced. He was 87.
In a statement, the Porter family said the former congressman died on June 3 after a recent hospitalization. The statement did not specify a cause of death.
Porter, a Republican, represented Illinois’ 10th District in Congress from 1980 to 2001. He helped lead the effort that created the 1994 assault weapons ban, which has since expired. He also was a supporter of international human rights and helped increase funding for scientific and biomedical research.
“The whole rough-and-tumble of classless politics was anathema to his character,” Mark Kirk, who succeeded Porter in the U.S. House before being elected U.S. senator in 2010, told the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald….