Representative MICHAEL MCCAUL was born on January 14, 1962, in Dallas, Texas to Frances Jane Lott and James Addington McCaul. Representative McCaul graduated from the Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas and earned his Bachelor of Arts in business and history from San Antonio’s Trinity University in 1984. In 1987 he received his Juris Doctor degree from St. Mary’s University Law School and is a graduate of the Senior Executive Fellows Program of the School of Government at Harvard University. Upon graduating, Justice McCaul went into private practice as a lawyer, and in 2009 was honored with the St. Mary’s Distinguished Graduate award.

Before entering politics, Representative McCaul worked as an attorney and a federal prosecutor and acted as Chief of Counterterrorism and National Security in the Texas branch of the US Attorney’s office. He also worked under the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section. In 1999 he would act as Deputy Attorney General in the Texas Attorney General’s Office, serving there until 2002 under then-Attorney-General Jon Cornyn.

Representative McCaul entered politics by winning the 2004 race for Texas’s 10th District congressional seat. He served as Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security during the 113th, 115th, and 116th Congressional sessions (2013-2015; 2017-2019; 2019-2021). As of the 116th congressional session (2019-2021), Representative McCaul acts as the Republican Leader of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He retains this position as of 2022 and has consistently held his position as Vice Chair of the United States-Mexico Inter-Parliamentary Group from 2005 to the present.

Representative McCaul also serves on a number of house caucuses, most notably as the founder and co-chair of the Congressional High Tech Caucus, and co-founder and co-chair of the Childhood Cancer Caucus.

By: Santos Mencio, St. Mary’s University Law Fellows in Public History (2022) with contributions from Victoria Villaseñor, St. Mary’s University Law Fellows in Public History (2020)

References:

• Congressman Michael McCaul Biography, mccaul.house.gov (2022), http://mccaul.house.gov/about/full-biography (last visited Sep 7, 2022).
• MCCAUL, Michael T. 1962 –, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/M001157 (last visited Sep 7, 2022).
• Committees and caucuses, mccaul.house.gov (2022), https://mccaul.house.gov/about/committees-and-caucuses (last visited Sep 7, 2022).
• U.S. rep. Michael McCaul ’80 named Jesuit Dallas distinguished alumnus, Jesuit Dallas News (2014), https://web.archive.org/web/20170908153851/http://www.jesuitdallas.org/news/alumni/u-s-rep-michael-mccaul-80-named-jesuit-dallas-distinguished-alumnus/ (last visited Sep 7, 2022).