Kevin Brady

Early life, education, and early political career

Brady was born in Vermillion, South Dakota, one of five children of William F. and Nancy A. Brady. His father, a lawyer, was killed in 1967 in a courtroom shooting in Rapid City when Brady was 12 years old. His mother was left to raise five children by herself. Student body president and a four-sport athlete, Brady graduated from Rapid City Central High School, in 1973. Working his way through college holding a variety of jobs—construction worker, meat packer, manufacturing worker, waiter, and bartender, Brady earned a degree in mass communications from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he played varsity baseball, served in the student government association and became a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. In 2005, he was named a distinguished alumnus of the university, and in 2001, was a recipient of the order of achievement by the national Lambda Chi Alpha organization.

A chamber of commerce executive at the Rapid City area chamber of commerce, Brady was elected to the Rapid City common council, at age 26. In 1982, he moved to Texas to work for the Beaumont chamber of commerce and later the south Montgomery county, Woodlands chamber of commerce.

Texas House of Representatives

Brady began his Texas political career in 1990 when he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, representing The Woodlands, parts of Montgomery County, and five other counties west and north of Houston.

Tenure

In 2002, Brady voted in favor of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq, authorizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq the following year.

In 2005, Brady was a chief supporter of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), working with the George W. Bush administration to secure passage of that free-trade agreement. In 2011, Brady also voted in favor of free-trade agreements with South Korea Colombia, and Panama. However, in 2017, Brady supports President Donald Trump's proposed border adjustment tax, arguing that the tax on imports would place the U.S. on a level playing field with other countries that have the tax and would raise an estimated $1 trillion for the federal budget.

Brady is known as the author of a federal "sunset law" that would require every federal program not specifically written into the Constitution to justify its existence to taxpayers within 12 years or face elimination.

Brady is the chairman of the U.S. House-Senate joint economic committee, the third Texan to lead the committee, after Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Rep. Wright Patman. 

In March 2012, he proposed the Sound Dollar Act, legislation to require the Federal Reserve to monitor gold and the foreign-exchange value of the U.S. dollar. The bill would also repeal the Federal Reserve's dual mandate (controlling unemployment and inflation) and replace it with a single mandate for U.S. dollar price stability.

In November 2015, Brady was elected the 65th chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. As of 2017, Brady serves as chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means.

In March 2017, Brady introduced an amendment to the American Health Care Act (the House Republican proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act) that would allow health insurance providers to fully deduct all forms of compensation to their most highly compensated executives without limit, repealing the current law, which capped the deduction at $500,000 per executive. Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik criticized Brady's amendment as a "secret payoff" to the health insurance industry because of the cryptic language of Brady's amendment.

In February 2016, House Speaker Paul Ryan designated Brady as the leader of his Tax Reform Task Force.

Elections

Incumbent Republican congressman Jack Fields of Texas' 8th congressional district decided to retire. Brady decided to run and ranked second in the Republican primary with 22% of the vote in a six candidate field. But the candidate who ranked first, Dr. Gene Fontenot, received just 36% of the vote, short of the 50% threshold. In the run-off election, Brady defeated him 53%–47%. However, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Bush v. Vera that three congressional districts in Texas were unconstitutional. After holding hearings, the court concluded that there was no longer time to hold primaries and instead forced all candidates (Democrats and Republicans) be listed together on the November general election ballot in a jungle primary. If no candidate reached 50%, a special runoff would be held on December 10 between the two highest ranking candidates regardless of political party. In the November election, Brady ranked first with 41% of the vote. In the December run-off election, he defeated Fontenot again 59%–41%.

During this time period, he never won re-election with less than 67% of the vote.

For the first time since 1998, Brady was challenged in the Republican primary. Three candidates filed against him. He defeated all of them in the March primary with 79% of the vote. He won re-election with 80% of the vote. In the May 2012, Republican primary in a newly-redrawn district he defeated his challenger with 76% of the vote. In the November 6, 2012 general election he defeated his Democratic opponent with over 77% of the vote.

In the Republican primary on March 4, Brady won re-nomination to a tenth term in the U.S. House. He polled 41,549 votes (68 percent) to 19,508 (32 percent) for his intraparty challenger, Craig McMichael.

In the General election held November 4, 2014 Brady was re-elected to his seat in the U.S. House. He polled 124,897 votes (89.32 percent) to 14,930 (10.67 percent) for his challenger, Ken Petty.

In November 2015, Steve Toth, a former State Representative from The Woodlands, Texas, announced that he would be running against Brady, facing what could be Brady's toughest campaign.

Kevin Brady eked out a victory in the March 1, 2016 primary, but he is likely to have a target on his back for years to come. Toth held Brady to 53% of the vote, the lowest re-election total in his 18-year career. In 2014, Brady received 68% of the vote in the primary. Brady spent over $1.5 million. Toth spent $89,325. Toth criticized Brady for compromising too often with President Obama and was critical of Brady for supporting the omnibus federal budget bill and voting to revive the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Climate change and the environment

Brady supported the U. S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Brady has a lifetime score of 3% on the National Environmental Scorecard of the League of Conservation Voters. Brady has been described as a "climate change denier" by Vice Media and by Organizing for America.

Donald Trump's tax returns

As chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Brady opposed a resolution to request ten years' worth of returns from President Trump and his business entities. Brady said that the resolution was an abuse done for "obvious political purposes".

Personal life

Brady lives in The Woodlands, a suburb of Houston, with his wife Cathy and two young sons (Will and Sean).

In October 2005, Brady was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol while in South Dakota. He pleaded no contest, was convicted of a misdemeanor, and fined $350. Brady issued an apology.