WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2014 – Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., the longest-serving member in the history of the Congress, announced today that he will retire at the end of his current 29th term.
The highly-respected lawmaker’s decision comes after several recent retirement announcements among House Democrats.
Dingell is credited with writing Endangered Species Act, the 1990 Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and legislation to build North America’s first international wildlife refuge. The lawmaker has been heavily involved in public health, helping to author the Affordable Care Act, the Patient’s Bill of Rights, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Mammography Quality Standards Act, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, and others.
Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, lauded Dingell.
“Our air, land and water are cleaner, our health better, and our environmental protections stronger thanks to John Dingell’s remarkable leadership over more than a half-century,” Beinecke said. “He not only helped secure passage of the Clean Water Act, the Wilderness Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, he fought back repeated attempts to weaken these foundational laws and the safeguards they provide.”
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