The Texan Podcast - Interview: Rep. Kevin Brady Says Farewell to Congress

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

Want to support reporting on Texas politics that doesn’t include the spin? Subscribe at https://thetexan.news/subscribe/ This week, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX-08) joined The Texan’s regional reporter Kim Roberts to discuss Brady’s 26-year tenure in the nation’s Capitol as he retires at the end of the 117th United States Congress.  Brady discussed his accomplishments in Congress, such as those involving trade, the oil and gas industry, and his opposition to a high-speed rail project between Dallas and Houston. He also discussed what policies the next House Ways and Means Committee chairman should prioritize and the transition from his office to Representative-elect Morgan Luttrell. Enjoy this content? Be sure to subscribe for similar interviews and The Texan’s Weekly Roundup — a podcast released every Friday that brings you the latest news in Texas politics. Photo of Rep. Kevin Brady by Gage Skidmore.

This is Kim Roberts with The Texan. I had the opportunity to interview Congressman Kevin Brady of the 8th Congressional District, who is retiring after 26 years of service in the House of Representatives. We talked about his most gratifying accomplishments, ideas for the future, and his advice to his successor, Morgan Luttrell. Thank you for listening, and please subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Well, good morning, Congressman Kevin Brady. Thank you so much for joining us on The Texan Podcast. Well, thanks for letting me join you. Appreciate it. Yes, we're so grateful that you gave us some of your time.

I want to start by congratulating you on your 26 years of service in the U.S. House of Representatives. And I'm sure you're looking forward to your retirement. Yeah, I am. Look, I love my job. It's really been a blessing. But 26 years is a good run. And you sort of know when it's time to step back. And so, yeah, I am leaving. Obviously, I'm going to miss the issues, the policies, the people I work with. But yeah, we're ready for a new adventure. And we never moved to Washington, my family and I. So we live in the woodlands just north of Houston, and that's where we'll be our home again. Well, excellent. I would just like to start by letting you give our listeners a little background about how you got involved and ran to represent District 8 back in 1996.

Yeah, well, it wasn't intended. I was serving the state house at the time in my third term and really had expected to serve one more term. And the opportunity, Congressman Jack Fields from Humble, really a great congressman, decided to retire. And so, you know, Kathy and I talked about it and with friends and neighbors and decided to do, to seek the office. But I really think it really starts with family. We're all influenced by how we grew up.

And, you know, mom and dad were involved in the community and politics. And after dad died, mom raised five of us by herself. And one of the things she taught us was to give back to the community where you're involved. So after college, I began an 18-year chamber of commerce career where you're helping build a community, you know, build schools and roads and attract businesses. And, you know, I love that area. And it really led me both to a city council seat, the state legislature, and then really to Congress. So short answer is that, you know, my family just instilled in us that we need to be involved somewhere. And so this was Congress, it turned out,

ended up being a good place to contribute. All right. Very good. Well, speaking of contributing and being part of Congress, what would you say, upon reflection, has been the most gratifying part of serving the people of Texas 8th Congressional District for 26 years. Yeah, the opportunity to serve, it's very rare. I think in all of history, only about 275 Texans have had the opportunity to serve in Congress, certainly in the House of Representatives. So you've got a rare opportunity. The question always is, do you squander that or do you work hard to leave a mark, you know what I mean, for your community and your state and your country.

And my voters, you know, elected me and then kept me there, trusted me enough to work my way up into ways and means and to become the third Texan to lead that committee. And from there, I was able to do some good things for Texas and the country. So I'm really, I'm just really grateful that our, that my constituents, and they changed over time. I've represented about 28 different counties in my career because of redistricting. So, yeah, I've really it's really been an honor. Well, speaking of serving in some of those committees and getting to accomplish some things, you've been in Congress for seeing a lot of different things over the 26 years. And you've had the opportunity to work on quite a few different legislative proposals. I wonder if you might

share one or two accomplishments that you feel maybe the most proud of or the most gratified by. Yeah, so the good news is there, I've been blessed that way and have worked mainly in a bipartisan way on a lot of these issues. But I think the issues I'm most proud of were important for the country, but really important for Texas. So obviously my first job was to negotiate an end to the 40-year ban on selling crude oil around the world. That was my first job in 2015 as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, three weeks into it, chairmanship. And that really has changed the world, in a sense, has helped lower oil prices,

make America really a diplomatic power for our allies that we need now more than ever. Tax reform was critical because, you know, we were losing too many Texas jobs overseas. Companies were picking up and leaving. That was happening all over the country. Paychecks have been flat around the country for a decade. Growth was really slow. And people told us in Washington that was the new normal. But we believed we could do better.

