From December 1944 to February 1945 he traveled and worked with a Seabee battalion in the Pacific Theater as a member of the Naval Affairs Committee.

In January 1947, he was assigned to the Appropriations Committee and served on the subcommittee providing funds for the Departments of Labor, Health, Education and Welfare longer than any other member in the history of Congress.

This increase in available funds permitted the Institutes to take great strides forward in their constant search to find the cause and cure of today's killing and crippling diseases.

[1] Congressman Fogarty was impressed by the pioneer work of Rhode Island state librarian, Elizabeth Myer, and went on to champion extension of library service.

John Fogarty was awarded distinguished service citations by many national health organizations, veterans groups, educational associations and business chambers.

The $5,000 honorarium which accompanied the award was donated by Mr. Fogarty to the then Rhode Island Parents Council for Mentally Retarded Children.

When Mr. Fogarty was designated as a winner of the Leadership Award by the Kennedy Foundation given to the public official whose activities have awakened the public conscience or led to increased community effort on behalf of the mentally retarded, the Congressman donated the $8,000 honorarium which accompanied the award to the John E. Fogarty Foundation,[7] a charitable and educational organization which encourages medical and educational research and fosters rehabilitation of the mentally retarded.

It has raised millions of dollars and provides grants annually to organizations and institutions in Rhode Island that enhance the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The John E. Fogarty Memorial Building was designed in 1968 by architects Castellucci, Galli, & Planka to house the state welfare office.

[8] Located at 111 Fountain Street in downtown Providence, the three-story brutalist structure was the size of an entire city block.

Upon his death, the Fogarty International Center was created at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland www.fic.nih.gov Archived 2007-09-12 at the Wayback Machine.