Congressman
Brady
Biography

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Kevin Brady is currently serving his fifth term in Congress, representing the 8th District of Texas in the U.S House of Representatives. The 8th District includes Montgomery, Walker, San Jacinto, Tyler, Polk, Hardin, Jasper, Newton, Orange and parts of Trinity and Liberty counties.

In order to stay close to the communities and neighborhoods he represents, Brady chooses not to move to Washington but lives in Texas with his family and commutes to work each week.

Brady holds the leadership post of Deputy Whip and serves on the Ways & Means Committee in the seat formerly held by past Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer and the 41st President George H.W. Bush. Congressman Brady also serves on the Joint Economic Committee and House Policy Committee.

The Ways and Means Committee is considered by many to be the most powerful committee in Congress, with jurisdiction over two-thirds of the federal budget including taxes, Social Security, Medicare, international trade and welfare. Brady serves on the Social Security and the Trade sub-committees.

Congressman Brady’s major legislative accomplishments include:

• Restoring the federal sales tax deduction which saves Texas taxpayers $1 billion a year.
• The Teacher Liability Protection Act which creates safer schools by protecting teachers against frivolous lawsuits when they maintain order and discipline in the classroom.
• In the wake of 9-11, establishing a national network of university-based homeland security research centers, including the center at Texas A & M University. The new science and technologies from these centers will help detect, prevent and respond to terrorist attacks in the U.S.
• Facilitated the creation of the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine, a Texas oriented genomics center for research and excellence which will house the world’s largest and deepest pool of genomic material that can be used to accelerate medical breakthroughs, protect our families against bio-chemical threats, allow Texas to take a lead role in the next step of the genome project and create thousands of new high-paying jobs.
  

Most recently, Congressman Brady served as the White House’s point man in the successful passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which is projected to create 16,000 new jobs for Texas.

In Congress, Brady is recognized as author of the Federal Sunset Act, which would abolish obsolete federal agencies and eliminate waste and duplication by placing an expiration date on every federal program where they must justify their existence to taxpayers or face elimination.

A strong supporter of medical research who created the Texas Birth Defects Registry as a Texas legislator, Brady has a special interest in finding cures for rare diseases, especially Primary Pulmonary Hypertension – for now an incurable disease that strikes young women and children in growing numbers.

In Congress he has been named Hero-of-the-Taxpayers, Small Business Champion and Super-Friend of the seniors. He has received the Golden Bulldog Award by Watchdogs of the Treasury, special recognition by Citizens Against Government Waste, and is a perennial winner of the Guardian of Small Business and Spirit of Enterprise awards sponsored by the United States Chamber of Commerce.

Prior to his election to Congress, Brady worked as a Chamber of Commerce executive for 18 years including Beaumont, The Woodlands area and Rapid City, South Dakota. A former city councilman, Brady served six years in the Texas House of Representatives, earning distinction as on of the Ten Best Legislators for Families and Children and a state leader in victim’s rights. In 1994 he was named one of the year's Five Outstanding Young Texans along with present day U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He is also an original Hometown Hero of The Woodlands.

Congressman Brady lives in The Woodlands with his wife Cathy Patronella Brady and his two young sons, Will (6) and Sean (3). A Paul Harris Fellow in Rotary and active in his community, Brady also attends Saints Simon & Jude Catholic Church in The Woodlands.

One of five children, he was born April 11, 1955 in Vermillion, South Dakota, and received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of South Dakota , a school his father, brothers and sisters each graduated.