Full Biography
Representative Candice Miller’s career in public service reflects a long history of efficiency and cost effectiveness – from her early roots on the Harrison Township Board of Trustees, to her current responsibilities representing Michigan’s 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Representative Miller is currently serving her seventh term after first being elected to office in November of 2002. In addition to representing the views of Michigan’s 10th Congressional District in the Halls of Congress, Representative Miller serves as Chairman of the Committee on House Administration – currently serving as the only woman chair of a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. She serves as Vice Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and is a member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. In Congress, Representative Miller has been a leader in protecting the Great Lakes and promoting Michigan industry.
Prior to her election to Congress, Representative Miller served two successful terms as Michigan’s Secretary of State. Miller made dramatically improving customer service the hallmark of her administration, and her work was recognized by the voters in 1998 when she was overwhelmingly re-elected, winning every county in the state and becoming the first statewide elected official to achieve a margin of victory of over 1,000,000 votes. Her leadership not only led to improved services in Secretary of State Branch Offices, but also in the administration of elections. Following the disputed 2000 election, the Ford–Carter Commission on National Election Reform cited Michigan’s Qualified Voter File, pioneered by Miller, as a national model, and Miller also began the process of implementing a statewide uniform voting system. All of her election reforms helped to reinforce Michigan’s reputation for free, fair, and open elections.
Representative Miller’s career in public service began when she was elected to the Harrison Township Board of Trustees in 1979. Only one year later, she was elected Harrison Township Supervisor, becoming the youngest Supervisor in her township’s history, the first Republican since the Great Depression, and the first woman ever elected to the post. During her 12 years as Supervisor, Harrison Township experienced explosive growth as she held the line on taxes and streamlining government to allow for job creation, all the while being hailed for doing so in an environmentally sensible manner. In 1992, she was elected Macomb County Treasurer, becoming the first Republican to win a countywide office in Macomb County in more than 60 years.
She and her husband, retired Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Donald Miller, continue to reside in Harrison Township. Judge Miller formerly served as Colonel in the Air National Guard. He flew missions in Vietnam and was the base commander at Selfridge Air National Guard Base.
Committee on House Administration
In the 113th Congress, Representative Miller was appointed to serve as Chairman of the Committee on House Administration (CHA), and in the 114th Congress she continues to serve as the Committee’s Chair. CHA was established in 1947 and is charged with the oversight of federal elections and the day-to-day operations of the House of Representatives.
The Committee has the responsibility to ensure that the House of Representatives runs in an effective and efficient manner, which is vital as we work to meet the many challenges facing this great nation. Most importantly, this committee has jurisdiction over the federal election process, and, as Chairman, Representative Miller has been committed to making certain the Committee enacts rules to ensure our nation continues to have open, free, and fair elections.
Under her leadership as Chairman, the U.S. House received consecutive “clean” audits, demonstrating her commitment to transparency and accountability. She also played a major role in advancing legislation to end the practice of using millions of dollars in taxpayer funding to host political party conventions and, instead, redirected that funding for pediatric research. Working with House officers, she has helped to increase the availability of low-cost digital tools used by the House to improve the House’s daily functions and reduce operating costs. She also oversaw the Committee’s review of the report generated by the Bauer-Ginsberg Commission, which focused on utilizing good, local governance over elections and made recommendations on different ideas to help locals election administrators improve upon their own voting processes.
Committee on Homeland Security
Representative Miller has served on the House Committee on Homeland Security since March of 2008. Representative Miller is currently serving as Vice Chair of the full House Committee on Homeland Security and served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security from 2011 until February of 2016. She is also serving as a member of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
The federal government’s first and foremost responsibility is to provide for our national defense, and our common defense begins with a secure homeland. The Committee is charged with oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ensuring its primary focus remains on the protection of the American people.
As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, Representative Miller exercised effective oversight and initiated legislative efforts to ensure our nation’s borders are adequately secured against international terrorist organizations, illegal immigration, drug and human smuggling, as well as the exploitation of the legitimate visa process.
