WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. John Dingell, the
longest-serving member of Congress in American history who mastered
legislative deal-making and was fiercely protective of Detroit’s auto
industry, will announce his retirement on Monday, a person familiar with
his plans said.
The person was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of Dingell’s announcement.
The
87-year-old Michigan Democrat has served in the U.S. House since
winning his late father’s seat in 1955. He became the longest serving
member of Congress in history on June 7 when he eclipsed the record held
by the late Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
His plans were first reported Monday morning by The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press.
"I’m not going to be carried out feet first," Dingell told The News. "I don’t want people
to say I stayed too long."
Dingell
is the former chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce
Committee and the Democrat has been a master of legislative deal-making
and staunch advocate for the U.S. auto industry.
Dingell has
played a role in a number of major pieces of legislation, including
President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and Medicare.
Dubbed
"Big John" for his imposing 6-foot-3 frame and sometimes intimidating
manner, a reputation bolstered by the wild game heads decorating his
Washington office, Dingell has served with every president since Dwight
D. Eisenhower. He also was known as a dogged pursuer of government waste
and fraud, helping take down two top presidential aides while chairman
of a powerful investigative panel.
"Presidents come and presidents
go," former President Bill Clinton said in 2005, when Dingell
celebrated 50 years in Congress. "John Dingell goes on forever."
Dingell
had a front-row seat for the passage of landmark legislation including
Medicare, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, all of
which he supported.
He also was accused of stalling the Clean Air
Act to help auto interests. His hometown, the Detroit suburb of
Dearborn, was home to a Ford Motor Co. factory that was once the largest
in the world.
One of his proudest moments came in 2010, when he
sat next to Obama as the $938 billion health care overhaul was signed
into law. Taking up his father’s cause, Dingell had introduced a
universal health care coverage bill in each of his terms.
For 14
years he chaired the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, which
oversees industries from banking and energy to health care and the
environment. He also led its investigative arm, which produced several
high-profile cases.
He often has used his dry wit to amuse his
friends and sting opponents. Even when he was in a hospital in 2003
following an operation to open a blocked artery, he maintained his
humor.
"I’m happy to inform the Republican leadership that I fully
intend to be present to vote against their harmful and shameless tax
giveaway package," he said from the hospital.
His critics called
him overpowering and intimidating. And the head of a 500-pound wild boar
looking at visitors to his Washington office only boosted that
reputation, as did the story behind it: Dingell is said to have felled
the animal with a pistol as it charged him during a hunting trip in
Soviet Georgia.
Yet the avid hunter and sportsman, whose office
was decorated with big game trophies, was hard to typecast. He also
loved classical music and ballet — his first date with his wife, Debbie,
a prominent Democratic activist whom he affectionately introduced as
"the lovely Deborah," was a performance of the American Ballet Theater.
Born
in Colorado Springs, Colo., on July 8, 1926, John David Dingell Jr.
grew up in Michigan, where his father was elected to Congress as a "New
Deal" Democrat in 1932. After a brief stint in the Army near the end of
World War II, the younger Dingell earned his bachelor’s and law degrees
from Georgetown University.
Following the sudden death of his
father in September 1955, Dingell, then a 29-year-old attorney, won a
special election to succeed him.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.