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Representative Benjamin A. Gilman in Dublin in 2001. Credit John Cogill/Associated Press

Benjamin A. Gilman, a New York congressman for 30 years and a leading Republican critic of the Clinton administration’s foreign policy initiatives, died on Saturday in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. He was 94.

His death, at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, was confirmed by his wife, Georgia Gilman, who said he had been hospitalized for more than three years after hip surgery.

First elected to the House of Representatives in 1972, Mr. Gilman was a moderate Republican who focused on foreign affairs throughout most of his years in Washington.

From 1995 to 2000, he was chairman of the International Relations Committee, as the House Foreign Affairs Committee was then known. He was named to lead the panel after the Republicans won control of the House in 1994.

Mr. Gilman accused President Bill Clinton of favoring Russia over other former Soviet republics, and said the president was indecisive on issues involving Bosnia, Haiti and Somalia.

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“Instead of a strong, steady signal on foreign policy coming from the nation’s capital, regrettably the world has heard a series of wavering notes sounded by an uncertain trumpet, leaving our allies concerned and our adversaries confused,” he said in one assessment.

Believing that Mr. Clinton was not shaping a sufficiently tough policy on North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons, Mr. Gilman introduced legislation to prevent the president from lifting economic sanctions against that country until it made major concessions on freezing its nuclear weapons program and halting missile tests.

He also contended that the Clinton administration had a “lethargic approach” toward helping Iraqis who wanted to overthrow President Saddam Hussein. A staunch supporter of Israel, Mr. Gilman accused the administration of bullying Israel into accepting unfavorable terms in talks with the Palestinians.

A week after making that accusation, in May 1998, Mr. Gilman spoke to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at a luncheon at the Capitol. “We want you to know that you’re not only among friends, but among mishpocheh,” said Mr. Gilman, who was Jewish, using the Yiddish word for family.

Although reflecting conservative Republican positions on many foreign policy issues, Mr. Gilman eschewed the firebrand tones of some of his party colleagues. He also departed from most congressional conservatives on issues like abortion rights and the environment, and was seen by many as a moderate in the tradition of Nelson A. Rockefeller.

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Mr. Gilman in 1996. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

The Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion endorsed both him and his unsuccessful 1996 Democratic challenger, Yash P. Aggarwal, citing their equally strong abortion rights positions. The League of Conservation Voters listed Mr. Gilman among House members who supported measures to protect the environment.

Mr. Gilman also focused on legislation to combat illegal drugs. In 1986, he and a colleague introduced a measure to provide $230 million for state and local police departments to set up anti-narcotics divisions. Mr. Gilman expressed anger when the Reagan administration released budget plans that sharply cut funding for such efforts.

Earlier in his congressional career, Mr. Gilman helped to negotiate the releases of several Americans imprisoned abroad.

As a result of one such negotiation, an American who had tried to smuggle some East Germans out of their country was released in 1978 by East Germany, and an Israeli was freed by Mozambique, which was then a Soviet ally, in exchange for the release of a convicted Soviet spy imprisoned in the United States. Mr. Gilman and the Israelis involved in the trade used code names while communicating by cable; Mr. Gilman was called “Uncle Ben.”

In 1980, Mr. Gilman led an informal House committee that successfully negotiated with a Cuban diplomat for the release of 30 Americans imprisoned in Cuba.

He left Congress in 2002 after the redistricting that followed the 2000 census consolidated his district and that of a fellow Republican, Sue W. Kelly. Mr. Gilman was seen as the underdog in a primary race between them, and he decided not to run again.

He had won all of his previous elections. His district in the 1970s included Rockland and Orange Counties and some of Ulster County, and his later districts comprised Rockland and parts of Orange, Sullivan and Westchester Counties.

Benjamin Arthur Gilman was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on Dec. 6, 1922. He served in the Army Air Corps in World War II, flying 35 missions over Japan and earning a Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, he graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and from New York Law School.

He was an assistant New York State attorney general in the 1950s, then a lawyer in private practice. He was a New York assemblyman from 1966 to 1972.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Jonathan and Harrison; a daughter, Susan; a stepdaughter, Nicole Pappas; a stepson, Peter Tingus; and 11 grandchildren. A son, David, and a daughter, Ellen, died before him. Two previous marriages ended in divorce.

After leaving Congress, Mr. Gilman founded the Gilman Group, a lobbying and consulting business in Washington specializing in international matters. In 2003 and 2004, he was the United States representative to the 58th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

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