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Born:

March 24 1944, Rockford, Illinois
Family: Married - Freda Teslik, 1982
Children - Neil (22), Noel (20), Katie (17)
Education: Juris Doctor - Marquette University (1970)
Bachelor of Arts - American University (1967)
Auburn High School - Rockford, Illinois (1962)

Congressional

In 2006, Congressman Manzullo is continuing his mission to restore manufacturing in America and create good-paying jobs for the people of northern Illinois and throughout our nation. In his sixth year as Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Small Business, Manzullo has held more than 60 hearings on the state of manufacturing in America and introduced numerous pieces of legislation to make U.S. companies more competitive so they can expand and create jobs.  He also founded the 80-member House Manufacturing Caucus, which he chairs, and he serves on the House Financial Services Committee. He also chairs the U.S./China Interparliamentary Exchange, which gives Manzullo a forum to engage and challenge China’s leaders directly on issues of concern to northern Illinois residents, including fair trade, piracy, human rights violations, Taiwan and North Korea. Manzullo is also a member of the Council on Competitiveness’ Steering Committee to the National Innovation Initiative. Manzullo represents the 16th Congressional District of Illinois, which includes the counties of Winnebago, Boone, Stephenson, JoDaviess, Ogle, Carroll, the majority of McHenry County and parts of DeKalb and Whiteside counties.

Manzullo has earned the reputation as Congress’ champion of manufacturing and a fierce advocate for job creation in northern Illinois. His “Agenda to Restore Manufacturing in America” outlines 17 priorities to preserve U.S. manufacturing and put Americans back to work. The plan’s highlights include providing tax relief to companies which keep jobs in America; forcing China and the other East Asian countries to stop manipulating their currencies to give themselves an unfair cost advantage over American companies; requiring the federal government to comply with Buy American laws; preserving America’s Defense Industrial Base; reducing the surging cost of health care; and many others.

One of the priorities in the plan, encouraging job creation in America, was accomplished in October 2004 when President Bush signed into law the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, which provides a 9 percent tax deduction for manufacturing production in the United States. Manzullo led the fight in Congress to include the domestic manufacturing benefits, which keep jobs in America, and to share them with small businesses.

In addition to his national advocacy for U.S. manufacturers and America’s 25 million small businesses, Manzullo has championed the needs of his constituents in northern Illinois and secured millions of dollars in congressional appropriations bills to create jobs in the district he represents.

Transportation is a vital issue for the people of northern Illinois. Working with U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Barack Obama (D-Illinois), Manzullo secured $51.6 million in the long-range transportation bill in 2005 for nine vital road projects in northern Illinois. They include:
            * $10 million to widen Route 31 from the future Western Bypass of Algonquin to Rakow Road in          McHenry County.
            * $8.2 million for a 4-lane Route 20 from Freeport to Galena.
            * $6.6 million for South Main Street (IL Route 2) Corridor project in downtown Rockford.
            * $6.6 million for the West State Street Corridor Reconstruction Project in Rockford.
            * $6.2 million for U.S. Route 30 widening project from Rock Falls to Fulton. 
            * $5.72 million for Rakow Road widening to four lanes between Route 31 and Ackman Road in            McHenry County.
            * $5.72 million for Route 47 widening to five lanes between Kreutzer and Reed roads in Huntley.  
            * $2.4 million for the Northern Illinois Commuter Rail Initiative, an effort to link Rockford to      Chicago by commuter rail.
            * $160,000 for the Willow Creek Bike Trail extension in Winnebago County.

As a tremendous advocate for commuter air service in northern Illinois, Manzullo has helped secure more than $60 million during his time in Congress to fund improvements to the Chicago-Rockford Airport. In early 2005, Manzullo was instrumental in convincing federal authorities to put a U.S. Customs facility at the airport to allow international flights. Also last year, he helped secure a $1 million federal grant that was used to convince United Airlines to start flying daily out of Rockford. In 2004, Manzullo secured $1.5 million to help market the airport and other Rockford attractions to potential passengers and visitors.

Building a new federal courthouse in Rockford has been one of Manzullo’s priorities for years. In the early 2000s, he secured $7 million for design and land acquisition to replace the old courthouse, which is too small and lacks sufficient security features. Manzullo and Senator Durbin were able to secure another $34.5 million this past year to fund construction of the courthouse. Groundbreaking is scheduled for early 2006.

Working with a coalition of local manufacturers, Illinois colleges and universities and our state’s scientific community, Manzullo helped secure more than $12 million to create a high-tech Research and Development Manufacturing Technology Center and small business incubator in Rockford. The EIGERlab will design the next generation of miniature machine tools that will build our nation’s future combat systems. The Pentagon contract was bolstered by SBA funding, which will allow the EIGERlab to create commercial applications for the technology, creating endless opportunities for Rockford-area manufacturers. Manzullo also secured $1.5 million to develop the new Agriculture Technology Park in Belvidere, another high-tech center which will help entrepreneurs research new uses for farm products and bring them to market. In addition, Manzullo secured nearly $2 million for the Burpee Museum and Paleontology Research Center to help the museum campus display its rare dinosaur, Jane, which will draw thousands to Rockford each year and create numerous jobs in the tourism industries. Manzullo also secured $2.2 million for the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford to help expand its unique Rural Health Professions curriculum, which will draw students from across the world. He secured $1 million to help fund needed repairs at Crusader Clinic, the community health center in Rockford.

