Michael F Doyle

Early life, education and career

Doyle was born in Swissvale, Pennsylvania, to Irish and Italian parents. He graduated from Swissvale Area High School in 1971, and then enrolled at Pennsylvania State University. He worked in steel mills during his summers in college, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Community Development in 1975.

After college, he worked as executive director of Turtle Creek Valley Citizens Union (1977–1979) and was elected to the Swissvale Borough Council in 1977. In 1979, he began work as chief of staff to Pennsylvania State Senator Frank Pecora. Like Pecora, Doyle was once a Republican who later switched parties to become a Democrat. In addition to his work for Pecora, he joined Eastgate Insurance Company as an insurance agent in 1982.

Committee assignments

Caucus Memberships

Political positions

Doyle voted against authorizing military force in Iraq and against the $87 billion emergency spending bill to fund US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Doyle is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Coalition on Autism Research and Education, also known as the Congressional Autism Caucus, and he offered an amendment that was included in the health reform law that will ensure that insurance companies will cover treatments for people with autism. He has also introduced legislation that will provide better services for adults with autism.

On abortion, Doyle falls into the category of “Pro-Choice”, voting against bills that would ban abortion, as well as receiving very favorable ratings amongst pro-choice interest groups, such as NARAL, while scoring a 0 with pro-life groups such as the National Right to Life Committee. However, Doyle does not support federal funds to pay for abortions, excepting cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger. He does, however, support using federal dollars for Title X, family planning services and support federal funding for Planned Parenthood with the existing provision that federal funds may not be used to perform abortions.

Doyle has fought against gun laws that would allow people to bring firearms into national parks, repeal any part of the assault or military style weapon ban, and voting to maintain parts of the D.C. gun ban. This has led to decreasing ratings with pro-gun interest groups such as the NRA (42% lifetime rating in 2000 to 0% in 2006) and Gun Owners of America. Conversely, he has received overall ratings from pro-gun control groups, receiving a 90% in the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence back in 2003.

Doyle supports comprehensive immigration reform, voting for a bill that would repeal certain green card limitations, as well as the DREAM Act. These views have got him negative ratings from interest groups such as English First (0%) and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (0%). His immigration reviews resonate stronger with the National Latino Congreso/William C. Velásquez Institute and American Immigration Lawyers Association, in which he has received perfect scores from both groups.

Liberals have praised him for his stance on copyright issues and his support of net neutrality. He is the lead sponsor of HR 1147, the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 which will expand low-power broadcasting to hundreds of new community radio stations. In 2010, he was given the Digital Patriot Award, along with Vint Cerf, one of the creators of the technology that runs the Internet. In February 2013, he became one of the sponsors of the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act to expedite open access to taxpayer-funded research. Doyle is a strong supporter of letting local governments provide Internet services in order to increase competition, improve service, and decrease prices.

He used his position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and lead the negotiations to find common ground on legislation addressing climate change and promoting energy independence while protecting clean domestic manufacturing.

Also, Doyle is an outspoken critic of the genocide in Sudan and Darfur. In a rally on April 28, 2007, he urged President Bush to uphold his promise of sending 20,000 peacekeepers to Darfur. He drew loud cheers when he said, "If we can have a surge in Iraq, there needs to be one in Sudan." He supports LGBT issues.

During the debate over the debt ceiling in 2011, Doyle said about Tea Party Republicans, "We have negotiated with terrorists. This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money".

On October 16, 2012, Doyle released a statement criticizing the Republican budget introduced by Paul Ryan, saying that it would “be devastating for seniors in Pittsburgh.” According to his report, this budget would eliminate new preventive care benefits for 113,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the district, as well as other cuts to Medicaid affordable housing, and food stamps. “That’s why I voted against the Ryan budget when it was considered by Congress earlier this year, and why I am fighting hard to oppose Congressional Republicans' misguided priorities."

Legislation supported

Doyle was ranked as the 38th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the third most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania) 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).

Political campaigns

In 1994, Doyle was elected to Congress as a Democrat from the state's 18th District, which at the time was located in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. The incumbent Republican, Rick Santorum, was elected to the United States Senate. Doyle won by almost 10 points, in one of the few bright spots in a bad year for Democrats. He was reelected three times with no substantive opposition.

In 2002, the Pennsylvania state legislature reconfigured Doyle’s district, combining it with the Pittsburgh-based district of fellow Democrat William J. Coyne. In the process, the state legislature redrew most of western Pennsylvania's heavily Democratic areas into just two districts—the reconfigured 14th District and the 12th District of John Murtha. The potentially explosive situation of having two Democratic incumbents face each other in the primary was defused when Coyne announced his retirement (even though the district contained more of Coyne's former territory than Doyle's) leaving Doyle as the sole incumbent. The new district is by far the most Democratic district in western Pennsylvania, and Doyle was completely unopposed in 2002 and 2004; in 2006 and 2008, his only opposition was Green Party candidate Titus North.

2010

Doyle was challenged by Republican Melissa Haluszczak and Green Party Ed Bortz.

2012

Doyle faced Republican nominee Hans Lessmann in the general election.

2014

Doyle ran unopposed in 2014. As of October 15, 2014, Doyle had raised $747,107 during the 2013-2014 campaign cycle.

2016

Doyle defeated Republican Lenny McAllister by 74%-25%.