Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Moynihan in 1998
United States Senator from New York
In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	James Buckley
Succeeded by	Hillary Clinton
Chair of the Senate Finance Committee
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Lloyd Bentsen
Succeeded by	Bob Packwood
Chair of the Senate Environment Committee
In office September 8, 1992 – January 3, 1993
Preceded by	Quentin Burdick
Succeeded by	Max Baucus
12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
In office June 30, 1975 – February 2, 1976
President	Gerald Ford
Preceded by	John Scali
Succeeded by	Bill Scranton
10th United States Ambassador to India
In office February 28, 1973 – January 7, 1975
President	Richard Nixon Gerald Ford
Preceded by	Kenneth Keating
Succeeded by	Bill Saxbe
Counselor to the President
In office November 5, 1969 – December 31, 1970
President	Richard Nixon
Preceded by	Arthur Burns
Succeeded by	Donald Rumsfeld
White House Urban Affairs Advisor
In office January 23, 1969 – November 4, 1969
President	Richard Nixon
Preceded by	Joe Califano (Domestic Affairs)
Succeeded by	John Ehrlichman (Domestic Affairs)
Personal details
Born	(1927-03-16)March 16, 1927 Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Died	March 26, 2003(2003-03-26) (aged 76) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Elizabeth Brennan ​ (m. 1955)​
Children	3
Relatives	Michael Avedon (grandson)
Education	City College of New York Tufts University (BS, BA, MA, PhD) London School of Economics
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Navy
Years of service	1944–1947
Rank	Lieutenant (junior grade)
Unit	USS Quirinus (ARL-39)
Daniel Patrick Moynihan's voice Moynihan speaks on the discontinuation of public sales of Black Talon ammunition Recorded November 22, 1993

Daniel Patrick Moynihan (March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was an American politician and diplomat. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New York in the United States Senate from 1977 until 2001 after serving as an adviser to President Richard Nixon, and as the United States' ambassador to India and to the United Nations.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Moynihan moved at a young age to New York City. Following a stint in the navy, he earned a Ph.D. in history from Tufts University. He worked on the staff of New York Governor W. Averell Harriman before joining President John F. Kennedy's administration in 1961. He served as an Assistant Secretary of Labor under Presidents Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, devoting much of his time to the War on Poverty. In 1965, he published the controversial Moynihan Report on black poverty. Moynihan left the Johnson administration in 1965 and became a professor at Harvard University.

In 1969, he accepted Nixon's offer to serve as an Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, and he was elevated to the position of Counselor to the President later that year. He left the administration at the end of 1970, and accepted appointment as United States Ambassador to India in 1973. He accepted President Gerald Ford's appointment to the position of United States Ambassador to the United Nations in 1975, holding that position until early 1976; later that year he won election to the Senate.

Moynihan served as Chairman of the Senate Environment Committee from 1992 to 1993 and as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1993 to 1995. He also led the Moynihan Secrecy Commission, which studied the regulation of classified information. He emerged as a strong critic of President Ronald Reagan's foreign policy and opposed President Bill Clinton's health care plan. He frequently broke with liberal positions, but opposed welfare reform in the 1990s. He also voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Congressional authorization for the Gulf War. He was tied with Jacob K. Javits as the longest-serving Senator from the state of New York until they were both surpassed by Chuck Schumer in 2023.