WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Kevin Brady, one of the Republican Party's leading voices on tax policy in Congress, announced on Wednesday that he will retire from the House of Representatives when his current term ends in 2023.
A chief architect of then-President Donald Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Brady told a business conference in his native Texas that he faces a six-year term limit as the top Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. He chaired the panel before handing the gavel over to Democratic Representative Richard Neal in 2019 after Democrats won a majority in the House.
Brady, 66, who was first elected to Congress in 1996, has played key roles in U.S. legislation on taxes, trade, retirement and healthcare.
He fought Democratic efforts to obtain Trump's income tax returns and late last year signed onto a House Republican amicus brief supporting a Texas lawsuit contesting the results of the 2020 president election, in which Trump was defeated by Democratic President Joe Biden.
Brady said his departure has nothing to do with partisanship on Capitol Hill.
"I won't be able to chair the Ways & Means Committee in the next session when Republicans win back the House majority. Did that factor in? Honestly, some," he said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce Economic Outlook Conference in his district near Houston.
Brady won his 13th term two-year in office last November with nearly 73% of the vote.