![]() ![]() Yes, Dingell was at the center of the 1990 rewrite of the Clean Air Act, negotiating between the George H.W. Dan Becker of the Safe Climate Campaign put it this way: “I think his commitment to the environment stopped at the car door.” Their explanation? The auto industry affected his views too much. But his critics in environmental groups say he never went far enough in his clean-air policies and never got ahead of the curve on climate change. “We have the bald eagle today because of John Dingell,” said Boucher. ![]() He wrote the landmark Endangered Species Act and had a major hand in many other laws. One of the most painful ironies of Dingell’s career was the fact that the man who wrote so many of the best-known environmental laws had so many clashes with environmental groups. That doesn’t mean Dingell had the best relationship with all Democrats and their supporters, of course. In his statement Monday, Obama nodded to Dingell’s role in fighting for that moment - declaring that “of all John’s accomplishments, perhaps the most remarkable has been his tireless fight to guarantee quality, affordable health care for every American.” So in March 2010, when the House was on the verge of the final vote on Obamacare and opponents were protesting loudly outside, Dingell gave an impassioned speech to the Democratic caucus urging them to pass the bill - and then handed the Medicare gavel to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as a sign of the historic nature of the vote. He presided over the House vote when Medicare was created in 1965, and kept the gavel he used during the floor debate. Dingell certainly knew health care policy - and his career was bookended by the creation of two of the biggest health care programs ever passed by Congress.
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