Byron Dorgan served in the U.S. Senate for eighteen years from 1992 to 2011.
He served in the Democratic Leadership from 1994 to 2011, first as Assistant Democratic Floor Leader and then as Chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee. He served on a variety of committees, including the Appropriations Committee, the Energy Committee, the Commerce Science and Technology Committee and the Indian Affairs Committee. He has also served as Chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee, the Energy and Power Subcommittee, the Interior Subcommittee, the Energy and Water Subcommittee, the Treasury General Government Subcommittee, and as Ranking Member on a number of other Subcommittees.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Dorgan was a member of the Ways and Means Committee from 1982 to 1992. He also served as a member of the House Agriculture Committee and the Select Committee on Hunger. Dorgan served six terms in the U.S. House and three terms in the U.S. Senate. In 2010 he announced that he would not seek re-election to the U.S. Senate and he retired after serving thirty years in Congress. In 2011, after retiring from the Senate, he joined the Arent Fox law firm as a Senior Policy Advisor and is Co-Chair of their Government Relations Practice. In 2011 he also became a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Committee a Washington DC Think Tank and is Co-Chair of the BPC Energy Project. From 2011 to present he is an Adjunct Visiting Professor at Georgetown University where he does guest lectures on government policy to graduate level students at the McCourt School of Public Policy. He has also been appointed as a Commissioner on the U.S./China Economic Security and Review Commission. Dorgan is a New York Times Bestselling Author. His books include the NYT bestseller Take This Job and Ship It!, Reckless, How Debt, Deregulations and Dark Money Nearly Bankrupted America, and two novels, Blowout and Gridlock which were classified as eco thrillers about energy.
He created and founded an organization called Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) dedicated to improving the lives of Native American youth, focusing on educational opportunities, teen suicide prevention, and conducting youth summits on Indian Reservations. He serves on a number of Boards and Commissions including the Board of Governors of the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Dorgan holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Dakota and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver.
