Kevin Brady | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ranking Member of theHouse Ways and Means Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2019 – January 3, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Neal |
| Succeeded by | Richard Neal |
| Chair of theHouse Ways and Means Committee | |
| In office November 5, 2015 – January 3, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Sam Johnson (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Richard Neal |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's8th district | |
| In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Jack Fields |
| Succeeded by | Morgan Luttrell |
| Member of theTexas House of Representatives from the15th district | |
| In office January 10, 1991 – January 3, 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Mike McKinney |
| Succeeded by | Tommy Williams |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kevin Patrick Brady (1955-04-11)April 11, 1955 (age 70) Vermillion,South Dakota, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | University of South Dakota (BA) |
Brady opening aHouse Ways and Means Committee hearing on U.S. trade policy. Recorded June 22, 2017 | |
Kevin Patrick Brady (born April 11, 1955) is an American politician who served as theU.S. representative forTexas's 8th congressional district from 1997 to 2023. He is a member of theRepublican Party. The district includes northernHouston, includingThe Woodlands. He retired after the2022 election cycle.[1]
Brady was born inVermillion, South Dakota, one of five children of William F. and Nancy A. Brady. His father, a lawyer, was killed in 1967 in a courtroom shooting inRapid City when Brady was 12 and his mother was in her early 30s.[2][3] He graduated fromCentral High School in 1973. Brady has a degree in mass communications from theUniversity of South Dakota in Vermillion.[4]
Brady worked for the Rapid City area Chamber of Commerce. He was elected to the Rapid City common council at age 26. In 1982, he moved to Texas to work for theBeaumont, Texas Chamber of Commerce. In 1985, he went to work for the South Montgomery County Woodlands Chamber of Commerce.[3]
In 1990, Brady was elected to theTexas House of Representatives, district 15, representing The Woodlands, parts of Montgomery County, and five other counties west and north of Houston.[5] He succeededMike McKinney as a representative of the 15th district in the Texas House of representatives on January 10, 1991.[6]
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Incumbent U.S. RepresentativeJack Fields ofTexas's 8th congressional district decided to retire. Brady ran for the seat and ranked second in the Republican primary with 22% of the vote in a six-candidate field. The candidate who ranked first, Gene Fontenot, received 36% of the vote, short of the 50% threshold.[7] In the runoff election, Brady defeated him, 53%–47%.[8] But theSupreme Court of the United States ruled inBush v. Vera that three of Texas's congressional districts were unconstitutional.[9] After hearings, the court concluded that there was no longer time to hold primaries and instead forced all candidates (Democrats and Republicans) be listed together on the November general election ballot in ajungle primary. If no candidate reached 50%, a special runoff would be held on December 10 between the two highest-ranking candidates. In the November election, Brady ranked first with 41% of the vote.[10] In the December runoff, he defeated Fontenot again, 59%–41%.[11]
During this period, Brady never received less than 67% of the vote.[12]
For the first time since 1998, Brady was challenged in the Republican primary. Three candidates filed against him. He defeated all of them in the March primary with 79% of the vote.[13] He was reelected with 80% of the vote.[14]
In the May Republican primary, in a newly redrawn district, he defeated his challenger with 76% of the vote. In the November 6 general election, he defeated the Democratic nominee with over 77% of the vote.
Brady won the March 4 Republican primary with 41,549 votes (68%) to Craig McMichael's 19,508 (32%).[15]
In the November 4 general election, Brady was reelected with 124,897 votes (89.32%) to Democratic nominee Ken Petty's 14,930 (10.67%).[16]
In November 2015,Steve Toth, a former state representative fromThe Woodlands, Texas, announced that he would run against Brady.[17][18][19]
Brady eked out a victory in the March 1 primary with 53% of the vote, his lowest total in his 18-year career.[20][21][22] He spent over $1.5 million[23] to Toth's $89,325.[24] Toth criticized Brady for compromising too often with President Obama,[24] for supporting the omnibus federal budget bill, and for voting to revive theU.S. Export-Import Bank.[25]
Brady won the Republican primary unopposed, as did the Democratic nominee, Steven David. Brady won the general election with 198,241 votes (73.5%) to David's 67,027 (24.8%). Libertarian Chris Duncan received 4,597 votes.[26] As of September 30, 2018, Brady had outraised David in contributions, $4,899,672 to $31,664.[27]
Brady defeated Kirk Osborn in the Republican primary, 80.73% to 16.19%.[28] In the general election, he defeated Democratic nominee Elizabeth Hernandez and Libertarian challenger Chris Duncan[3] with 72.5% of the vote to the challengers' 27.5%. The 2020 election was Brady's last election for Congress.
