jump to contentU.S. House of Representatives Seal

 
Biography
Congressman George Miller (D-California, 7th Congressional District)
2006

Congressman Miller's Official Photo

Senior Democrat, House Education and the Workforce Committee Member,
House Resources Committee

Congressman George Miller is a leading spokesman in Congress on education, labor, the economy, and the environment. He has represented the 7th District of California in San Francisco's East Bay since 1975. His district includes portions of Contra Costa and Solano counties, including Richmond, Concord, Martinez, Pittsburg, Vallejo, Benicia and Vacaville. He is a life-long Democrat.

Miller plays a leadership role in the House of Representatives on policy, strategy, and communications. He was appointed chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in March 2003 and again in January 2005. In that role he is responsible for helping Democrats develop and articulate policies to benefit all Americans, such as the Innovation Agenda and the New Direction for America plan. Miller is leading the fight in Congress to raise the federal minimum wage by $2.10 per hour after 10 years of no increase by Congress.

Miller was elected in January 2001 by his colleagues to serve as the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, a committee on which he has served since he first came to Congress. He has been re-elected to that post by his colleagues every two years since 2001.

Miller has served on the House Resources Committee since first coming to Congress and continues to serve on the committee today. He was chairman of the committee from 1991 to 1994 when it was known as the Natural Resources Committee, and served as the committee’s senior Democrat from 1995 to 2000. Miller uses this post to fight for the protection of California's fresh water resources and responsible stewardship of the nation's parks, forests and other public lands.

Miller was the founding chairman of the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families from 1983 through 1991, where he initiated congressional efforts to stop President Ronald Reagan's budget cuts to services for poor children and their families. Miller pioneered the concept of using federal funds to "invest" in social services to save lives and taxpayer dollars.

Miller has a long record of important legislative achievements involving natural resources, the federal budget, workplace issues, early childhood issues and education, including the Central Valley Project Improvement Act and the California Desert Protection Act.

One of his most recent major legislative accomplishments is the No Child Left Behind Act. Miller was one of the four congressional authors of this historic education reform, signed into law on January 8, 2002. Miller did not endorse every aspect of this bi-partisan bill, but some of its most important features came directly from some of Miller's earlier legislative efforts, such as improving teacher quality, holding schools accountable for the education of all children, and the need to greater financial resources to schools to meet the new goals. Miller remains committed to improving teacher quality and is fighting to get President Bush and the Republican controlled Congress to follow through on their original commitments to fully fund the No Child law.

In addition to his legislative advocacy, Miller conducts investigations and oversight. He helped to document extensive labor and human rights abuses in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the role that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay played in blocking Miller’s legislation to reform the Islands’ labor laws. Miller is pressing Rep. Richard Pombo, the current chairman of the Resources Committee, to hold hearings on this issue.

Miller led a decade-long effort to clear the names of the Port Chicago "Mutineers," 50 black sailors from WWII who refused to resume loading munitions at the Port Chicago Naval Weapons Station in Concord, California, following a still unexplained explosion that killed 320 sailors in 1944, most of whom were black. Miller and other advocates showed that racism affected the decision to court martial the sailors. In 1999, Miller helped win a presidential pardon for Freddie Meeks, one of the few surviving "mutineers."

George Miller was born in Richmond, CA, on May 15, 1945 and lives in Martinez. He graduated from Diablo Valley Community College, San Francisco State University, and earned his law degree from the University of California, Davis, Law School. He served on the staff of then-State Senate Majority Leader George Moscone in Sacramento. He is married to Cynthia Caccavo Miller, a life-long resident of Contra Costa County. They have two sons, George and Stephen, and five grandchildren.


For more information, contact:
Congressman George Miller
2205 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202/225-2095
Official Web Site: http://www.house.gov/georgemiller
E-mail Address: George.Miller@mail.house.gov

U.S. House of Representatives Seal
Congressman George Miller
2205 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2095
George.Miller@mail.house.gov