Elijah Cummings, powerful Democrat who was involved in impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump has died at 68.
His death was confirmed by his spokeswoman Trudy Perkins, who said that the death was occasioned by complications from long-standing health challenges.
As the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, he oversaw scores of investigations into the conduct of the current president of the United States of America.
Mr Cummings has served since 1996 as the representative of the 7th District of Maryland.
He was born in 1951 to former sharecroppers in the city of Baltimore where he was also brought up and came of age.
His final months as a member of the US Congress were spent trading strong words with Donald Trump whom he accused of conspiring to block Congress' lines of inquiry.
In his congressional stint, he strongly campaigned for gun control legislation to reduce deaths occasioned by gun-related violence and called for a more humane approach to dealing with immigrants showing up on US shores.
He attacked Mr Trump over the conditions in detention centres where illegal immigrants are being held.
In the fall of 2017, Mr Cummings underwent a heart operation and was seen moving on a wheelchair and with an oxygen tank.