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Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said Tuesday that he has decided not to seek re-election next year and will retire from Congress at the beginning of 2019. "Today I am announcing that I will not seek reelection to the US Congress in 2018. Although service in Congress remains the greatest privilege of my life, I never intended to make it a lifetime commitment, and I have already stayed far longer than I had originally planned," the Texas Republican said in a note to supporters. Hensarling, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said that he has an array of issues...

U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, won't run for re-election next year. "Today I am announcing that I will not seek reelection to the US Congress in 2018. Although service in Congress remains the greatest privilege of my life, I never intended to make it a lifetime commitment, and I have already stayed far longer than I had originally planned," Hensarling wrote to supporters today. Hensarling has represented Congressional District 5 in the Dallas area since 2003. He chairs the powerful Financial Services Committee and has been a strong voice in regulating the financial industry.

House Republicans are priming the pump for the next president to overhaul much of the financial regulation enacted in the aftermath of the 2008 global market downturn. The GOP plan would repeal and replace most of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul with a more market-based regulatory scheme. As part of the GOP’s “A Better Way Agenda,” House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, was scheduled to unveil details of the simpler, yet stricter, regulation Tuesday morning at the Economic Club of New York. “In a phrase,” he said, summarizing the Republican plan in prepared remarks obtained by The Daily Signal, “we...

Rep. Jeb Hensarling has endorsed Republican presidential candidate and fellow Texan Ted Cruz in an effort to derail controversial businessman Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner. “I believe that now is the time for Republicans and conservatives to unite behind the candidate who can not only win in November, but who will govern according to the principles we advocate and share,” Hensarling said in a statement Thursday. “We are down to two candidates who can secure the Republican nomination — Donald Trump and Ted Cruz,” Hensarling said, dismissing the chances of Ohio Gov. John Kasich. “Based on Donald Trump’s track record,...

General Electric is apparently not going to move to Texas because Congressman Jeb Hensarling doesn’t support the Export-Import Bank. Bloomberg cited the ever nebulous “people familiar with the matter” in their report on Friday. GE told Dallas business leaders in recent days it would look elsewhere for alternatives to its Connecticut home, said the people, who asked not to be identified because details aren’t public. They said GE cited some Texas lawmakers’ opposition to the U.S. Export-Import Bank, an important source of financing for some overseas sales. You can probably include Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn (allegedly), plus Congressmen...

Even a 20-count federal indictment might not keep Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) from winning reelection. Both GOP and Democratic observers expect the former FBI agent to win Tuesday night, despite a looming trial on charges ranging from mail and wire fraud to perjury. Even without help from national Republicans, political watchers say Grimm embraced his legal woes and cast himself as Staten Island’s “anti-hero.” His Democratic challenger, former New York City Councilman Domenic Recchia, failed to offer other reasons to oust the incumbent. “It’s part of the Staten Island culture — he’s like an anti-hero, that resonates with people,” said...

Maxine Waters — the fiery liberal from Los Angeles known for calling House Republican leadership “demons” and threatening to nationalize oil companies — has gone from the scourge of Big Business to a sympathetic ally for corporate America. It’s no accident. Waters is executing this transformation by seizing on the growing divide between conservative Republicans and Big Business and leveraging her position as the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, where in the coming weeks she will play a role in the battles over extending a terrorism insurance program and the Export-Import Bank. A large part of her...

There’s only “one member of the Republican Party” holding up reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, according to Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer: Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. “I don’t think there’s any doubt [he's] the one holding it up,” the Maryland Democrat told reporters at his weekly press briefing Tuesday morning. “It’s not an impression. It’s a fact.” Hoyer went on to say that House GOP leaders, particularly outgoing Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, want to reauthorize the institution designed to help U.S. companies finance goods for sale overseas. The two lawmakers actually worked closely together at the...

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) will not run to replace House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). The conservative favorite said in a statement Thursday he was not going to challenge Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) or Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) for the No. 2 spot in House GOP leadership.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is intentionally sidelining one of his own Republican committee chairmen — and the chairman’s attempts to pass conservative reforms — in order to better secure his own path to the speakership. Informed sources in the House, Senate and outside groups tell The Daily Caller that a shift in leadership is going to come sooner than expected, and Cantor is fighting hard for the new spot. Speaker of the House John Boehner will likely step down if the Republicans fail to take the Senate in 2014; and even if Republicans do win, the rumor is Boehner...

