Former U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, a long serving New York Democrat who was the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has died. She was 87.

Longtime New York congresswoman Nita Lowey, 87, has died from metastatic breast cancer, her family announced Sunday.

Former Rep. Nita Lowey, who represented New York in Congress for 32 years and became the first woman to chair the House Appropriations Committee, died at 87, her family said. The Democrat – a