Biography

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R)
Florida’s 25th Congressional District

After serving 14 effective years in the Florida State Legislature, Mario Diaz-Balart was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002 to represent Florida's 25th Congressional District, which includes part of Miami-Dade, Collier and Monroe Counties, and is currently serving his fourth term.
 
Since his start in Congress, Diaz-Balart has served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and has helped deliver millions of federal dollars for the I-75 widening project and Miami-Dade Transit.  He was recently appointed to serve as the Ranking Member of the Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee of that Committee.  He also serves on the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee and the Highways and Transit Subcommittee.  His other committee assignments include the Budget Committee and the Science and Technology Committee. 

Diaz-Balart is the founder and co chairman of the Everglades Caucus, a group dedicated to Everglades restoration and conservation.  In his first term Diaz-Balart authored two amendments to protect Everglades restoration funding, which were successfully passed.  He continues to actively work toward securing additional funding under the Water and Recourses Development Act (WRDA). 

Public safety is also a priority for Diaz-Balart.  Since his arrival in Washington, Diaz-Balart has been a strong proponent of promoting hurricane preparedness and ensuring federal relief for Florida in the aftermaths of Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita.  In 2007, Diaz-Balart launched the Protecting Families Online initiative, to help parents and families protect themselves against online predators and ID theft. 

As a member of the Budget Committee, Diaz-Balart continues pushing for a responsible federal budget that keeps taxes low on hard-working families.  When he first came to Congress, he was a founding member of the Washington Waste Watchers, a group dedicated to combating government waste, fraud and abuse.  In the 110th Congress, Diaz-Balart introduced the Tax Relief for Families Act (H.R. 411), which would make permanent the state and local sales tax deduction, the child tax credit, the marriage penalty relief, the college deduction and the school teacher expense deduction and would repeal the death tax.  He also introduced the Commuter Aid and Relief for Suburbs Act or CARS Act (H.R. 5905), a bill that would enable commuters to write off commuting expenses from their taxes. 

Diaz-Balart began his political career in 1988 in the Florida House of Representatives, and in 1992 he was elected to the Florida Senate where he served as Vice Chair of the Rules Committee and chaired several other committees including the Combined Appropriations/Ways and Means/Finance and Tax Committee, the Criminal Justice Appropriations, Banking and Insurance Committee, and Children and Families Committee. In 2000, Diaz-Balart returned to the Florida House where he served as Chair of the Congressional Redistricting Committee and Vice-Chair of the Procedural and Redistricting Council.

Diaz-Balart was born in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on September 25, 1961. He attended the University of South Florida in Tampa where he studied Political Science before beginning his public service career as an aide to then City of Miami Mayor in 1985. The Congressman lives in Miami, FL with his wife and son.