 Fitzgerald was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-Sixth and to the nine succeeding Congresses and held office from March 4, 1899, to December 31, 1917, when he resigned to resume the practice of law.In the Sixty-Second through Sixty-Fifth Congresses he was chairman of the Committee on Appropriations.In March 1932 he was appointed county judge of Kings County; he was elected in November 1932 and served until his retirement on December 31, 1942.