House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) announced Monday that he will not run for reelection in 2020, Military Times reported.
Thornberry, a 13-term member of the House, is facing GOP term limits on the committee, having served two previous terms as chairman before the start of the current Congress, when he became the ranking member after Democrats took control of the House.
“We are reminded, however, that ‘for everything there is a season,’ and I believe that the time has come for a change,” Thornberry wrote in a tweet. “Therefore, this is my last term in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
Thornberry has been an advocate for higher defense budgets, advancing significant Pentagon increases during his tenure as HASC chairman where spending grew to $700 billion in 2017 and $716 billion in 2018, according to CQ.
However, as ranking member Thornberry lost influence to maximize spending. During the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) markup, Thornberry sought a $750 billion defense topline but ultimately resorted to opposing the bill in committee when the Democratic-led panel committed to $733 billion.
In late July a two-year budget deal struck by leadership of both parties set the FY 2020 defense topline at $738 billion, $12 billion lower than Thornberry’s preferred level.
Thornberry is the sixth of 23 Texas Republicans in the House to decide to retire rather than run again in 2020, according to the report.