What do you feel you have personally taken away from your experience in Congress?
There are a number of legislative achievements that I'm very proud of, but I think my overriding impression is that I'm leaving Congress exactly the way I entered it, which is with an absolute belief [that] we’re a remarkable country. And we are not the ... racist, hateful, divided nation we're told a thousand times. In fact, if you look around our community, you'll see just the opposite. You see it in our civic clubs or our churches ... everyone I know is volunteering to help someone else. Feeding the hungry or helping the homeless, helping our veterans coming back ... it’s just really remarkable.
In your time out of Congress do you expect to pursue those kinds of activities?
My constituents hire me to Jan. 3, so I'm going to run through the tape. And then starting next year, we'll start looking for a new adventure. We live here in The Woodlands. ... I've been here 37 years in The Woodlands, I came over to run the Chamber of Commerce and really help build out this community. And so this is our home, for [my wife], Cathy, and our two boys. But I'm going to be open to whatever opportunities there are. I love the economic areas, whether it's economy international trade [or] issues, like health care. Those matter to me, so hopefully, whatever the future holds will be in some areas there that I love.
How do you feel the Montgomery County area has informed what you brought to Congress?
My community and my county had a huge impact on my work. You know, the best decision ... I made was to not move to Washington, [D.C.], [and] commute to work each week. ... We're getting close to 2.8 million miles or something, back and forth. We wouldn't change that decision because it kept us grounded here at home among our neighbors, and this made a big difference in how I legislate as I did tax reform, for example, and worked on how we ... grow paychecks for people, how we create more jobs and help small businesses. I really ... always drove toward the impacts that would happen ... here at home, because I knew if it helped us ... our main street businesses and our working families ... [it] would help others.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges for Congress next year?
So, first and foremost, I haven't seen a problem yet that can't be solved. You know, some are more difficult than others. But I know this: the big ones almost always require both parties working together. That includes ... getting this inflation under wraps. We’re heading into a recession. The question is how long and how harsh will it be to break the inflation that happened this past two years? It won't be easy, I think. Republicans now to have the majority, sort of a checks and balance to the President's White House, and it really will force both parties to work together, which I think is a good thing. I believe that's good. So obviously, the economy's No. 1. Inflation is just crushing.
What do you feel some of your greatest accomplishments were?
Tax reform was easily the the most difficult thing, because it only happens once a generation in 31 years. It's hard, but we got it done. Every week, it seemed like another company business was moving overseas. ... So we saw what happened; we immediately leapfrogged to the most competitive economy in the world. [In 2019], before COVID[-19], ... three important things happened in that year. One, household income per family grew more in one year than in all eight years previously. Second thing is we lifted 6 million Americans out of poverty, some of the lowest poverty rates in history, and we lifted principally low-income workers, those without loss of skills. We lifted groups left behind, like women, people of color, teenagers and the disabled. [They] saw job opportunities they never had before and growing paychecks. ... The third thing that happened that year was, for the first time in a half a century, income inequality began to shrink in America, and they did that from the bottom up.
What issues on the local level will be important during next year’s Texas Legislature?
I think we’ve got a fantastic legislative team here representing us and certainly with [Brandon] Creighton chairing higher education, [Robert] Nichols on transportation, and we’ve got [Will] Metcalf [as] the chairman of state affairs. [Those are] huge issues. We’ve got as strong a lineup as I’ve seen for the community and the county, and I’m really happy about that.
What has your time in Congress meant to you personally?
I am just extremely grateful that I was blessed with the opportunity to serve in Congress 26 years. I'm grateful because our voters, our constituents ... had faith in me and allowed me to work my way up into the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. While people were very kind to thank me for my service, I'm quick to thank them for allowing me to represent them.
