Dale E. Kildee

Infobox_Congressman
name = Dale Kildee


date of birth = birth date and age|1929|09|16
place of birth = Flint, Michigan
state = Michigan
district = 5th
term_start = January 4, 1977
preceded = Don Riegle
succeeded = Incumbent
party = Democrat
religion = Roman Catholic
alma_mater= Sacred Heart Seminary, University of Michigan
residence= Flint, Michigan
occupation= high school teacher
spouse = Gayle Heyn

Dale Edward Kildee (b. September 16 1929, Flint, Michigan) has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan since 1977, representing Michigan's 5th congressional district since 2003. The district is based in Flint and also includes Saginaw and Bay City.

Kildee earned his B.A. from Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, Michigan in 1952. He earned a teacher's certificate from the University of Detroit in 1955. He did graduate work in history and political science at the University of Peshawar in Pakistan from 1958 to 1959 under a Rotary Foundation Fellowship. He earned an M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1961.

Prior to entering politics, Kildee was a teacher at University of Detroit High School from 1954 to 1956 and at Flint Central High School from 1956 to 1964.

Kildee served as a member of the Michigan State House of Representatives from the 81st District from 1965 to 1974. He later served as a member of the Michigan State Senate from the 29th District from 1975 to 1977.

Midway through his Senate tenure, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives after 10-year incumbent Don Riegle made a successful run for the United States Senate. He has been reelected 15 times, never facing serious opposition in this heavily Democratic district. He represented Michigan's 7th congressional district for his first eight terms, until 1993. After redistricting following the 1990 census, he represented the 9th district until 2003, when, due to redistricting following the 2000 census, he began representing the 5th district. Although he is one of the longest-serving members of the House, he is only the third-longest tenured congressman from his own state, trailing fellow Democrats John Dingell and John Conyers.

While in Congress, he has been a reliable liberal, with a consistent pro-life voting record. Between 1985 and 2000, he also made 8,141 consecutive House votes. In 1997, he founded the House's Native American Caucus to advocate Native American issues.

In the 110th Congress, Kildee serves on the House Committee on Education and Labor. He is also a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Kildee is chairman of the House Page Board.

He came into the edges of the national spotlight during the Mark Foley scandal, as the only Democrat on the page board. Kildee claims he was "never informed" about Foley's communications with a House page, and was "never involved in any inquiry." Kildee took over as chairman of the page board in the 110th Congress.

The former-Chair of the House Page Board, Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL), in an October 1, 2006, St. Louis Post Dispatch article acknowledged that Kildee did not have prior knowledge of the correspondence between Foley and a House page, "I think based on the information I had, what I did was fine. If I regret something, maybe I should have had Dale with me, because now it's going to be a political football." Shimkus later elaborated as to why he did not tell Kildee in a December 8, 2006, article in the Associated Press, "Dale's a nice guy, but he's a Democrat, and I was afraid it would be blown out of proportion."

Committee Assignments

*Committee on Education and Labor
**Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education (Chairman)
**Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
*Committee on Natural Resources
**Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans
**Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
*Co-chair of the Congressional Automotive Caucus
*Co-chair of the Native American Caucus

External links

* [http://www.house.gov/kildee/ U.S. Congressman Dale Kildee] official U.S. House site
* [http://www.kildeeforcongress.org/ Kildee for Congress] official campaign site
* [http://www.michigandems.com Michigan Democratic Party]
* [http://www.michiganliberal.com/tag.do?tag=CD05 5th Congressional District] from "Michigan Liberal"

Notes