This month, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) and staff have been combing through years of memories, troves of photos, and reams of paperwork documenting both the highs and lows of his congressional career, which has spanned more than a quarter of a century.
Since 1997, Brady has represented Texas’s 8th Congressional District, covering the northern and western Houston exurbs. For 18 of those years, House Republicans held the majority, while for eight years, including the last four, they’ve been in the minority, which amounts to playing legislative defense on a daily basis.
Brady won’t be part of the new House Republican majority that will take control of the chamber on Jan. 3 because he’s retiring at the end of the current congressional session. But in a career with legislative highlights such as shepherding into law then-President Donald Trump’s signature domestic achievement, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Brady is departing Capitol Hill feeling, more than anything, a sense of gratitude.
“It’s bittersweet in the sense that I do really love this job and who I work with and the issues, but I know it is time to go,” Brady told the Washington Examiner during an interview. “I’m really blessed. So few people get an opportunity to serve in Congress.”
And cleaning out his congressional office has sparked more than a tinge of nostalgia, said Brady, 67.
“It became very real here this last…
