Neal was the president of theSpringfield City Council from 1979 to 1983 and themayor of Springfield from 1983 to 1989. He was nearly unopposed when he ran for the House of Representatives in 1988, and took office in 1989.
Richard Edmund Neal was born in 1949, inWorcester, Massachusetts, the oldest of three children of Mary H. (Garvey) and Edmund John Neal. He and his two younger sisters were raised in Springfield by their mother, a housewife, and their father, a custodian atMassMutual. Neal's maternal grandparents were fromNorthern Ireland and his paternal grandparents were fromIreland. Neal's mother died when he was 13, and he was attending Springfield Technical High School when his father died. Neal and his two younger sisters moved in with their grandmother and later their aunt, relying onSocial Security checks as they grew up.[5][6][7]
In1983, Neal made plans to challenge Theodore Dimauro, the Democratic incumbent mayor of Springfield. The pressure led Dimauro to retire and Neal was elected mayor. Neal was reelected in1985 and1987.[11] As mayor, Neal oversaw a period of significant economic growth, with over $400 million of development and investment in the city, and a surplus in the city budget. He worked to strengthen Springfield's appearance, pushing to revive and preserve the city's historic homes and initiating a Clean City Campaign to reduce litter.[13][14]
The 2nd congressional district of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2013
Neal ran for theUnited States House of Representatives inMassachusetts's 2nd congressional district in 1988 after 18-term Democratic incumbentEdward Boland retired. Boland had alerted Neal of his impending retirement, giving him a head start on his campaign. Neal raised $200,000 in campaign contributions and collected signatures across the district before the retirement was formally announced.[15] He was unopposed in the Democratic primary, and his only general election opponent was Communist Party candidate Louis R. Godena, whom he defeated with over 80 percent of the vote.[16]
Neal has won reelection every two years since. Former Springfield mayor Theodore Dimauro, reflecting sentiments that Neal had an unfair advantage in the previous election, ran as a challenger in the 1990 Democratic primary. Dimauro's campaign was sullied by a false rumor he spread about theBank of New England's financial situation, and Neal won the primary easily.[15] He was unopposed in the general election, winning 68 percent of the vote.[17] In 1992, his popularity was threatened by theHouse banking scandal, in which he had made dozens of unpenalized overdrafts at the House Bank.[15] After narrowly defeating two Democratic opponents, he was challenged by Republican Anthony W. Ravosa Jr., and Independent Thomas R. Sheehan. Neal won with 53 percent of the vote.[18]
In aSpringfield Union-News poll taken in mid-October 1994, Neal was ahead of John Briare by only 6 percentage points. Neal went on to spend nearly $500,000 in the last two weeks of the campaign to defeat Briare. The 1994 general election also featured a third-party candidate, Kate Ross, who received 6% of the vote. Neal received 59% of the vote in 1994.[19]
Since 1994 Neal has had little electoral opposition. He was challenged by Mark Steele in 1996 and easily dispatched him with 71 percent of the vote[20][21] and ran unopposed in 1998. In 2000 he won the Democratic primary against Joseph R. Fountain, who challenged Neal's positions as "anti-choice" and "anti-gun".[22] Neal had been unopposed in the general election since 1996, but faced Republican opponent Tom Wesley[23] in the2010 U.S. congressional elections, which Neal won by a margin of 57% to 43%.
For his first 12 terms in Congress, Neal represented a district centered on Springfield and stretching as far east as the southern and western suburbs ofWorcester. When Massachusetts lost a congressional district after the 2010 census, the bulk of Neal's territory, including his home in Springfield, was merged with the 1st district, held by fellow DemocratJohn Olver. While it retained Olver's district number, it was geographically and demographically more Neal's district; it now covered almost all of the Springfield metropolitan area. The prospect of an incumbent vs. incumbent contest was averted whenOlver retired. The new 1st was no less Democratic than the old 2nd, and Neal was reelected without much difficulty in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
In the 2018 Democratic primary, Neal defeated Springfield attorney Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, 70.7% to 29.3%.[24] In the final days of the campaign Neal had $3.1 million in the bank to Amatul-Wadud's $20,000.[24] Neal ran unopposed in the general election, winning a sixteenth term in the U.S. House.
Holyoke mayorAlex Morse unsuccessfully challenged Neal in the2020 Democratic primary election.[25] In the 2020 election, Neal received the most PAC money of any candidate: $3.1 million out of his $4.9 million total raised.[26] Neal was unopposed in the general election, winning a seventeenth term in the U.S. House.
