Joseph J. DioGuardi

Joseph DioGuardi
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 20th district
In office January 3, 1985 – January 3, 1989
Preceded by	Richard Ottinger
Succeeded by	Nita Lowey
Born	September 20, 1940 (1940-09-20) (age 69) New York City
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Carol DioGuardi (died 1997) Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi
Religion	Roman Catholic

Joseph J. DioGuardi (born September 20, 1940, New York, New York) is a first-generation American ^[1] whose professions have consisted of Certified Public Accountant, politician, political writer, and executive. He is president of Truth In Government, Inc., a non-profit organization that informs citizens about the need for transparency and improved practices in Congressional budgeting and spending. Joseph DioGuardi served in the House of Representatives representing the 20th Congressional district of New York from 1985 to 1989. ^{[2] [3]}. DioGuardi, a former partner at Arthur Andersen, also serves as president of the Albanian American Civic League, an organization he co-founded with his wife, Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi. ^[4]

Joseph DioGuardi is also known as the father of American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi.

Contents 1 Background and early life 2 Years in Congress 3 After Congress 4 Human Rights Activist 5 Congressional campaign, 2008 6 Personal life 7 References 8 External links

Background and early life

Giuseppe DioGuardi, Joseph DioGuardi's father, was born in Greci, an agricultural village in Italy. The town traces its roots to the 15th century when the Ottoman Turks overran Albania and tens of thousands of Albanians fled across the Adriatic Sea to the kingdom of Naples ^[5]. Giuseppe DioGuardi’s family immigrated to the United States in 1929.

Giuseppe was 15 years old when he arrived on Ellis Island. He worked in low-level jobs until acquiring his own vegetable stand in Harlem. He started a grocery and vegetable store in East Bronx. He married Grace Papparella in 1939.^[6] The family moved to Westchester County, NY in 1957.

Joseph DioGuardi, the oldest of Giuseppe and Grace DioGuardi's three children, began work in the family business as a child. During his elementary school years, he worked before and after classes ^[7]. Following his family’s move to Westchester, he attended Fordham Preparatory School, an educational institution established by the Roman Catholic church, which “stresses the development of excellence in the whole person: intellectual, religious, social, emotional and physical.” ^[8]. In 1957, he took a summer bus-boy job at Elmwood Country Club in Westchester County, and was promoted to a waiter position, which he continued during the summer and on weekends during the school year at the university ^[9].

He graduated with honors from Fordham University in 1962, and was hired at Arthur Andersen and Company. There, DioGuardi completed a three-year apprenticeship to become a Certified Public Accountant. He achieved partner status at age 31, after working 10 years with the company. He specialized in federal and state taxation and had firm-wide responsibility for non-profit organizations and the tax economics of charitable giving.

Years in Congress

Joseph DioGuardi ran for Congress in 1984. His campaign achieved victory in a close race: DioGuardi ran as a Republican in a Congressional district that was overwhelmingly Democrat with a sizeable minority population in Mount Vernon, Yonkers, and New Rochelle(^[10]). In his second Congressional race in 1986, DioGuardi defeated Bella Abzug, who had relocated from Greenwich Village in Manhattan to Mount Vernon to challenge him in a comeback bid for the House of Representatives (^[11].

The first practicing CPA ever elected to Congress(^[12]), DioGuardi arrived on Capitol Hill in 1985 with his personally stated agenda: Reveal and fix the gimmicky financial practices of Congress, and restore fiscal responsibility and public accountability to the taxpayers.(^[13])

Joseph DioGuardi was the original author of the Chief Financial Officer and Federal Financial Reform Act (“the CFO Act”), signed ultimately by President George H. W. Bush in 1990. The act mandated the assignment of a CFO to each major department and agency of the U.S. government. Charles Bowsher, former Comptroller General, later said in testimony before the U.S. Senate that since the enactment of the bill, “We have seen important progress in directly confronting serious financial management weaknesses.” ^[14]

President George H.W. Bush said of Joseph DioGuardi, “Everyone who has worked on the issue of Federal financial management improvement recalls how hard you worked, starting back in 1986, to persuade Congress that the steps authorized by H.R. 5687 [the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990] were badly needed. As a Certified Public Accountant you understood the need to strengthen the systems that provide the President, the Congress, and the American people with the information necessary to make informed decisions on how public funds are spent.” – George H.W. Bush, President

DioGuardi founded and co-chaired the Congressional Long Island Sound and Hudson River Caucuses, which secured increases in federal support. He co-founded with Congressman Jerrold Nadler the New York Task Force for Port, Rail, and Industrial Development, which restored lost jobs to New York’s manufacturing and transportation industries, and preserved a portion of the Port of New York on the New York side of the harbor^{[15] [16]}

As of 1984, not one of 1,550,000 black American military service men from World War I and World War II had received the nation’s highest military honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Rep. DioGuardi joined with Democrat Congressman Mickey Leland to initiate legislation to confer the honor on certain black military heroes who had been recommended for, but not received, the medal. Nine such awards were given ^[17]. He was an active member of the Executive Committee of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) and worked closely with Caucus founder Tom Lantos (D-CA) on the issues of the repression of Jews in the Soviet Union and the Tibetan people and monks in China.

DioGuardi was defeated for re-election in 1988 by liberal activist Nita Lowey.

