Mario Diaz-Balart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mario Diaz-Balart | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2003 |
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| Preceded by | None (District Created After 2000 Census) |
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| Born | September 25, 1961 Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Tia Diaz-Balart |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Mario Rafael Diaz-Balart (born September 25, 1961) is an American politician. Since 2003 he has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Florida's 25th congressional district (map). The district includes large portions of western Miami-Dade County and most of Collier and Monroe counties.
He was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and attended the University of South Florida to study political science before beginning his public service career as an aide to then-Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez in 1985. He was elected to the Florida House in 1988, moved to the Florida Senate in 1992 and back to the House in 2000. During his second tenure in the House, he chaired the redistricting committee; it was an open secret that he drew the newly created 25th for himself. The same committee helped draw Florida's other newly created district, the 24th, for state House Speaker Tom Feeney and also reconfigured the 5th for State Senate President Pro Tem Ginny Brown-Waite.
He is the younger brother of Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart and the son of exiled Cuban politician Rafael Diaz-Balart, and a nephew of Mirta Diaz-Balart the first wife of Fidel Castro. He currently lives in Miami with his wife and son.
Unlike the other two Cuban-Americans who represent Miami in Congress — Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and his older brother — Mario Diaz-Balart has a strongly conservative voting record. He is one of two voting Hispanic members of Congress — the other being Trent Franks of Arizona — who is a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee. His district, however, is known to be the most socially conservative district of the five that divide Miami-Dade County (largely due to its section of heavily Republican Collier County).
Like his two Cuban-American colleagues, Diaz-Balart is a strong advocate of maintaining the Cuban embargo, saying "Some people do not understand the embargo of Cuba. Its purpose is to keep American hard currency out of the hands of a Communist thug by restricting most trade and travel."[1]
[edit] Committee Assignments
- Budget Committee
- Committee on Science and Technology
- Energy and the Environment Subcommittee
- Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
- Subcommittee on Aviation
- Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
- Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
- Assistant Whip
- Vice Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Conference
- Founder and Co-chairman of the Everglades Caucus
- Founder of the Protecting Families Online Initiative
- Founding member of the Washington Waste Watchers
[edit] External links
- U.S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart — official House site
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
- Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
- Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
- Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
- Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
- Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
| Preceded by District Created |
Representative of the 25th Congressional District of Florida 2003–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