So tax reform was really crucial to the economy, but trade as well. So I've been involved in 13 of the 15 free trade agreements we had, including the most recent one for Mexico and Canada. Texas is made for trade. You know, no other state sells or ships more around the world than we do. We're number one and have been for 20 years. So lots of jobs, lots of opportunities for families, farmers, small businesses and trade. So yeah, I'm proud of the economic issues that I worked on. And I'm also proud of the bipartisan work, the first reform of the IRS in two decades, the first retirement reforms in a decade and a

half, all bipartisan, and a ban on surprise medical billings nationwide, sort of using a lot of the Texas model to do that. And so, yeah, those are things, there's more, but those are issues, mostly bipartisan, that I'm proud of. Well, you've mentioned that you worked in a bipartisan way on several issues, and partisan politics has always been part of Congress and the way it's functioned. I wonder if upon reflection over the time you've served there, do you think some people think it's more partisan now than it was back then in 1996? Do you agree with that? And if so, can you tell me ways you think that manifests? Yeah, it is. I'd say it's a different type of partisan.

You know, from the standpoint, social media, I think, has been, has contributed to making the whole country a little more divided or certainly sharper elbows, you know what I mean, in comments. And I think that's contributed to making it harder for both parties to work together. But I will just tell you this, 90% of what we do is both parties working together and finding common ground, certainly on Ways and Means Committee. That's the case with Chairman Richie Neal and myself, but our whole committee, because we just believe, you know, every day you ought to wake up, I believe, you know, fighting bad ideas. There's lots in Washington, you know, advancing your good ideas, hopefully, but work equally hard to find common ground. And I think if you do,

I'm very conservative economically and socially, but I also believe you need to solve problems. You need to make the country better. And in Washington, the truth is, you know, that almost always requires finding common ground. And what I've learned is that you don't compromise on your principles at all. But if you're open to finding new ways to hit the same goal, you know, with your Democrat colleagues, you can get a lot done. Well, at the Texan, we write a fair amount about the Texas High Speed Rail proposed project between Dallas and Houston. And you've been a fairly vocal opponent of that proposed project, especially when it comes to federal funding of it. So I would like you to explain to our listeners why you think that project should not be supported with federal dollars.

Yeah. So I don't object to the concept of high-speed rail. We always ought to be looking at new ways on infrastructure, Texas especially. But here was a project that, you know, promised it would be built on time, no tax dollars, state, local, or federal, you know, and promised to use existing routes so you wouldn't be taking people's lands. But they were nagged, in my view, on all of those. Chose a route that's been very damaging to our rural communities. Right now, they've reversed course on funding.

Now they're really working hard to try to get federal taxpayers to bail them out. But I would say, Kim, right now, this is a zombie train. You know, it has no board, no staff, no financing, not a single permit to operate and hasn't even applied for them permits. And here we have a project a decade behind schedule and the costs have tripled. And so there's just no path forward for them. And I think they're leaving a lot of landowners and a lot of rural communities hanging out there with uncertainty. So, you know, I think the sooner they just close this down, the better for the state. I wonder if you have any insight about the Texas high-speed rail future, its plans. Yeah, I don't. We get press releases that they're

alive and well, but there's just nothing behind those at all. And I don't know if this is part of the strategy for how they sort of break themselves up and how they handle closing it all down from a legal and a property management standpoint. But I think it's all but over. And I think their decisions along the way brought this about. Well, you mentioned previously your work on trade agreements and especially the work on the USMCA trade agreement between US, Mexico and Canada. So that gives you some special insights into our relationship with Mexico. I wonder what you think the US federal government should work on there to help the illegal immigration problem and situation at the border. No, and I think, Kim, you know, in Texas, we're proud of our relationship with Mexico, culturally, economically, and in many ways. So this is a special relationship. I think trade

