Rep. John Dingell (Michigan)–Energy and Commerce Committee
By Carol S. Hook
Posted 10/26/06
- John Dingell was a House page from 1938 to 1943.
- He served in the Army in World War II and received orders to take part in the first wave of a planned invasion of Japan. He has said that President Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb saved his life.
- He has a degree in chemistry from Georgetown University.
- Dingell paid his way through law school at Georgetown by working as an elevator operator in the Capitol.
- After graduating, he worked as a forest ranger and as a prosecuting attorney for Wayne County and ran his own law office.
- He was elected to succeed his father, John Dingell Sr., after he died in 1955. He still uses his father's office furniture, and every year he introduces H.R. 15, the national health insurance bill cosponsored by his father in 1943.
- After a divorce in 1973, he was given custody and raised his four children.
- In 1981, he married Debbie Insley, a granddaughter of one of the General Motors Fisher brothers. She is president of the General Motors Foundation and a Democratic National Committeewoman. She headed the Michigan campaigns for Al Gore and John Kerry. The Dingells are one of Washington's most significant power couples.
- Dingell was chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and its investigative and oversight subcommittee for 14 years, from 1981 to 1995. He oversaw the AT&T breakup, the Conrail sale, and the cable reregulation law of 1992. He has had a leading role in the passage of some of the major laws protecting health and the environment, including the 1990 Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Mammography Quality Standards Act. He also had a major role in creating the "Do Not Call" list in 2003.
- Dec. 13, 2005, marked Dingell's 50th anniversary as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The late Jamie Whitten of Mississippi, who served 53 years, is the only other House member to have served as long.
Sources:
- Almanac of American Politics
- http://www.house.gov/dingell/bio.htm
- Newhouse News Service
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