WASHINGTON — Rep. Sam Graves, the 13-term Missouri Republican who leads the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Friday that he would retire in January, the latest powerful member of his party to leave Congress ahead of midterm elections in which it is bracing for big losses.

“It’s time to pass the torch and allow a new guard of conservative leaders to step forward and chart a path forward for Missourians,” he said in a statement announcing his decision to depart Washington at the end of his term. “This wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s the right one. I believe in making room for the next generation.”

His perch at the helm of the transportation panel has put Graves, 62, at the center of some of the nation’s most high-profile debates on the topic. He led congressional oversight of two fatal crashes of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft in 2019 and 2020 that killed 346 people, Amtrak route reductions and a recent push to improve air safety regulation after a fatal midair collision near Reagan National Airport last year.

Graves’ District Is Strongly Republican

His exit was unlikely to affect the balance of power in the House given the strongly Republican bent of his district in northwest Missouri. But it was the latest in a wave of GOP retirements over the past several months as Republicans anticipate defeats in November that could cost them control of Congress. And it marked another significant loss of institutional knowledge underway in both parties as a push for generational turnover has prompted senior lawmakers to retire after lengthy careers in Washington.

For Graves, who has spent several years as a chair, including four years at the helm of the Small Business Committee, the idea of life as a rank-and-file member of the minority would be particularly unappealing. Though Republicans impose a six-year limit on committee chairmanships, Graves received an exemption last year that allowed him to continue leading the transportation panel for another term.

“For 26 years, I have had the privilege of serving, culminating in becoming the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and passing some of the most significant legislation in our nation’s history,” he said in his statement. “The responsibility entrusted to me is not something I have ever taken for granted. Not for a single day.”

Graves Re-elected in 2024 With 70% Support

Graves won his re-election bid in 2024 in the solidly Republican district by a wide margin, with more than 70% of the vote. Primary elections for Missouri’s eight congressional seats take place in August, and candidates have until Tuesday to file.

“Public service isn’t easy. It takes hard work, humility, a thick skin and a willingness to fight for what’s right,” Graves, a general aviation pilot, said Friday as lawmakers remained in a tense battle over funding the Department of Homeland Security and ensuring back pay for Transportation Security Administration agents, who have confronted lengthy airport security lines for weeks without compensation. “At the end of the day, I’m still the farmer from northwest Missouri.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Robert Jimison/Kenny Holston

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