Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, has been residing in a retirement facility, a supply informed Fox Information on Sunday. The supply additionally denied an area information report that stated she was in a reminiscence care facility.
Granger, who’s retiring on the finish of this congressional time period, has largely remained absent from the Capitol in latest months, having final forged votes on July 24. She was not current for over 54% of votes.
The Dallas Specific investigated the 81-year-old congresswoman’s absence, publishing a report on Friday that quoted a constituent of her district who stated that Granger was residing in a reminiscence care facility in Texas. The report was later picked up by different information retailers.
Fox Information spoke with a supply from Granger’s workplace who denied that Granger was in a reminiscence care unit. The supply informed Fox Information that Granger is in a retirement facility the place reminiscence care is offered, although not within the reminiscence care unit itself.
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Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, leaves the Home Republicans caucus assembly on the Capitol Hill Membership in Washington on Wednesday, Might 10, 2023. (Invoice Clark/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Photos)
Granger launched a press release to Fox Information, saying that she has confronted “well being challenges” and is “deeply grateful for the outpouring of care and concern” over the weekend.
“As a lot of my household, mates, and colleagues have recognized, I’ve been navigating some unexpected well being challenges over the previous 12 months,” Granger stated within the assertion. “Nonetheless, since early September, my well being challenges have progressed making frequent journey to Washington each tough and unpredictable. Throughout this time, my unimaginable workers has remained steadfast, persevering with to ship distinctive constituent companies, as they’ve for the previous 27 years.”
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, speaks throughout a information convention with different Republican members of the Home of Representatives on the Capitol on July 21, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Samuel Corum/Getty Photos)
Granger, who didn’t search reelection for the approaching time period, has served within the Home since 1997. She beforehand served as the primary feminine mayor of Fort Value, Texas.
Whereas Granger seems to not have forged a vote since July, she did return to the Capitol in November for the disclosing of her portrait as Appropriations Committee Chairwoman, and a reception that adopted. Home Speaker Johnson and Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise each spoke on the occasion.
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One senior Republican supply informed Fox Information that Granger didn’t step down earlier as a result of paper-thin GOP Home majority.
“Frankly, we would have liked the numbers,” the supply informed Fox Information.
The slim majority presents a problem for the speaker of the 119th Congress, during which vote attendance might be the distinction between success or defeat for Republicans.
Fox Information reached out to Johnson’s workplace for remark.
Granger’s lengthy absence was blasted by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., in a put up on X.
“Kay Granger’s lengthy absence reveals the issue with a Congress that rewards seniority & relationships greater than advantage & concepts,” he wrote. “We’ve got a sclerotic gerontocracy. We want time period limits. We have to get large cash out of politics so a brand new era of People can run and serve.”
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Khanna was one of many few lawmakers who beforehand criticized what he known as the “gerontocracy.” In Might 2023, he known as on Democratic Rep. Dianne Feinstein, who was then aged 89, to step down as her personal well being points stored her away from the Capitol. Feinstein died months later in September 2023.