Also in 2005, Manzullo secured funding to help local manufacturers in McHenry County and Winnebago, Boone, Ogle and Stephenson counties set up flexible manufacturing alliances that allow the local manufacturers to work together to compete for larger contracts.

As a long-time supporter of public safety, Manzullo in 2005 secured nearly $1.2 million in federal funds to equip 40 police departments in northern Illinois with the latest technologies to fight crime and protect the public. Manzullo has also been a strong supporter of the federal fire grant program, which has delivered millions of dollars to fire protection districts throughout northern Illinois since 9/11 to ensure they have the most up-to-date equipment to be able to respond to terrorist attacks or natural disasters.

Manzullo is also working to protect children in northern Illinois from Internet predators. As a member of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, Manzullo secured $250,000 in federal funds to bring the Web Wise Kids online safety program to all the schools in northern Illinois to teach students safer Internet strategies when they are surfing the Web. So far, more than 18,000 6th Graders in northern Illinois have been trained under the program.

In his work to promote Rochelle’s intermodal transportation hub and the numerous job opportunities it is creating in Ogle County and beyond, Manzullo secured $2.2 million to help fund the infrastructure for the $181 million project. He fostered an agreement between the Army and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to clean up the 13,000-acre Savanna Army Depot in Carroll and Jo Daviess counties and transform it into a national wildlife refuge area and Bald Eagle nesting site. A portion of the land will be reserved for industrial uses, which will create thousands of jobs in northwestern Illinois.

With more than 5,000 veterans calling Stephenson County home, Manzullo helped convince the Veterans Administration to locate a satellite medical clinic in Freeport. The new clinic, which will eliminate the need for veterans to drive to Rockford or Madison, WI for routine medical care, opened in September of 2004.

Manzullo also helped several environmental projects progress in northern Illinois. He secured $500,000 to help the tiny McHenry County community of Port Barrington build its own sewage system and prevent 70,000 gallons of raw sewage from flowing into the Fox River each day from residents’ septic systems. In addition, Manzullo secured $200,000 for the DeKalb County community of Genoa to help fund a needed expansion of the town’s sewage treatment plant, which is near capacity. He also secured $550,000 to help Fox River Grove residents pay for necessary improvements to their  sewer plant. Manzullo previously secured $1.5 million to help Galena replace its failing sewage system and more than $2 million to help Johnsburg officials build a wastewater treatment plant to replace residential septic systems, which were dumping more than a million gallons of raw and partially treated sewage into the Fox River each day.

Congressman Manzullo achieved his number one legislative priority in 2001 when the President signed his legislation into law to help veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. The legislation was inspired by former Freeport, Illinois resident Dan Steele, a Gulf War veteran who died from the illness in 1999 at age 36. The National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Coalition named Manzullo its “Legislator of the Year” in 2001 for his efforts to pass the important legislation. Also in 2001, Congressman Manzullo authored legislation that was signed into law to ease tax reporting requirements that would have cost America’s colleges, universities and trade schools more than $100 million annually.

Since he was elected in 1992, Congressman Manzullo has passed several pieces of legislation inspired by the people he represents in Illinois. Manzullo amended the Clean Air Act in 1995 that eliminated mandatory carpooling in the Chicagoland area (including McHenry County) and other large cities. The Manzullo amendment made carpooling voluntary while keeping the same high clean air standards. The amendment saves schools, local governments and businesses $1 billion to $2 billion annually in regulatory compliance costs.

Congressman Manzullo also authored a law that forces federally funded family planning clinics to report suspected incidents of child abuse and statutory rape to authorities. Another provision to require those clinics to notify parents before dispensing prescription birth control drugs to young girls was approved in the House but not acted on by the Senate. Manzullo also introduced legislation designed to curb the power of federal judges to raise taxes in state and local governments.

Congressman Manzullo also convinced the United States Navy to stop giving away its deactivated ships to our allies.  The Navy now leases or sells these vessels, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue each year.

In 2005, Women Impacting Public Policy – the largest bipartisan women’s business group in America – honored Manzullo with its 2005 Congressional Leadership Award for his strong advocacy of women and minority business issues. Also last year, he was named Legislator of the Year by the International Franchise Association, and he received the Champion of Small Business Development by the Association of Small Business Development Centers.

In 2004 and 2005, Manzullo received the National Patriot Legislator Award from the Association for Service Disabled Veterans. In 2004, he received the Distinguished Community Award from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. In 2002, he was recognized for education leadership by the Coalition of Higher Education Assistance Organization and he received the Distinguished Service to Higher Education Award from Northern Illinois University.

Congressman Manzullo annually earns recognition as a “Taxpayer’s Hero” from Citizens Against Government Waste, a “Taxpayer’s Friend” by the National Taxpayers Union, and a “Friend of Agriculture” by the Illinois Agricultural Association. He has also been called “Senior Friendly” by the 60 Plus Association, and he received the “Guardian of Small Business Award” from the National Federation of Independent Business numerous times.  He has received several endorsements from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The National Association of Manufacturers has consistently honored him with the “Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence.”  He has also received the “True Blue” award from the Family Research Council for his unwavering commitment to family issues.

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