As the Representative of California’s Fourth Congressional District since 1993 (From 1991-1992, Doolittle represented the Fourteenth Congressional District), John Doolittle has focused on action and results for Northern California and has worked across the aisle to achieve them.

During his first term in the House, Mr. Doolittle gained notoriety as a reformer when, as a member of the “Gang of Seven,” he condemned the practice of check kiting by Members of Congress. The Gang of Seven also led the call for reforms to postal operations in the House, which at the time, was laundering stamps and vouchers for cash.  The subsequent investigation resulted in the conviction or guilty plea of seven Members of Congress including Representative Dan Rostenkowski who, at the time, was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.   

As Chairman of the House Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power (1995-2000), Mr. Doolittle sponsored legislation to transfer ownership of Jenkinson Lake and Sugar Pine Reservoir from the federal government to the local water agencies. Following the flooding of Yosemite National Park in 1997, the Congressman drafted legislation which authorized $187 million for the restoration of this national treasure. In 2000, he authored the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act which authorized $200 million for environmental restoration projects, and $100 million for erosion control efforts. This legislation designated Federal lands as National Scenic Forest and Recreation Areas and directed the Forest Service to pay particular attention to four key activities: fire risk reduction; erosion and sediment control; traffic and parking management, including promotion of public transportation and acquisition of environmentally sensitive land from willing sellers. 

More recently, Mr. Doolittle won the respect of his peers and was elected to serve as a leader of the party in 2003 and again in 2005. Those four years of service as Conference Secretary, the sixth ranking Republican leadership position in the House, placed Mr. Doolittle at the heart of the Republican House of Representatives, where he fought for limited, constitutional government, border security, spending restraint, constitutional campaign laws consistent with the letter and spirit of the First Amendment, responsible development of our national resources, energy self-sufficiency, and socially conservative policies including legal protection of the right to life, private property rights and the right to keep and bear arms.

As a seasoned legislator, who served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee (2000-2007), Mr. Doolittle’s achievements include:

• Legislation authored with the late Representative Robert Matsui providing flood control to Sacramento and water conservation projects to the Fourth Congressional District in addition to a new bridge over the American River at Folsom,
• securing federal funds for the widening of Interstate 80 and construction of the Highway 65 Lincoln Bypass;
• construction of the American River Pump Station to provide water for the Placer County Water Agency and the Georgetown Divide Public Utilities District;
• construction of the Placer Sub-regional Wastewater Treatment Plant (in Lincoln);
• construction of the wastewater pipeline from Lincoln to Auburn which will eliminate up to seven existing wastewater treatment plants and their effluent into Auburn Ravine and which will produce 30,000 acre feet of water available for landscape irrigation;  
• widening State Route 89 near Truckee, known as the Mouse Hole Project; and
• providing $26.2 million annually for the Quincy Library Group forestry program.

Throughout his career, Mr. Doolittle fought and continues to fight for more water supply for Californians including the construction of the multi-purpose Auburn Dam.  He has fought to maintain logging on our national forests and recreation thereon.  He has advocated for other common sense environmental solutions. As a user of a hybrid vehicle, Mr. Doolittle knows first hand the value of alternative energy and has fought hard for the installation of hydrogen fueling stations in the Tahoe Basin and for the development of affordable hydrogen powered automobiles.

The Congressman’s priorities for 2007 include:

• Making real progress in winning the War on Terror;
• protecting our troops and watching out for our veterans; 
• securing our borders and reforming our nation's immigration policies;
• keeping our federal taxes from being raised;
• getting control of government spending;
• reauthorizing of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, which provides money to rural counties for schools and to build roads; and,
• appropriating the final federal cost share of the Folsom Bridge project. 

Mr. Doolittle is proud of his support for reforms enacted during the 12 years that Republicans held the majority in the House (1995-2006). These initiatives are having lasting impacts on society, particularly the enactment of health savings accounts, reform of the welfare system, repeal of the death tax, income tax rate cuts, cuts in the tax rates on capital gains and dividends, small business expensing expansions and advancing development of the anti-ballistic missile system.