George Miller (politician)

George Miller III (born May 17 1945), American politician, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1975, representing the 7th District of California (map). The son of prominent State Senator George Miller, Jr. the younger Miller was born in Richmond, California. He was educated at San Francisco State University and the University of California, Davis law school, after which he was admitted as an Attorney and served as legislative assistant to California Senate majority leader George Moscone before entering the House.

Urban gambling

Miller is a supporter of urban gambling. In 2000, as ranking member of the House Resource Committee, Miller inserted an amendment to the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act that took an existing cardroom into federal trust for the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, backdated to 1987 in order to circumvent the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, stating Such land shall be deemed to have been held in trust and part of the reservation of the Rancheria prior to October 17, 1988.^*.

This amendment gave the Lyttons the right to turn the cardroom into a full-fledged casino in San Pablo, the first urban casino in the state. The Lyttons initially planned to build a 600,000 square-foot, 8-story casino with 5,000 slot machinesbut later scaled back their plans significantly. The casino now holds about 500 slot machines that the Lyttons call "video bingo" machines[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/31/BAGKCE0QES1.DTL.

Environmental issues

In the House, Miller has been a member of the Natural Resources Committee (now called the U.S. House Committee on Resources); he was that Committee's chairman from 1991 to 1994. Miller has supported efforts to preserve public lands such as the 1994 California Desert Protection Act, which among other things created Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Park. In addition, Miller was the chief sponsor of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992, which mandated that the federal government's Bureau of Reclamation manage the Central Valley Project in order to better protect the fish and wildlife populations of California's Bay-Delta region.//www.usbr.gov/mp/cvpia/index.html Miller lost his chairmanship when Republicans won control of Congress in 1994. He stayed as the committee's Ranking Member until 2000, and remains on the committee.

Millers district contains some of the worst polluters in the state, including a large Chevron refinery which has occasional releases of toxic gases.

Education and Labor issues

Since 2001, Miller has been ranking Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee. With that committee's chairman, and their Senate counterparts, Miller helped draft President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law in 2001 and 2002. Miller has focused on Pension issues, reinstating Davis-Bacon Act wage protections for Gulf Coast workers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In addition, Miller has worked on education issues such as protesting student aid cuts,//www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/27/MNGDSFTI2B1.DTL&feed=rss.news, increasing No Child Left Behind funding, and investigating the Bush Administration's hiring of Armstrong Williams to promote that law.

Port Chicago disaster

Miller has petitioned to clear the names of the sailors of the World War II Port Chicago disaster in which more than two hundred black men were court-martialed and fifty convicted of mutiny for refusing to continue to load ammunition onto warships after a tremendous explosion killed hundreds. For the most part, Miller's efforts have failed, and less than four of the sailors convicted of mutiny are still alive. However, in 1999, during a flurry of pardons signed as he left office, President Bill Clinton pardoned Freddie Meeks, one of the fifty "mutineers".^* In addition, Miller wrote the legislation to designate the site of the event as a National Memorial.//www.house.gov/georgemiller/ptchicmain.html //www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/por.htm

Darfur

Miller recently went on a bipartisan trip to the Sudanese region of Darfur where there is an ongoing genocide. He has made this issue a top priority and is working with a bi-partisan commission to stop the tragedy. He advocates U.N. intervention.

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