Chairman of the Paths and Resources House Kevin Brady
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
Texas Republican Kevin Brady, who played a leading role in enforcing former President Donald Trump’s comprehensive tax cut bill through Congress in 2017, said Wednesday that he is stepping down from Congress at the end of his current term.
“I’m retiring as your Congressman,” Brady said in a speech at a business conference hosted by the Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce. “This term, my 13th, will be my last.”
Brady, 66, served for two terms as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, the Chamber’s supreme tax authority. He became the senior Republican on the jury in 2019 after the Democrats took majority control of the house.
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Brady faced a time limit on his role as Republican chairman of the committee – and said that fact weighed on his decision to retire.
“With Republicans in the House of Representatives limiting the leadership of the committee to six years, I won’t be able to chair the Ways and Means Committee for the next session if the Republicans win back the majority,” Brady said.
“Did that influence the decision? Yes, some.”
But Brady said he still sees these limits as a “good thing” because they “ensure that lawmakers who work hard and one day work effectively have an opportunity to lead and new ideas to any committee we have bring to.”
Anticipating questions from the curious about his motive for retirement, Brady also said he was “absolutely not” leaving Congress because he had “lost confidence in a partisan congress and the political system.”
“After 25 years in the nation’s Capitol, I haven’t seen a problem that we can’t solve or that we can’t get around. None.”
He added: “Given the time, I’m sure some will say, ‘It’s Trump’s fault.’ Nonsense.”
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