Daniel J. Flood, who as a Congressman helped direct the billions of tax dollars that poured into Federal social programs in the 1960's and 1970's but resigned in disgrace in 1980, died yesterday at Mercy Hospital in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He was 90 and lived in Wilkes-Barre.
The cause was pneumonia, according to the hospital.
Mr. Flood left the House of Representatives after 31 years of service when he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Federal campaign laws by taking payoffs from five people.
He had originally been charged by Federal prosecutors with having lined his pockets with hundreds of thousands of dollars from contractors and lobbyists. A jury voted 11 to 1 to convict him on five bribery and three perjury counts. The only juror to vote for acquittal was the subject of a jury tampering investigation and failed two lie detector tests, but no further legal action was taken in that case. Sentence of Probation
Mr. Flood agreed to enter the guilty plea before the start of a second trial, which had been postponed four times. He was sentenced to a year's probation. He was later the target of Federal investigations into drug abuse and ethics violations but they ended without resolution.
Mr. Flood's source of power was the chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Education and Welfare of the House Appropriations Committee, a position he held from 1967 to 1979.
In the 1960's and 1970's, amid the outpouring of Federal legislation that was aimed at social problems, Mr. Flood was among a small group of committee and subcommittee chairmen in the House and Senate who shaped the amounts and directions of financial aid for schools and hospitals. They also helped draft the legislation that was to provide money for the unemployed, needy and sick. At one time his subcommittee alone drafted legislation that directed $75 million a year.
Mr. Flood, who had been a Shakespearean actor in his youth and spoke with mellifluous tones, was a sartorial dandy who was known for his waxed mustache and often referred to as "Dapper Dan" on Capitol Hill. Yet he also was viewed with affection and even awe by the widows and orphans of his district in eastern Pennsylvania, which never lacked for Federal money if he could help it. Rerouted Highway
A grateful constituency emblazoned his name throughout his district. There is a Daniel J. Flood Elementary School, a Daniel J. Flood Rural Health Center and a Daniel J. Flood Industrial Park.
Mr. Flood forced Federal planners to route a major interstate highway through his district, and he was instrumental in getting an airport and a large new veterans hospital. Millions of dollars in military contracts were channeled into his district during the Vietnam War.
"Little birdies fly by and drop these goodies on my desk," he once joked.
Repeatedly re-elected, he often received as much as 70 percent of the vote.
Mr. Flood graduated from Syracuse University, and after his fling at acting, studied law and became deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania. First elected to Congress in 1944, he was defeated after serving one term, won again in 1948 only to be defeated again in 1952. He was elected again in 1954 and was a House member until his resignation in 1980.
He is survived by his wife, Catherine, of Wilkes-Barre.