With several committee posts, Neal has madeeconomic policy the focus of his career, although his success has been mixed.[5] He served his first two terms on theHouse Banking Committee, where he served on theFinancial Services Subcommittee. As the banking reform law of 1991 was being drafted, he cautioned that PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush's proposal could negatively affect small businesses and minority-owned businesses. He introduced an amendment to require reports on lending to these businesses, which was adopted.[56]
In 1993 Neal moved to theHouse Ways and Means Committee, where he currently serves.[56] He has been chairman of theSubcommittee on Select Revenue Measures since 2008 and is a member of theSubcommittee on Trade. Previously he served on theOversight andSocial Security subcommittees.[57] In the late 2000s analysts considered Neal a likely frontrunner for chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and in the wake ofCharles B. Rangel's 2010 departure he began actively seeking the post.[6][58] In June 2010, while pursuing the chairmanship, he invited campaign contributors to a $5,000-per-person weekend fundraiser inCape Cod. This drew fire fromThe Boston Globe, which criticized him for "[acceding] to the capital's money culture."[59]
According toCongressional Quarterly'sPolitics in America, one of Neal's longstanding legislative priorities is to simplify thetax code.[5] Neal has long advocated repealing theAlternative Minimum Tax (AMT), believing its effects have reached unreasonably low income brackets.[60] He led an unsuccessful movement to reform the AMT in 2007.[5] In 1998 he successfully pushed to exempt a child tax credit from being affected by the AMT, and in 2001 Congress made the exemption permanent at his urging.[61] He voted against the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, saying they would force millions onto the AMT.[62] Another priority of Neal's is to eliminate tax "loopholes" that favor higher-income individuals.[5] He was the lead proponent of a bill to require federal contractors to pay federal taxes for workers hired through offshoreshell headquarters. The bill, H.R. 6081, passed both houses of Congress unanimously and was signed into law in May 2008.[63]
In February 2019, Neal came under criticism for failing to promptly exercise his authority as Ways and Means Committee chair to subpoenaDonald Trump's tax returns.[65] Citing a need to build a strong case in a potential lawsuit, Neal delayed taking this step until May 2019.[66]
In 2019 the House Ways and Means Committee led by Neal passed a bill that would prohibit the IRS from creating a free electronic tax filing system.[67] During his 2016 and 2018 campaigns, Neal received $16,000 in contributions from Intuit and H&R Block, two tax preparation companies that have lobbied against the creation of free tax filing systems.[67]
For his tenure as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in the 116th Congress, Neal earned an "F" grade from the non-partisanLugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index.[68]
Neal is an opponent of theIraq War, saying it was based on false intelligence. He voted against the originalinvasion in 2003 and opposedPresident Bush's 2006 request to send additional troops.[62] He cited veterans' affairs as his top priority in 2010.[74]
In 2017, Neal backed the Israeli Anti-Boycott Act, aimed to punish companies that boycott Israel.[75]
A longtime advocate ofhealth care reform, Neal was involved in the major health care reform efforts of 1993–94 and 2009–10. In working on the unsuccessfulClinton health care plan of 1993 he served the interests of the major health insurance and medical companies in his district, achieving a compromise allowing insurance companies to charge small businesses higher premiums.[56] He was later involved writing the House's 2009 health care reform bill, theAffordable Health Care for America Act. As chairman of the Select Revenue Measures subcommittee, he had a hand in developing the bill's financing plan. He explained that his priorities were to address "pre-existing conditions, capping out-of-pocket expenses and making sure people don't lose their health care if they lose their job".[74][76] Despite his support for the act, he spoke about his preference for a "piecemeal" approach to health care reform, saying it would allow for a more reasonable debate.[77]
As chairman of theHouse Ways and Means Committee, before a March 2019 hearing onMedicare for All, Neal told Democrats on the panel that he didn't want the phrase "Medicare for All" to be used. He argued that Medicare for All was wrong on policy and a political loser.[78] In December 2019, some blamed Neal for killing legislation that would have ended surprise medical bills,[79] suspecting it may have been because of industry lobbyist donations to his reelection campaign.[80][81] As of the 2019–20 election cycle, Neal is third-highest among House members in campaign contributions from the health services/HMO industry.[82] The insurance and pharmaceutical industries are among the top contributors to his campaign committee.[82]
Neal introduced the bipartisanSECURE Act of 2019, which contained a number of provisions to expand access to retirement planning options and encourage employers to set up retirement plans for workers. The bill, originally introduced in late March 2019, became law in December 2019 as part of the fiscal year 2020 federal appropriations bill.[83]
Representing a relativelyCatholic district, Neal has a moreconservative record onabortion than other representatives fromMassachusetts.[5] He said in 2010, "I have always opposed taxpayer funding of abortion. I'd keepRoe v. Wade and restrict it. I've always thought: keep abortion, with restrictions forlate-term abortion. [Given] the voting pattern I have, both sides would say I'm mixed, and guess what? That's where the American people are."[77] He voted for thePartial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which made theintact dilation and extraction abortion procedure illegal in most cases.[5] During debate on the House health care reform bill, he voted in favor of theStupak–Pitts Amendment to restrict government funding of abortion.[86] In 2021 Neal was listed as an original co-sponsor of theWomen's Health Protection Act.[87]
Neal is aRoman Catholic[15] and lives inSpringfield. He was married to his wife Maureen Neal (née Conway) until her death. They had four children.[9] In addition to his duties as a congressman, Neal teaches a journalism course at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst called "The Politician and the Journalist".[6]
^Smock, Frederick A. (May 30, 2000). "Neal may face primary challenge: Springfield man submits nomination papers to run in 2nd district."Telegram & Gazette: p. B3.
^A 501tax-exempt, OpenSecrets; NW, charitable organization 1300 L. St; Washington, Suite 200; info, DC 20005 telelphone857-0044."Top Recipients of PAC Money".OpenSecrets.Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. RetrievedJuly 6, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Nitschke, Lori (February 3, 2001). "Bush's Tax Cut Plan Would Leave Many Snagged by Alternative Minimum Levy."CQ Weekly.Congressional Quarterly. p. 274.
^Montgomery, Lori, and Murray, Shailagh (June 19, 2009). "Senate's Health-Care Draft Calls for Most to Buy Insurance, Nixes Obama's 'Public Option'."The Washington Post.
^abPalpini, Kristin (February 12, 2010). "Neal urges piecemeal votes on health care reform."Telegram & Gazette.
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