Retiring Rep. Kevin Brady: Optimistic about Congress and undecided about Trump in 2024

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady spent some of his final days in Congress locked in a bitter partisan battle over former President Donald Trump’s tax returns. As the top Republican on the House Ways & Means Committee, Brady was the leading GOP voice pushing back as the Democratic majority on the committee voted to release the returns. Brady argued it set a dangerous precedent and Republicans were fighting to protect American citizens and “make sure they are not targeted by partisans in Congress.”

But in a wide-ranging interview ahead of Brady’s retirement after 25 years in Congress, the Republican from The Woodlands was far less concerned about partisans, striking an optimistic tone about Congress and a “middle class” of lawmakers serious about tackling serious issues, rather than pursuing political wins. Brady defended Trump to the end — and worked closely with the former president while he was in office, most notably on the first rewrite of the tax code in three decades, which Brady spearheaded in the House. But he said he still hasn't decided whether he would support Trump in 2024. "I’m very conservative, socially and economically. But we’ve been able to find common ground with others, by looking for the common ground. We can still fight bad ideas and we can still advance our own, but we can still work to find common ground, and that’s the culture I’ve tried to create on the Ways and Means Committee: Wake up everyday fighting bad ideas — there’s lots of them in Washington. But work equally hard each day to find common ground. Do both of those, all out. I think there are a lot of members of Congress — conservative and liberal — who feel the same way. There’s what I call a middle class in Congress, like there is in America. These are lawmakers who take their job very seriously, they work extremely hard trying to find solutions, even in a difficult environment. At the end of the day, especially the big issues, both parties have to tackle them together."