Candice Sue Miller (née McDonald; born May 7, 1954) is an American politician serving as the Public Works Commissioner of Macomb County, Michigan since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Miller previously served as the U.S. representative for from 2003 to 2017, the Michigan Secretary of State from 1995 to 2003, and the Macomb County Treasurer from 1993 to 1995. She also served as the Harrison Township Supervisor. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 2015.
U.S. House of Representatives Committee assignments United States House Committee on Administration (chair) In the 113th Congress, Representative Miller was appointed to serve as chairman of the Committee on House Administration (CHA), and in the 114th Congress she continued to serve as the committee's chair. CHA was established in 1947 and is charged with the oversight of federal elections and the day-to-day operations of the House of Representatives.The committee ensures that the House of Representatives runs in an effective and efficient manner. It also has jurisdiction over the federal election process.
Under her leadership as chair, the U.S. House received consecutive "clean" audits. She also played a major role in advancing legislation to end the practice of using millions of dollars in taxpayer funding to host political party conventions and, instead, redirected that funding for pediatric research. Working with House officers, she helped to increase the availability of low-cost digital tools used by the House to improve the House's daily functions and reduce operating costs. She also oversaw the Committee's review of the report generated by the Bauer-Ginsberg Commission, which focused on using local governance over elections and made recommendations to help locals election administrators improve upon their own voting processes. Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security Representative Miller has served on the House Committee on Homeland Security since March 2008. She served as vice chair of the full House Committee on Homeland Security from January 2011 until December 2016 and served as chairman of the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security from 2011 until February 2016. She is also a member of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. The committee is charged with oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, Representative Miller initiated legislative efforts to ensure the nation's borders are adequately secured against international terrorist organizations, illegal immigration, drug and human smuggling, and exploitation of the legitimate visa process.
During the 113th Congress, Representative Miller sponsored legislation to formally authorize Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and clarify the security mission of the agency for the first time since the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002. The legislation passed the House on July 28, 2014. She also advocated for ways to strengthen the Department of Homeland Security's ability to identify and stop terrorists with western passports, authoring legislation in that would allow DHS to suspend a country's participation in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program if it fails to provide the U.S. with pertinent traveler information related to terror threats. Representative Miller also crafted legislation to increase oversight of the maritime security mission of DHS, as well as to strengthen domestic maritime security connected to U.S. trade with its trusted partners.
Michigan's 10th Congressional District is a border district. It is home to the Blue Water Bridge, the second-busiest border crossing on the northern tier; Selfridge Air National Guard Base, which has expanding missions in the area of homeland security; Coast Guard stations at Selfridge, Port Huron, and Harbor Beach; it borders Chemical Valley, which is one of the largest collections of petro-chemical operations in North America; the CN Rail Tunnel, the busiest rail artery in the U.S. Two important trade arteries, interstates I-94 and I-69, also originate in Michigan.
Miller focused her efforts on building a stronger presence of homeland security assets at Selfridge, enhancing the security of airways, roadways, railways, and waterways, and securing domestic food and water supplies by enhancing Northern Border security.
The Committee on Homeland Security was established in 2002 to provide congressional oversight for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and better protect the nation against a possible terrorist attack. Many of the programs at Selfridge and the armed service reserves throughout the 10th Congressional District fall under the purview of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Committee on Homeland Security provides oversight for the department and handles issues dealing with transportation security, border and port security, critical infrastructure protection, cyber security, and science and technology, emergency preparedness, emerging threats, intelligence and information sharing, investigations, and management and procurement. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
In 2007, Representative Miller was appointed to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. She is also a member of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, as well as the Subcommittee on Aviation. Representative Miller is the only member from Michigan serving on this committee.
In 2014, Representative Miller was appointed to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's Public-Private Partnership Special Panel. As the only Michigan Member, she focused her involvement on innovative ways that P3s can benefit infrastructure projects in Michigan like the expanded Customs and Border Plaza at the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron.
The committee's broad oversight portfolio includes many federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Coast Guard, Amtrak, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the General Services Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others.
Throughout her career in public service, protecting the Great Lakes has been one of Representative Miller's priorities. During the 113th Congress, as the only member of the committee from the state of Michigan, Miller advocated for the Great Lakes during House and conference negotiations of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) which included her provision designating all ports and harbors on the Great Lakes as a single, comprehensive navigation system (the Great Lakes Navigation System) for budgeting purposes. This created a unified front for Great Lakes ports and harbors for purposes of federal funding.
For the 110th Congress Miller was appointed to continue her service on the House Armed Services Committee and was added to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has jurisdiction over not only surface transportation but also water quality issues related to the Great Lakes. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Miller was a member of the Armed Services committee, and part of a "war room" team that relayed information from the Bush administration to Republican members, the news media, and the public.
Admonishment by House Ethics Committee During the 108th Congress, Miller was admonished by the House Ethics Committee for improperly attempting to influence the vote of fellow Michigan Congressman Nick Smith on a Medicare vote.
Political positions Miller is a signatory of Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which commits her to oppose tax increases.
Miller sat on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and has praised President Obama for his stance on off-shore oil exploration. She supports selling oil and gas leases to help fund the research and development of alternative energy projects.
In December 2010, Miller complained about the leak of US diplomatic cables, and called WikiLeaks a terrorist organisation.
On April 26, 2012, Miller voted for the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. It passed the House of Representatives, but did not become law.
Sponsored legislation In June 2013, Miller introduced legislation, the Great Lakes Navigation System Sustainability Act of 2013 (), to redefine how the Great Lakes are treated in competing for United States government harbor maintenance funding, and to create an opportunity for recreational harbors to vie for federal funding.
Miller, along with Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, introduced , the Biometric Exit Improvement Act of 2013. The bill would implement a biometric exit system that would monitor the exit of foreign visitors. The bill would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement a biometric exit system for ten airports and ten seaports, test the system for two years, and then implement the system nationwide.
Miller also introduced, on November 14, 2013, , To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act to extend through 2018 the authority of the Federal Election Commission to impose civil money penalties on the basis of a schedule of penalties established and published by the commission, to expand such authority to certain other violations, and for other purposes. The bill would allow the FEC to continue to use a fee schedule to impose small fines on things such as late filings.
On January 10, 2014, Miller introduced the United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act (H.R. 3846; 113th Congress), a bill that would authorize the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and its mission and direct the CBP in the United States Department of Homeland Security to establish standard procedures for addressing complaints made against CBP employees and to enhance training for CBP officers and agents. Miller said that "Today, the House passed legislation that provides the necessary statutory authorization that will protect the agency's mission by providing our officers and agents proper authorities to carry out their important work."
Miller also introduced a bill, the Visa Waiver Program Improvement Act of 2015 which has been criticized for casting US citizens of Arab, Iranian, and Muslim descent as second-class citizens in their own country – a "legislation that will effectively create two classes of Americans – Americans with Middle Eastern or Muslim background, and Americans without that background".
Miller was ranked as the 71st most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring the frequency each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party).
Opposed legislation