During the 113th Congress, Representative Miller championed legislation to formally authorize Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and clarify the security mission of the agency for the first time since the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002. The legislation passed the House on July 28th, 2014. She has also long advocated for ways to strengthen the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to identify and stop terrorists with western passports, authoring legislation in that would allow DHS to suspend a country’s participation in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program if it fails to provide the U.S. with pertinent traveler information related to terror threats. Additionally, Representative Miller crafted legislation to increase oversight over the maritime security mission of DHS, as well as strengthen maritime security at home and abroad as we trade with our trusted partners.
In the 114th Congress, Representative Miller continued to push needed legislation that helped ensure we implement strong protections for our borders and global supply chain. Our nation’s borders can and must be secured, and her goal has been to see that DHS is making progress to confront the threats of terrorism, cyber terrorism, and mismanagement of the Department in these areas vital to our national security, and continuing to work towards a secure border and a safer homeland.
Michigan’s 10th Congressional District is a border district. It is home to the Blue Water Bridge, which is the second-busiest border crossing on the northern tier; Selfridge Air National Guard Base, which has expanding missions in the area of homeland security; Coast Guard stations at Selfridge, Port Huron, and Harbor Beach; it borders Chemical Valley, which is one of the largest collections of petro-chemical operations in North America; the CN Rail Tunnel, which is the busiest rail artery in the U.S.; and is the genesis of important trade arteries, interstates I-94 and I-69.
Miller has focused her efforts on building a stronger presence of homeland security assets at Selfridge, enhancing the security of our airways, roadways, railways, and waterways, in addition to securing our food and water supplies by enhancing Northern Border security.
The Committee on Homeland Security was established in 2002 to provide congressional oversight for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and better protect the American people against a possible terrorist attack. Many of the programs at Selfridge and the armed service reserves throughout the 10th Congressional District fall under the purview of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Committee on Homeland Security provides oversight for the department and handles issues dealing with transportation security, border and port security, critical infrastructure protection, cyber security, and science and technology, emergency preparedness, emerging threats, intelligence and information sharing, investigations, and management and procurement.
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
In 2007, Representative Miller was appointed to the full House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Representative Miller is also a member of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, as well as the Subcommittee on Aviation. Representative Miller is the only member from Michigan serving on this Committee and takes seriously the need to advocate on behalf of Michigan to ensure the state is returned its fair share of tax dollars for many infrastructure needs. She believes all avenues of transportation, whether on land or on the sea, are important to improve, maintain, and support surrounding economic growth.
Michigan’s 10th Congressional District is host to the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, which is the second most traveled border crossing in North America. It is a vital component of economic expansion not just for the district, but for the region, state, and nation. This Committee allows her to offer enhanced oversight and influence to ensure this portal and others like it receive the federal attention they need and deserve.
In 2014, Representative Miller was appointed to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Public-Private Partnership Special Panel. This panel was created to examine the current state of public-private partnerships (P3s) across all modes of transportation, economic development, public buildings, water, and maritime infrastructure and equipment, and make recommendations on balancing the needs of the public and private sectors when considering, developing, and implementing P3 projects to finance the Nation’s infrastructure. As the only Michigan Member, her involvement was critical in examining innovative ways that P3s can benefit infrastructure projects in Michigan, such as the expansion of the Customs and Border Plaza at the Blue Water Bridge.
The Committee also holds jurisdiction over water quality issues. Throughout her career in public service, protecting the Great Lakes has been one of Representative Miller’s principal advocacies. She is a vocal proponent of policy designed to preserve and protect Michigan’s most cherished natural resource. During the 113th Congress, as the only member of the Committee from the state of Michigan, Miller tirelessly advocated for the Great Lakes during House and conference negotiations of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) and secured the inclusion of her provision designating all ports and harbors on the Great Lakes as a single, comprehensive navigation system for budgeting purposes – the Great Lakes Navigation System – essentially allowing the Great Lakes ports and harbors to create a unified front when it comes to federal funding.
The Committee has jurisdiction over all modes of transportation: aviation, maritime and waterborne transportation, highways, bridges, mass transit, and railroads. The Committee also has jurisdiction over other aspects of our national infrastructure, such as clean water and waste water management, the transport of resources by pipeline, flood damage reduction, the management of federally owned real estate and public buildings, the development of economically depressed rural and urban areas, disaster preparedness and response, and hazardous materials transportation.
The Committee’s broad oversight portfolio includes many federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Coast Guard, Amtrak, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the General Services Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others.