1.3.1981
Dingell becomes Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Dingell is also elected Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
As a Member of Congress, Dingell understands the congressional responsibility to oversee the Executive Branch of government. He strongly believes that Congress is entitled access to any Executive Branch information in order to ensure accountability. John Dingell thinks the American people deserve to know that the checks and balances of government are strong, and as such he has spent much of his career ensuring that trust. Now as Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has the largest jurisdiction in Congress, he initiates investigations into so many issues that the staff has hung a photo of the earth in the office next to the hearing room to represent the scope of the Committee's jurisdiction.
John Dingell also believes that investigations can often get as much done in Congress as legislation. Both the full Committee and the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee undertake a wide range of investigations uncovering abuses of power that include corruption, waste, and fraud not only of the taxpayer's dollars, but also the safety and health of the American people.
The Subcommittee undertakes numerous investigations including improper handling of government contracts, insurance company insolvencies, prescription drugs marketing, counterfeit and substandard fasteners, medical device standards, indirect costs of university research, oil overcharges, blood supply safety, insider trading and bottled water to name a few.
The Committee also becomes known for sending "Dingell-grams," letters to agencies from Chairman Dingell demanding detailed information of material and information to ensure the government is doing its job properly. "Dingell's demands for documents are legendary. In the late 1980's, a worker at the Environmental Protection Agency had the sole mission of coordinating the agency's return correspondence to Dingell, and there were usually 20 pending appeals for information at any given moment. She called herself 'Mrs. Dingell.'" (US News and World Report, 8.26.91) Dingell believed that those who responded to his "Dingell-grams"even benefited from the act of gathering the information and seeing what they were doing.
More than a decade later, The New Yorker will say: "Dingell was an aggressive pursuer of people he thought were wrongly benefiting from their access to taxpayers' money. He used the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to go after extravagant defense contractors, corrupt bureaucrats, and illegal influence peddlers with ferocious and, usually, successful tenacity. Congressional insiders liked to say he inspected the front seats after a hearing to see how much sweat the witnesses had left." (The New Yorker, 5.27.96)
3.1981
Dingell and Deborah Insley announce their engagement. (Detroit News, 3.5.81)
According to Mrs. Dingell: "They met on a stormy night flight from Detroit to Washington in 1977 or '78…They sat by each other in the first-class cabin of a Northwest Orient jetliner…it wasn't until a couple of years later, when they met again at a Michigan Chamber of Commerce dinner, that the Michigan Democrat first asked her out. She turned him down…He asked her out 15 times and was turned down on 14 consecutive occasions before she finally said 'yes.' Why did she relent? 'He found out that I loved the ballet and he called and invited me to an opening.'"(Michigan, The Magazine of the Detroit News, 5.26.85)
3.30.1981
Assassination Attempt is made on President Reagan. "A spokesman for US Rep. John Dingell said the Congressman was 'very saddened by the tragedy,' and the mood in the nation's capital was one of 'disbelief that it could happen.'"(Mellus, 4.1.81)
5.16.1981
John and Deborah Dingell marry. "Those who know John Dingell say he has changed. 'He smiles more. He seems more relaxed,' notes one congressional colleague. 'He seems kind of mellow.' 'Mellow' is not a word that readily comes to mind when you think of John Dingell. He is tall, imposing and intimidating. His office wall is lined with the heads of animals he has shot…This year a Washington Post reporter called him 'the notorious bulldog from Detroit.' … That was before the 53-year-old Dingell met Deborah Insley…"(Richard Ryan, Detroit News, 6.15.81)
7.9.1981
Dingell cosponsors a Waxman bill to provide an extension to the steel industry from clean air rules for three years: clears the Congress. "'This law will aid Michigan steel industries by providing compliance date extensions under the Clean Air Act for steelmaking facilities and protect some 20,000 steelworker jobs in our state,' said Rep. Dingell."(News Herald, HR 3520, PL 97-23)
8.12.1981
IBM introduces the first Personal Computer. (about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm)
10.14.1981
The Reagan Administration invokes Executive Privilege for the first time, refusing a Dingell subpoena to Interior Secretary James Watt for documents concerning the takeover of American energy companies by Canadian firms. Dingell and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations vote a citation of "Contempt of Congress."Dingell says: "If the materials denied the subcommittee in this instance can be covered by executive privilege, then Congress can be denied virtually any information in the possession of the executive branch…That cannot be tolerated."(CQ Almanac 1981, p. 459; Detroit News, 2.10.82)
In March 1982, a compromise is reached by allowing members of the subcommittee to review the documents while preserving the principle that "Congress is entitled any document in government anywhere."(Washington Post, 3.17.82)
12.13.1981
Jarulzelski imposes martial law in Poland. Solidarity leaders are jailed.