House Ways and Means Committee member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., announced this week that he will resign from Congress by the end of this year to head a new media company founded by former President Donald Trump.
Nunes, who was first elected to Congress in 2002 and joined Ways and Means in 2005, is the second highest-ranking Republican on the House taxwriting panel and was considered a leading contender to become chairman in the 118th Congress if the GOP takes back the House majority in the November 2022 midterm elections, or ranking member if Republicans remain in the minority. (Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the current ranking member on Ways and Means, announced in April that he is not seeking re-election to Congress in 2022.) Now that Nunes intends to leave Capitol Hill, Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and Adrian Smith, R-Neb., who follow Nunes in seniority on the panel, are thought to be likely candidates for the top House GOP taxwriting spot in the next Congress, although other panel members may also vie for the post.
More immediately, Nunes’s announcement this week creates a new opening on the Ways and Means Republican roster in the current Congress. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and the House Republican Steering Committee will determine who will fill that vacancy, likely early in 2022.
Nunes is the latest in a series of House taxwriters on both sides of the aisle to announce plans to leave Congress. In addition to Nunes and ranking member Brady, GOP Rep. Tom Reed of New York indicated in March that he is not seeking re-election in 2022. Ways and Means Democrats who are departing after the 117th Congress comes to an end include Rep. Tom Suozzi, who recently announced he will seek the Democratic nomination to be governor of his home state of New York, and Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, who indicated in August that this will be his final term in office.
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