In 2002, Brady voted for theAuthorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq, authorizing theU.S. invasion of Iraq the next year.[29] Yet in 2008 he was one of the 24 Republicans (and 227 Democrats) to vote to impeachPresident George W. Bush for misleading the United States into going to war in Iraq.[30][31]
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In 2005, Brady was a chief supporter of theDominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), working with theBush administration to secure passage of thatfree-trade agreement.[32][33][34] In 2011, Brady also voted forfree-trade agreements with South Korea[35]Colombia,[36] andPanama.[37] But in 2017, Brady supported PresidentDonald Trump's proposedborder adjustment tax, arguing that the tax on imports would place the U.S. on a level playing field with other countries that have the tax and raise an estimated $1 trillion.[38]
Brady is known as the author of a federal "sunset law" that would require every federal program not specifically written into theConstitution to justify its existence to taxpayers within 12 years or face elimination.[39]
In March 2012, Brady proposed the Sound Dollar Act, legislation to require theFederal Reserve tomonitor gold and theforeign-exchange value of the U.S. dollar. The bill would also repeal the Federal Reserve's dual mandate (controlling unemployment and inflation) and replace it with a single mandate for U.S. dollarprice stability.[40]
In November 2015, Brady was elected the 65th chair of theCommittee on Ways and Means, serving until 2019.[41]
In March 2017, Brady introduced an amendment to theAmerican Health Care Act (the House Republican proposal to repeal theAffordable Care Act) that would allow health insurance providers to fully deduct all forms of compensation to their most highly compensated executives without limit, repealing the current law, which capped the deduction at $500,000 per executive.Los Angeles Times columnistMichael Hiltzik criticized Brady's amendment as a "secret payoff" to the health insurance industry because of its cryptic language.[42][43] On May 4, 2017 Brady joined in a raucous but premature victory celebration with other congressional Republican leaders and Donald Trump at the White House after the bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act passed in the House, though it would later be voted down in the Senate.
As chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Brady opposed a resolution to request ten years' worth of returns from Trump and his business entities.[44][45] In 2017, he said the resolution was an abuse done for "obvious political purposes".[46][47] In September 2020, afterThe New York Times published an extensive report on Trump's tax records and business dealings spanning two decades, Brady called for an investigation into theTimes and the report's sources.[48]
In November 2017, Brady said that theTax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 would provide "tax relief at every level"; in fact, 7% of households in 2018 would pay more in taxes and by 2022, one quarter of households would pay more.[49] Brady's claim that 70% of the tax cuts in the bill would go to households making below $200,000 was found to be "misleading" byFactCheck.Org and "cherry-picked" byPolitiFact.[49][50] FactCheck.org noted that "57.7 percent of the tax relief goes to those families making less than $200,000 in 2019—not the 70 percent that Brady cited for 2019. By 2027, 50 percent of tax relief as a result of business and individual income tax changes would go to those making more than $200,000 a year."[49] TheAmerican Conservative Union gave him a 94% evaluation in 2017.
Brady and RepresentativeRichard Neal introduced the bipartisanSECURE Act of 2019, which contained a number of provisions to expand access to retirement planning options and to encourage employers to set up retirement plans for workers. The bill, originally introduced in March 2019, was passed into law in December 2019 as part of the fiscal year 2020 federal appropriations bill.[51]
In December 2020, Brady indicated that he supported a second round ofPaycheck Protection Program funds to assist small businesses suffering from the economic effects of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[3] He was a negotiator during the discussions to pass theCoronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.[3]
In January 2021, after a mob of Trump supportersstormed the United States Capitol, Brady argued that those calling for Trump's impeachment or for the invocation of the25th Amendment were themselves engaging in inflammatory language and that such calls could incite further violence.[52]
On April 14, 2021, Brady announced that he would not run for a 14th House term and would retire in 2022.[1][53]
During his time in Congress, Brady chaired theJoint Economic Committee, theWays and Means Committee, and theJoint Committee on Taxation.
Brady believes policies enacted by thefirst Trump administration, including the 2017Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, helped put the U.S. economy in a robust position going into theCOVID-19 pandemic.[58]
Brady strongly opposesMedicare for All.[59]
In 2012, Brady voted for the Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act, which rescindedObama administration policies on coal mining and energy infrastructure.[60] In January 2021, he expressed concern that theBiden administration's drilling banExecutive Order 13990 on federal leases would "kill" 120,000 Texas jobs.[61]
In 2011, Brady cosponsored legislation directing the Justice Department to continue defending theDefense of Marriage Act.[62] He opposedObergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court ruling thatsame-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional, citing his beliefs that marriage is "a union between one man and one woman" and that same-sex marriage law should be delegated to the states under theTenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[63] In 2019, Brady voted against expressing opposition to banning service in the armed forces by openlytransgender individuals, and in 2021, he voted against theEquality Act.[64][65] TheHuman Rights Campaign gave Brady a score of 0 out of 100 for his voting record on legislation in the 116th Congress.[66]
Brady lives inThe Woodlands, asuburb of Houston, with his wife, Cathy, and two sons.[67]
In October 2005, Brady was arrested and charged withdriving under the influence of alcohol in South Dakota.[68] He pleaded no contest, was convicted of a misdemeanor, and fined $350. Brady issued an apology.[69]
A former state lawmaker from The Woodlands will mount a Republican primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, the House's newest and perhaps most powerful committee chairman.
In this highly charged election season, the race between Brady and Steve Toth reflects tensions within the Republican Party's conservative wing.
U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, faces three primary challengers, including former state Rep. Steve Toth.
His challengers said Brady has compromised too often, most recently by voting for a year-end spending measure that conservative activists say lacked limits on Planned Parenthood or on refugees from Syria and Iraq.
He won re-election last fall with 53 percent of the vote after being challenged by three conservative Republicans in a primary, and his public role in a national tax debate could spur another challenge in 2018.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's 8th congressional district 1997–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theJoint Economic Committee 2013–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Sam Johnson Acting | Chair of theHouse Ways and Means Committee 2015–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Chair of theJoint Taxation Committee 2015–2016 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by Orrin Hatch | Chair of the Joint Taxation Committee 2017–2018 | |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
