Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL-21)

Mario Diaz-Balart Congressman Florida District 21

Mario Diaz-Balart Biography from House.gov

Biography of Mario Diaz-Balart

After serving 14 effective years in the Florida State Legislature, Mario Diaz-Balart was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002 to represent Florida’s 25th Congressional District, which includes part of Miami-Dade, Collier and Monroe Counties,.  In 2010 he was elected to represent Florida’s 21st Congressional District.  He is currently serving his fifth term in Congress.

Since his start in Congress, Diaz-Balart has served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and has helped deliver millions of federal dollars for the I-75 widening project and Miami-Dade Transit.  He previously served as the Rankin

g Member of the Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee of that Committee.  He also served on the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee and the Highways and Transit Subcommittee.  His other committee assignments included the Budget Committee and the Science and Technology Committee.

Diaz-Balart currently serves on the House Committee on Appropriations and serves on three subcommittees, the  subcommittee on Financial Services, where he sits as Vice-Chairman, the subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations and the subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.

Diaz-Balart is the founder and co chairman of the Everglades Caucus, a group dedicated to Everglades restoration and conservation.  In his first term Diaz-Balart authored two amendments to protect Everglades restoration funding, which were successfully passed.  He continues to actively work toward securing additional funding under the Water and Recourses Development Act (WRDA).

Public safety is also a priority for Diaz-Balart.  Since his arrival in Washington, Diaz-Balart has been a strong proponent of promoting hurricane preparedness and ensuring federal relief for Florida in the aftermaths of Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita.  In 2007, Diaz-Balart launched the Protecting Families Online initiative, to help parents and families protect themselves against online predators and ID theft.

Having been a member of the Budget Committee, Diaz-Balart continues pushing for a responsible federal budget that keeps taxes low on hard-working families.  When he first came to Congress, he was a founding member of the Washington Waste Watchers, a group dedicated to combating government waste, fraud and abuse.  In the 110th Congress, Diaz-Balart introduced the Tax Relief for Families Act (H.R. 411), which would make the state and local sales tax deduction, the child tax credit, the marriage penalty relief, the college deduction and the school teacher expense deduction permanent and would repeal the death tax.  He also introduced the Commuter Aid and Relief for Suburbs Act or CARS Act (H.R. 5905), a bill that would enable commuters to write off commuting expenses from their taxes.

Diaz-Balart began his political career in 1988 in the Florida House of Representatives, and in 1992 he was elected to the Florida Senate where he served as Vice Chair of the Rules Committee and chaired several other committees including the Combined Appropriations/Ways and Means/Finance and Tax Committee, the Criminal Justice Appropriations, Banking and Insurance Committee, and Children and Families Committee. In 2000, Diaz-Balart returned to the Florida House where he served as Chair of the Congressional Redistricting Committee and Vice-Chair of the Procedural and Redistricting Council.

Diaz-Balart was born in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on September 25, 1961. He attended the University of South Florida in Tampa where he studied Political Science before beginning his public service career as an aide to then City of Miami Mayor in 1985. The Congressman lives in Miami, FL with his wife and son.

Biography from Mario Diaz-Balart for Congress

A husband, father and longtime resident, Mario Diaz-Balart has always been concerned with the issues that most affect South Florida’s families, like job creation, lowering taxes and keeping our children and families safe. This November, he seeks election to Congressional District 21.

For nearly 22 years, Mario has been honored to serve the residents of South Florida, first in the State Legislature and later in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he has been representing District 25 since 2002.

Mario has persistently helped lower taxes on families and small businesses, and has fought back attempts to raise taxes on hard-working Americans like you. Mario has successfully delivered millions of dollars in federal funding for key local projects including the I-75 widening, all of Miami’s transit corridors and Everglades restoration, as well as funding for our local institutions of higher education including Florida International University, Miami Dade College and the University of Miami, and our local health care providers and hospitals. He has also led Congressional efforts to investigate contaminated Chinese drywall, continues to push for free trade agreements with democratic allies like Colombia and Panama, and was instrumental in efforts to obtain TPS for Haitians.

After the 2005 hurricanes, Mario effectively worked with his colleagues to provide federal relief for the towns, cities and our local growers trying to recover from damage. Mario also successfully pushed FEMA to reimburse gated communities for debris removal, and brought federal officials from Washington, DC to South Florida to see the destruction left by the storms, while working to ensure affected Floridians were included in hurricane tax relief legislation.

In 2006, Mario launched the Protecting Families Online initiative to help parents protect their families against online predators and ID theft. He also cosponsored legislation that strengthened the National AMBER alert network by improving law enforcement’s ability to prevent, investigate and prosecute violent criminals that target children.

Today Mario continues to fight for what matters most to South Florida’s families. This November, he hopes to count on your support, so that he can continue being your voice in Washington and working on those issues that most affect our community.

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