Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the ranking Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, announced Wednesday that he will retire from Congress at the end of his term.
“This term, my 13th, will be the last,” he said at an appearance before the Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce in his district north of Houston.
Brady, 66, has represented Texas’s 8th district in Congress since 1997 and has been the top Republican on the powerful Ways and Means Committee since November 2015, when the previous chair, Paul Ryan, became House speaker. As head of the committee, Brady was a key architect of the 2017 Republican tax cuts.
Brady said that he is retiring in part because Republican term limit rules will force him to step down from his committee post.
“As you may not know, because Republicans limit committee leadership to six years, I won’t be able to chair the Ways and Means committee in the next session when Republicans win back the House majority. Did that factor in? Honestly, some,” he said.
In a statement, House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal (D-MA) called Brady’s decision to retire “a loss for both the Ways and Means Committee and Congress,” adding that he and Brady “have been able to overcome ideological differences time and time again to partner on behalf of the American people.”