makes that even better. We really, you know, when you put together the strengths of a Mexico, a US, and Canada, frankly, bring those all to the table. We are stronger, more competitive. We can handle tough economic issues better together. So that's really important. That's why I work on trade so much. I think immigration has been a big challenge. And I think the Biden administration's approach on the border, I think, has just been horrendous. It's a humanitarian crisis, a security crisis, a fentanyl crisis, a human trafficking crisis. And we know this, especially in Texas, in the

Houston region. So I think really on immigration, our approach needs to be let's shut the back door of illegal immigration so we can keep open and improve the front door of legal immigration. We know in some ways that front door is broken too, you know, and how the backlogs, how long it takes, you know, it's, and I think we're one of the few countries where you get in by who you know, not by what skills or contributions you can make to the country. I think that needs to change. But it all starts with shutting that back door of illegal immigration. And obviously, that's not happening today. A final point, people forget in the summer of 2018, the House of Representatives offered two bills that I thought was the right balance. In fact, it attracted a majority of House Republicans. And what it did was

close that back door of illegal immigration, made some really modern improvements to the front door on how people become citizens and work. But it also created a path to legal status for our dreamers. And our thinking was that would be a good balanced model to use for immigration. I still think it is. But with the current environment and the tension at the border, you know, it's tough to get people to the table on a balanced approach like that. But at the end of the day, it's needed. Thankfully, we're a state that's growing. We have a workforce that's strong, but we have a million job openings as of this morning. So, for us to grow and prosper and offer opportunities, we've got to find some good

solutions for a workforce that's trained and ready and big enough to sort of handle our economic growth. I guess returning to my question about partisan politics, do you think the border is one of the more partisan issues? Is that why it's hard to bring people to the table? You know, it is but shouldn't be. I think we all know what the solution needs to be. It's been frustrating for me that in 26 years, we really haven't yet come together as both parties to do this. People often say folks don't want a solution. I don't think that's true. I just think the dynamics have just never come together. But I'm pretty optimistic at some point it will because the country needs it. Both parties want to find a solution.

And from a security standpoint, economic standpoint, this is important. You mentioned human trafficking in your answer about illegal immigration. And it's kind of been called modern day slavery by many. And it was really a tragedy. And I was wondering what you think the U.S. Congress can do to fight it more aggressively. Yeah. So as we're talking right now, it's estimated 300,000 young people under the age of 24 are in sex slavery in Texas right now as we're visiting. And that's just, yeah, I know it's unconscionable. And the Houston region is a big part of that.

And I think our proximity to the border is part of that. It's a shipping route, unfortunately, on human trafficking. So border security really does matter. I mean, it's got to be smart. It's got to be effective. Certainly, we got to be able to crack down here in Texas and the U.S. as well. But it is it's a byproduct of a border that's not secure, that's just heartbreaking. It's just heartbreaking. And we've got to do more. We've just got to do more. It's one of those problems that I think is multifaceted and needs a multifaceted solution. Yeah, no question.

Well, you've mentioned your chairmanship of the House and Ways Committee, and that committee obviously has vast jurisdiction over a lot of matters like taxes, health care, trade, and welfare. So Republicans are set to take control of the House come January. And with your experience on that committee, what priorities would you suggest to the incoming chairman of House Ways and Means to focus on to help some of the economic issues our country's facing right now. Yeah, the good news is we've worked and developed an agenda for that. And so the Republican, we call it the commitment to America. And it's really four pillars, a nation that's safe,

an economy that's strong, a government that's accountable to the people in a future based on freedom. The economy that's strong is really our bailiwick. And so you're going to see an effort to fight inflation by less government spending, less taxes and regulation that fuel inflation, and more American-made energy, more workers reconnected to their jobs, and more innovation that can help us drive prices down. You'll see an effort to confront China, their economic aggression and predatory practices. But you'll also see an effort to make America the most innovative nation on the planet, because we think the country that wins that race, you know, wins the future. And we're also obviously looking at free market programs that can help generate more paid family leave and more child care, not mandated out of Washington,

