Full Biography

John D. Dingell proudly represents Michigan’s Fifteenth Congressional District, which includes parts of Wayne and Washtenaw Counties and all of Monroe County. 

On January 5, 2011, Congressman Dingell was officially sworn in for his 29th full term in the U.S. House of Representatives. As the longest serving member of the United States House of Representatives in history, Dingell serves as the Dean of the House.  Dingell’s work includes fighting for the working families that keep America's economy going, making health care more affordable and accessible to all families, ensuring the safety of our nation’s food supply, and protecting our nation's natural heritage.

Congressman Dingell serves exclusively as a senior member on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over issues pertaining to commerce, energy, environment, health care, consumer product safety and telecommunications.  Dingell sits on all of the Committee’s six subcommittees and votes on the Subcommittee on Health, the Subcommittee on Energy & Power, the Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations, and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade & Manufacturing.

In 2010, Dingell played a lead role in crafting national health insurance reform legislation, wherein he authored a main component of the law, the Patient’s Bill of Rights.  He also recently authored the landmark food safety reform law, The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which overhauls the United States’ food safety system by improving the capacity of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and food manufacturers to prevent food safety problems and empowering them to detect and immediately respond to food-borne illness outbreaks.  Furthering his commitment to improving the capacity of the FDA, Dingell authored additional legislation that dramatically improves drug safety by strengthening FDA's ability to monitor drugs after they are on the market.

Congressman Dingell is known as “America’s Watchdog” for his relentless pursuit of exposing waste, fraud and abuse in government and the private sector through vigorous oversight.  Few legislators can demonstrate a record of fighting government waste and corporate corruption like Congressman Dingell.  A leader in the federal actions to toughen corporate accountability both before and after the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals, Dingell is also respected for his staunch and tireless leadership in exposing government waste and abuses of tax dollars, including the investigation of no-bid defense contracts in Iraq and the BP oil spill in the gulf.

Over the last five decades, Dingell has authored many renowned laws protecting our health and our environment, as well as the rights of workers and consumers. One notable legislative accomplishment is the 1990 Clean Air Act, which paved the pathway for our nation to drastically clean up the air we breathe, while preserving American competitiveness and protecting American jobs.  He also led the battle to pass revolutionary legislation such as the Endangered Species Act; as well as laws affecting America's most pressing needs like the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Mammography Quality Standards Act, all of which he authored. Congressman Dingell has worked to protect and increase civil rights throughout his career in Congress.  Dingell was heavily involved in crafting the 1957 Civil Rights Act and was a leader in ushering through the landmark Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965.  One of his proudest moments as a member was voting in favor of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a vote that almost cost him his seat in Congress.  Civil rights legislation taught him that sometimes passing good legislation that will help working men and women is not always the popular thing to do, but it is the right thing to do. Congressman Dingell was also a leader in the University of Michigan’s fight to uphold its Affirmative Action policies in the landmark Supreme Court cases in 2003 and fought hard against Proposition 2 in 2006, which overturned Michigan’s Affirmative Action laws. His work on advancing Americans’ rights is a constant work in progress.

Congressman Dingell facilitated the formation of the "Do Not Call" list in 2003 to help families stop unwanted telemarketing.  An avid conservationist and outdoorsman, and senior member on the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, Dingell successfully passed legislation to build North America's first international wildlife refuge, protecting thousands of acres of natural habitat in Southeast Michigan. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Nature Conservancy of Michigan, and led successful efforts to stop the Bush Administration from allowing higher arsenic levels in drinking water and from cutting funds to investigate and prosecute environmental crimes.

Dingell’s efforts to protect federal road funds for our communities have led to hundreds of millions more in vital road dollars for Michigan. He played a central role in working with the City of Ann Arbor in 2010 to secure $13.9 million to replace the bridges over Stadium Boulevard.  This funding will save more than $33 million a year in traffic delays, vehicle operation and crash costs, will generate more than $53 million in real economic benefit and will create an estimated 450 jobs. In addition, he worked with officials in Wayne County to save local taxpayers more than $350 million of the cost to stop pollution of the Rouge River and has been relentless in his efforts to limit the importation of Canadian waste into Michigan.  Dingell loves Michigan and that is why he works to ensure that its history is not forgotten.  He wrote the law that created Michigan's Automobile National Heritage Area to conserve the story of America's auto industry and the law to establish the River Raisin National Battlefield in Monroe.

John D. Dingell was born July 8, 1926 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Much of his childhood was divided between Detroit and Washington, D.C., while his father, also named John, served as Congressman from Michigan's 15th district.

In 1944, at the age of 18, the younger Dingell joined the US Army and prepared to fight the Axis powers in World War II.  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 of 1945.

John Dingell finished his military service in the fall of 1946 to attend Georgetown University where he studied chemistry.  He continued his studies at Georgetown Law School, graduating in 1952.  He then worked as a Park Ranger, a prosecuting attorney for Wayne County and ran his own private law practice.  In 1955, after his father passed away while still serving in Congress, the younger Dingell ran for Congress and won, beginning his career on Capitol Hill at the age of 29.

Congressman Dingell’s Southeast Michigan district is an ethnically diverse area with a wide range of business and industry. Light and heavy auto and manufacturing facilities and suppliers, as well as numerous small businesses provide various jobs for thousands of area residents. Southeast Michigan is on the cutting edge of high technology research and development for advanced vehicle batteries and is the home to numerous small clean energy technology, biotechnology and medical startups. The district is home to the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, Concordia University, as well as, Wayne County Community College, Henry Ford Community College, Washtenaw Community College and Monroe County Community College.

John Dingell is a devout Catholic. He enjoys hunting, reading and loves listening to classical music.  He has four grown children and several grandchildren, and has been married to Debbie Insley Dingell for 30 years.

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Check out Dingell's Drive in Five Decades of Progress on Dipity.