Kay Granger

Kay Granger
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 12th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Pete Geren
41st Mayor of Fort Worth, Texas
In office May 21, 1991[1] – December 19, 1995[1]
Preceded by	Bob Bolen
Succeeded by	Jewell Woods (acting)
Personal details
Born	(1943-01-18) January 18, 1943 Greenville, Texas
Political party	Republican
Residence	Fort Worth, Texas
Alma mater	Texas Wesleyan University
Occupation	High school teacher, financial executive
Religion	Methodist

Kay Granger (born January 18, 1943) is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Texas, representing Texas's 12th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the first Republican woman to represent Texas in the U.S. House.

Biography and career

Granger was born in Greenville, Texas, and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, where she attended Eastern Hills High School, which recognized her as a Distinguished Eastern Hills High School Graduate in 1993.^[2] She graduated from Texas Wesleyan University. She was elected to the Fort Worth city council in 1989 and was elected Mayor in 1991.

After the retirement of Congressman Pete Geren in 1996, both the Democratic and Republican parties worked to recruit Granger. Republicans were particularly bullish on their chances of winning the 12th. It had once been represented by Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Wright, but had been made significantly more affluent and Republican after the 1990 census. Granger made the decision to run as a Republican, much to the dismay of local GOP activists, who criticized Granger as being too liberal. She was elected by a wide margin, taking 56 percent of the vote over the Democrat Hugh Parmer, also a former Fort Worth mayor. She was handily reelected in 1998 and has only faced serious opposition once—in 2000. In 2008, Granger defeated Democratic challenger Tracey Smith with 67 percent of the vote.

In 2006, Granger was reelected to serve her sixth term in Congress. She was also elected Conference Vice Chair, the fourth-ranking position among House Republicans, in November 2006. She is currently Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommitee on State-Foreign Operations. She also sits on the United States House Committee on Appropriations's Subcommittee on Defense (the first woman to do so), and the Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Subcommittee. She has served as a House Deputy Whip also while in Congress.

Granger is the author of the book, What's Right About America, Celebrating Our Nation's Values.

In August 2007, Kay Granger Elementary School opened in far north Fort Worth in the Northwest Independent School District. A school named for Granger's mother—Mullendore Elementary—was opened several years earlier in North Richland Hills, Texas. The adjacent Kay Granger Park is maintained by the city.

On September 25, 2007, she publicly endorsed former Jennifer Dunn.^[4] In a statement to the press following her endorsement, she said that she had heard Romney speak and that "I agreed with everything he said, in the order he said it."

She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Republican Institute.^[5] and Southwestern University. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Congressional committee assignments

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Defense (Vice-Chairwoman)
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (Chairwoman)
  • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development

Caucus memberships

• Anti-Terrorism Caucus (Co-Chair)
• International Conservation Caucus
• Iraqi Women's Caucus (Co-Chair)
• Sportsmen's Caucus
• Congressional Arts Caucus

Ideology and voting record

Her own website posts an article from "Conservative Quarterly" that calls her "a dependable vote for the leadership on most issues." She is also a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee.

Kay Granger campaign sign in the Fort Worth Stockyards

In 2003, Granger was given a 10 percent rating by NARAL and an 84 percent rating by the Christian Coalition of America.

Granger has also voted several times in favor of an amendment to the United States Constitution to make it a crime to physically desecrate the American flag. She also supports the Federal Marriage Amendment.

She was easily renominated in the March 2, 2010, Republican primary, having polled 70 percent of the ballots over intraparty rivals Mike Brasovan and Matthew E. Kelly.^[6]

In 2012, after chairman of the Taiwanese defense committee Lin Yu-fang rejected calls for more F-16 fighters and said that only the F-35 could ensure Taiwan's security,^[7] Granger offered a NDAA amendment that passed the House to offer only the much older F-16 fighter to Taiwan.^[8][9]

In June 2013, Granger was among the members of Congress who voted to pass an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014. The amendment would continue to restrict the Pentagon from entering into new contracts with Russia’s state arms broker Rosoboronexport.^[10]

During her tenure, Granger has supported over $50 million in earmarks to infrastructure projects in Fort Worth, Texas that benefited the Trinity River Vision Authority, an organization headed by her son.^[11]

Kaptur Amendment voted down

On May 29, 2014, the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives marked up the agriculture funding bill for Fiscal Year 2015. That bill included a provision known as the GIPSA rider (Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Act), which prohibited USDA from using any money to implement rules authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill to protect chicken farmers from industry retaliation.

The USDA rule in question was developed over a six year period, during which time USDA held numerous public forums and interviewed many farmers, processors and others. The final rule was designed by USDA to protect poultry, cattle and pig farmers from industry retaliation if they spoke out, and to ensure the farmers would have standing when negotiating contracts with large industrial meat processing companies.

Rep. Kaptur proposed two amendments during the markup in an effort to remove some or all of the GIPSA rider and allow USDA to enforce these 2008 Farm Bill protections. The first amendment she proposed attempted to remove the entire GIPSA rider, which is referred to here as section 730 of the bill. That amendment was declined. The second amendment focused specifically on allowing USDA enforcement of protections of farmers’ right to speak about their conditions without fear of retaliation. Rep. Kaptur noted several examples of this kind of retaliation. That amendment was also declined.

The following members of Congress voted against these Kaptur amendments: Kay Granger of Texas, John Abney Culberson of Texas, and John R. Carter of Texas.

http://www.kaptur.house.gov/news-15011/articles-70036/3410-rep-marcy-kaptur-amendments-protecting-farmers-from-industry-retaliation

Personal life

Kay has three children and five grandchildren.^[12]

References

External links

• Congresswoman Kay Granger official U.S. House site
• Kay Granger for Congress
• Kay Granger at DMOZ
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress
• Profile at the Texas Tribune