but really created, we are creating incentives for businesses large and small to be able to offer those better benefits, you know, to their workers, because we think that's important too. Very good. Well, Morgan Luttrell was elected to fill the seat that you're vacating in the House of Representatives. And I'm sure you've probably met with him, but what advice would you offer to him that's unique to representing congressional district eight? I didn't know Morgan well. I knew him, but didn't know him well before he sought the nomination and won the race. But I've become so impressed with him.

He is, look, this is a principled conservative who served his country and wants to serve it more in Washington since he's won the primary. We sat down often and his approach of listening and learning and doing outreach to everyone, not just a single party in preparing to do a great job in Congress, be that kind of representative. I've just been so impressed with him. So, yeah, we've been working on the transition for quite a while now. He's going to hit the ground running. And I'm really you always want to be followed by someone you respect and admire. And in that case, that's exactly what we've gotten in Morgan. So you feel like you can assure the people of Congressional District

that they'll have a good representative taking your spot? Yeah, I absolutely do. And I'll tell you too, his team's already focused on a seamless transition for casework. You know what I mean? Families you're fighting for and working on. He knows the district well. So yeah, I think he's a step ahead just because how serious he's taken the preparation and the transition. Excellent. What are your plans now that you're retiring from Congress? Give us an insight into what you plan to do. Yes.

So I don't know yet. People hired me to represent them and work till January 3rd. So I'm going to do that. And at the end of the year, I always have to negotiate the tax trade health care, you know, provisions that are temporary. So didn't want any distractions there. So in January, we've told everyone who wants to visit, you know, let's we'll talk in the new year, you know, after the new session begins, but we'll be headquartered in Texas. You know, Kathy and I have lived in the woodlands a long time, and this is where our sons are as well. So this is our home. And then I'm just going to be open to a new adventure. I've got a lot of energy to burn, you know, I love working. And so we'll, Kathy and I'll figure out hopefully a rewarding, satisfying new adventure.

And hopefully it'll be along the economic issues that I love, taxes, trade, health care, energy, things like that. So no specific plans. Do you think it'll still involve something with government? Yeah. So I'm probably not political life. Certainly I've had an opportunity to serve. So it's time for others to do that. But yeah, you never know, Kim, sort of where these things head. We're just going to be open to the ideas. How is your wife feeling that you're coming back home permanently to

Woodlands? We're both very happy. I've been commuting a long time. I think we figured out for a local Boy Scout troop, I'm on my sixth round trip to the moon, commuting back and forth to Washington. That's a long time away from your family and your boys. And so, yeah, we're both very, very happy about an opportunity to be together more. It's hard on spouses. You're gone.

They're single moms and single dads for, you know, much of the week. And then you're busy in your district on the weekends. So she's sacrificed. She's an angel. She sacrificed so much to allow me to do this. And so, yeah, it'll be nice to be able to give back. Was there anything else you'd like to offer to our listeners as we close up this interview? The only thing I would say is I would encourage you to put down the phone and your tablet and turn off the TV from time to time.

I think, you know, we're not the hateful, racist, divided nation that 10,000 times a day we're told. In fact, I think we are a work in progress, no question, but we're the most charitable country on earth. We're people who race to help each other in disasters. Year round, we're doing charitable work in church or civic groups or with our friends. And that's really, really who we are. I'm very optimistic about our future. There's so much more that pulls us together than divides us in our communities. And I hope people don't get discouraged, don't get disheartened, you know, just have some trust, be involved, you know, and I see good things ahead. Well, it's a good word to close us down.

Thank you so much, Congressman Brady, for your time today. Congratulations on your service and congratulations on your retirement from Congress. Thank you, Kim. Take care. I hope you have a great holidays. Thank you. You too. Thank you to everyone for listening.

If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting an email to editor at thetexan.news. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you, so thank you again for your support. God bless you, and God bless Texas.