Safely Republican
Hensarling is the 19th House Republican to announce plans to retire or leave to seek higher office. It isn’t unusual for lawmakers to retire when their chairmanship ends; Republicans have term limits for congressional chairmanship positions, while Democrats do not. His district, which covers the eastern edge of Dallas across an expansive area to the southeast, is safely Republican. He won his eighth term in 2016 with 81 percent of the vote.
In the statement announcing his plans to step down, Hensarling said there is still work to be done in the 14 months he has left on Capitol Hill. One of his signature pieces of legislation as chairman of the financial panel was the Financial Choice Act, a bill that would rip up major portions of the Dodd-Frank Act. The legislation passed the U.S. House earlier this year but it’s prospects of advancing in the Senate are slim. Housing-finance reform is another priority for the committee in the coming months, Hensarling said.
He was first elected to Congress in 2002 and succeeded Alabama Republican Spencer Bachus as head of the Financial Services Committee in 2013.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.