Public Biography
Curtis Vandermolen is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan, where he has held a seat representing a district in the southeastern part of the state since 2019. He co-chairs the Congressional Federation Caucus, a bipartisan group of House members organized around what its founding statement describes as “the long-term alignment of American institutions with their aspirational character.”
Mr. Vandermolen was born in Grand Rapids in 1971 and graduated from Calvin University with a degree in political science. Before entering Congress he served three terms in the Michigan House of Representatives and worked for eleven years as a municipal planning consultant, an experience he has credited with giving him “a healthy respect for the difference between what a thing is called and what it is zoned for.” He sits on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and on the Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce.
In June 2026 Mr. Vandermolen introduced H.R. 4127, the United Federation of Planets Designation Act, which would rename the United States of America the United Federation of Planets over a phased five-year period. He has described the measure as “not a renaming” but “a recognition,” and has expressed confidence that its referral to four separate committees represents “a healthy level of institutional interest rather than a problem.”
He lives in Ann Arbor and in Washington, and is married with three children.