(Bloomberg) — Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat who helped draft some of the legislation that led to the creation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA), has announced that he will retire from Congress.
Miller, the top Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee since 2001, also worked on 401(k) plan advisor fiduciary and fee disclosure legislation, and he wrote the legislation that raised the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.
Miller worked on PPACA while chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee. Two other leaders of the House effort to draft PPACA included Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.
Miller said today that he won't run for re-election this year and will leave after this session of Congress ends early next year.
"I'm proud of what I have been able to accomplish on behalf of children, working people and the environment, in my district and for our country, especially passage of national health-care reform," Miller said in a statement.
Miller, 68, is an ally of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who described him in a statement as a "close friend" and "the model of the serious, substantive and successful legislator."
