John Dingell

John Dingell - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of John Dingell

John David Dingell Jr. ( DING-gəl; July 8, 1926 – February 7, 2019) was an American politician from the state of Michigan who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1955 until 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Dingell holds the record as the longest-serving member of Congress in American history.

This profile of John Dingell covers Early Life and Family Background, Tenure, Election summary, Personal Life and Legacy and Influence.

Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Dingell attended Georgetown University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1949 and a Juris Doctor in 1952. Dingell began his congressional career by succeeding his father, John Dingell Sr., as representative for Michigan's 15th congressional district on December 13, 1955. A longtime member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Dingell chaired the committee from 1981 to 1995 and from 2007 to 2009. He was Dean of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2015. Dingell was instrumental in the passage of the Medicare Act, the Water Quality Act of 1965, the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Clean Air Act of 1990, and the Affordable Care Act, among other laws. He also helped to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dingell was one of the final two World War II veterans to have served in Congress; the other was Texas Representative Ralph Hall.

Dingell announced on February 24, 2014, that he would not seek reelection to a 31st term in Congress. His wife, Debbie Dingell, successfully ran to succeed him in the 2014 election. President Barack Obama awarded Dingell the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. Dingell left office on January 3, 2015.

Early Life and Family Background of John Dingell

Dingell was born on July 8, 1926, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the son of Grace (née Bigler) and John Dingell Sr. (1894–1955). His father was the son of Polish immigrants, and his mother had Swiss and Scots-Irish ancestry. The Dingells were in Colorado in search of a cure for Dingell Sr.'s tuberculosis. The Dingell surname had been Dzięglewicz, and was Americanized by John Dingell Sr.'s father.

The family moved back to Michigan, and in 1932, Dingell Sr. Was elected the first representative of Michigan's newly created 15th District. In Washington, D.C., John Jr. Attended Georgetown Preparatory School and then the House Page School when he served as a page for the U.S. House of Representatives from 1938 to 1943. He was on the floor of the House when President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his famous speech after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In 1944, at the age of 18, Dingell joined the United States Army. He rose to the rank of second lieutenant and received orders to take part in the first wave of a planned invasion of Japan in November 1945; the Congressman said that President Harry S. Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb to end the war saved his life.

Dingell attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1949 and a Juris Doctor in 1952. He was a lawyer in private practice, a research assistant to U.S. District Court judge Theodore Levin, a congressional employee, a forest ranger, and assistant prosecuting attorney for Wayne County until 1955.

Tenure of John Dingell

Dingell was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives on December 13, 1955.

Dingell was instrumental in the passage of the Medicare Act, the Water Quality Act of 1965, the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Clean Air Act of 1990, and the Affordable Care Act, among others. He also helped to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. During his tenure in Congress, he voted in favor of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. He voted as well for the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Dingell was generally classified as a moderately liberal member of the Democratic Party. Throughout his career he was a leading congressional supporter of organized labor, social welfare measures and traditional progressive policies. At the beginning of every Congress, Dingell introduced a bill providing for a national health insurance system, the same bill that his father proposed while he was in Congress. Dingell also strongly supported Bill Clinton's managed-care proposal early in his administration. In October 1998, President Clinton began a Roosevelt Room appearance "by thanking Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Congressman Dingell for their steadfast support of Medicare and their participation in our Medicare Commission."

On some issues, though, Dingell reflected the values of his largely Catholic and working-class district. He supported the Vietnam War until 1971. While he supported all of the civil rights bills, he opposed expanding school desegregation to Detroit suburbs via mandatory busing. He took a fairly moderate position on abortion. He worked to balance clean air legislation with the need to protect manufacturing jobs. As well, in the early 1980s, he was a prominent politician who used "Japan bashing", blaming "little yellow men" for domestic automakers' misfortune, further fostering anti-Japanese racism in Detroit and contributing to the environment that led to the Killing of Vincent Chin, an American man of Chinese descent killed in the Detroit suburbs by two autoworkers who mistakenly thought he was Japanese.

An avid sportsman and hunter, he strongly opposed gun control, and was a former board member of the National Rifle Association of America. For many years, Dingell received an A+ rating from the NRA. Dingell helped make firearms exempt from the 1972 Consumer Product Safety Act so that the Consumer Product Safety Commission had no authority to recall defective guns. Dingell's wife, Representative Debbie Dingell, introduced legislation in 2018 to remove this exemption from the law.

Dingell was Dean of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2015.

On December 15, 2005, on the floor of the House, Dingell read a poem sharply critical of, among other things, Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, and the so-called "War on Christmas". Along with John Conyers, in April 2006, Dingell brought an action against George W. Bush and others alleging violations of the Constitution in the passing of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The case (Conyers v. Bush) was ultimately dismissed for lack of standing.

After winning re-election in 2008 for his 28th consecutive term, Dingell surpassed the record for having the longest tenure in the history of the House of Representatives on February 11, 2009. In honor of the record, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm declared February 11, 2009, to be John Dingell Day.

Dingell was one of the final two World War II veterans to have served in Congress; the other was Texas Representative Ralph Hall.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dingell), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.