Loving the state you represent is not a unique phenomenon in Congress. But, as Texas Republicans are just dying to tell you, everything is bigger in the Lone Star State. Republican House members punctuate their $300 suits with gimmicky $3 Texas-themed ties. They sit together on the House floor during votes as a sign of solidarity. And they hold weekly lunches to socialize and celebrate just how Texan they are. Texas Republicans talk about the state like it’s a different country — it was, they’ll be happy to remind you, once an independent republic. (Rep. John Culberson, the Republican who...

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling spoke yesterday in Texas on housing reform. Hensarling pointed out that the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners (PATH) Act specifically: * Ends the costly Fannie and Freddie bailout; * Protects and restores the FHA by defining its mission; * Increases mortgage competition, enhances transparency, and maximizes consumer choice; and * Breaks down barriers for private investment capital. Here is a markup of the PATH bill. The PATH bill is superior to the Senate’s Corker-Warner bill that proposes winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but creates yet another government insurance corporate (The Federal...

Republicans on Wednesday signaled they would consider higher tax revenues to win a supercommittee deal if Democrats offer deeper cuts to entitlement spending. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Texas), a conservative Republican who is the co-chairman of the deficit supercommittee, walked back a statement he made Tuesday on television, when he said Republicans “have gone as far as we feel we can go” by offering to raise $250 billion in new tax revenues. Briefing reporters on Wednesday, Hensarling said Republicans would be “more than happy to negotiate” around a new offer from Democrats, pointedly declining to say whether $250 billion was the...

Who's been cozying up to the members of the new Congressional super committee? With the committee set to decide on a whopping $1.5 trillion in federal deficit reduction this fall, lobbyists and corporations are trying to figure out which industries are best connected to the 12 members of the new panel. You can bet that those connections will be pressed to the limit in coming months as companies and sectors scramble to ensure that federal spending they like and tax breaks they depend on aren't slated for elimination. As it looks at the new committee members, Wall Street may like...

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Here is a look at some of the top donors to election campaigns for the 12 members of the U.S. Congress named to a deficit-fighting "super committee." Known as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, the panel is expected to be the most heavily lobbied body in Washington ahead of its Nov. 23 deadline for making recommendations on $1.5 trillion in additional budget savings. Unless specified, donations below combine members' campaign committees and leadership PACs (political action committees). Data is from www.opensecrets.org. SENATE DEMOCRATS Patty Murray of Washington state * Software giant Microsoft Corp...

The 12 lawmakers appointed to a new congressional supercommittee charged with tackling the nation's fiscal problems have received millions in contributions from special interests with a direct stake in potential cuts to federal programs, an Associated Press review of federal campaign data has found. The newly appointed members — six Democrats and six Republicans — have received more than $3 million total during the past five years in donations from political committees with ties to defense contractors, health care providers and labor unions. That money went to their re-election campaigns, according to AP's review. Supporters say the lawmakers were picked...

Speaker Boehner Announces Appointments to Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Washington (Aug 10) House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today announced his intent to appoint the following three lawmakers to represent House Republicans on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction: House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) Speaker Boehner has tapped Chairman Hensarling to serve as a co-chair of the joint select committee. Boehner issued the following statement regarding the appointments of Chairmen Hensarling, Camp, and Upton: “Our debt and deficits...

0bama open mic: You think you can overturn my veto? Try it. You wanna repeal healthcare? Go at it! We'll have that debate. You're not going to be able to do that by nickel and dime'n me in the budget. Do you think we're stupid?

Virginia Tea Party activists this weekend turned up the pressure on House Majority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) over the speed at which the GOP-led Congress is looking to cut spending.  Leaders of the Virginia Tea Party Patriot Federation issued a tough statement on Sunday, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, calling on Cantor to make deeper cuts to the budget at a faster pace. "We are extremely disappointed in Eric Cantor, but not surprised," Mark K. Lloyd, the group's chairman, said in a release. "The will of the American people was pretty clear in November — cut, cut, cut spending. Apparently,...

The race for chairman of the House Republican conference between Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Jeb Hensarling (Texas) has become, according to much of the media, a battle between the Tea Party and “The Establishment.” On Fox News Sunday last weekend, Chris Wallace questioned Eric Cantor over his support for Hensarling. Wallace called the Texan “a member of the Republican establishment,” and asked, “Doesn’t the Tea Party d