After Congress

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DioGuardi concluded upon leaving the House of Representatives that “much work remained to be done in order to bring about fiscal responsibility and financial accountability in Congress.” ^[18]

In 1989, DioGuardi established the non-profit organization Truth In Government, whose mission statement is “to educate the public on the problem of rising, underreported national debt from Congress’ unchecked deficit spending.” ^[19] He travels extensively to speak to business and civic groups about the United States’ increasing financial dependence on countries that do not share American values.

In the years that followed, DioGuardi made a series campaigns to return to Congress. DioGuardi won the Republican primary in 1992 but missed the general election. He subsequently lost Republican primaries for Congress in 1994 and 1996. He was referred to as "the candidate who won't go away" by the New York Times ^[20] as a testament to his dedication. After losing the 1994 GOP primary, DioGuardi continued his campaign for the seat as the nominee of the Conservative Party and the Right-to-Life Party, receiving 11% of the vote against Republican Sue Kelly and Democrat Hamilton Fish V. In 1996, DioGuardi also lost the Conservative Party primary for Congress. He was the unsuccessful Right-to-Life Party nominee for Congress in 1996 and 1998. He considered with running again in 2000, but decided against entering the race.

Joseph DioGuardi’s recent articles in national publications include: • “Time for Budgetary Truth” in The Washington Times (August 24, 2009) • “Federal accounting reform urgency” in The Washington Times (November 2, 2003) • “Cooking the nation’s books” in The National Law Journal (2003).

In February 2009, he addressed the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board on Reporting Comprehensive Long-Term Fiscal Projections for the U. S. Government and Accounting for Social Insurance, and in June 2009 the Association of Government Accountants conference on the topic of Intergovernmental Financial Dependency by State and Local Governments.

At these talks, DioGuardi is quoted as stating, “The American people trust a roomful of lawyers (Congress) to do the work of a CPA; they don’t have the qualifications to do it, and they certainly lack the will to do it. Citizens would benefit from electing more CPAs to work on the inside of the legislative process. This would help control spending before, not after, taxpayer funds are committed.”

He chaired an AGA Task Force on Truth in Government Accounting and Budgeting in 1993.

He delivered keynote address at the annual conference of the American Accounting Association in 1994, persuading professors of accounting to help reform federal budgeting and financial management.

He delivered keynote address on federal financial management reforms before the Institute of Management Accountants (formerly the National Association of Accountants) in 1996.

Human Rights Activist

Upon leaving public office in 1989, DioGuardi began working on various human rights activism projects. He focused his efforts on the 1.8 million Albanians in Kosova, a country bordering Albania. He formed the American Albanian Civic League, the American Albanian Foundation, and the American Albanian Public Affairs Committee to continue his Congressional work to free Kosova from the occupation in March 1989 by Communist Serbia, led by war criminal and Party dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Joseph DioGaurdi and his wife, Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi, testified in The Hague against Milosevic for war crimes and genocide. DioGuardi traveled to Albania with Congressman Tom Lantos in May 1990, the first officials to do so in 50 years, to promote democracy in the midst of the continuing Communist dictatorship ^[21].

He has made fifteen trips to the region. In August 1990, DioGuardi persuaded Bob Dole and six other U.S. Senators to visit the two million Albanians in Kosovo. In September 1996, he returned to Albania with Congressman Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the Committee on International Relations, to meet with President Sali Berisha to discuss Albanian national security and minority rights for the ethnic Greeks in southern Albania. In June 1997, DioGuardi led a delegation to monitor the national elections in Albania and in August 1998 he traveled to northern Albania to assess the humanitarian crisis emanating from the war in Kosovo, at the request of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

DioGuardi is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including investiture as a Knight of Malta in 1979, the International Humanitarian Award in 1986, the Outstanding CPA in Government Award from the New York State Society of CPAs in 1986, the Torch of Liberty Award from the New York State Conservative Party in 1987, the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Westchester County Republican Committee in 1987, the Westchester Irish Committee's Dedication to Peace and Justice Award in 1988, the Paul Harris Fellow Award of the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International in 1988, and the Annual Achievement Award of the Association of Government Accountants (Boston Chapter) in 1992.

Congressional campaign, 2008

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On May 22, 2008, Republican delegates from each of the five counties represented in the 19th district met in Mahopac, New York to endorse a candidate, and chose Lalor, with 347 votes going to the Iraq veteran, 311 going to Oros, and 102 going to DioGuardi.^[22]

Personal life

Joseph DioGuardi and Carol Asselta, had two children, Kara (born December 9, 1970) and John (born October 15, 1973). John is a substance abuse counselor and social worker with Phoenix House. Kara is a songwriter, record producer, and singer, recently named as the fourth judge added to American Idol's 2008-2009 season.^[23] Carol died of ovarian cancer in 1997.

DioGuardi married his second wife, Shirley Cloyes, on June 28, 1998. She is the Balkan Affairs Advisor to (and co-founder of) the Albanian American Civic League, as well as a writer, human rights activist, and former book publisher.

References

External links

• [2] USA Former Members of Congress.
• Joseph Dioguardi Official DioGuardi Website.
• Truth In Government Advocate for fiscal accountability and transparency.
• Official Website of Albanian American Civic League
• Kosova's Last Chance
• DioGuardi and Cloyes get Kosovo Bill HR 36 introduced early in the 110th Congress
• New York's Kosovo Kingpin
• A Congressional Race Turns Into a Grudge Match
• Lowey Victory: Anatomy Of an Upset
• Kelly Defeats DioGuardi In Republican Primary

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Richard Ottinger	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 20th congressional district 1985–1989	Succeeded by Nita M. Lowey