House Transportation Chair Graves to retire

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Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is retiring from Congress, according to two people with direct knowledge of the decision granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Graves, a soft-spoken 62-year-old conservative and pilot from rural Tarkio, Missouri, was first elected in 2000.

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He has served as the top Republican on the panel — as either chair or ranking member — since 2019. Though he was term-limited to lead the committee, he received a waiver from GOP leaders last year to remain as chair, making a pitch that he was ready to implement President Donald Trump’s priorities quickly and effectively, in particular an upcoming reauthorization of the surface transportation bill.

He has long been considered a serious lawmaker by his colleagues, focusing on policy and bipartisan deals, underscored by the 2024 reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Graves, a general aviation pilot, has most recently been working to shepherd an air safety bill responding to the 2025 midair collision over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people. He helped lead the defeat in the House of a Senate-passed bill, the ROTOR Act, over concerns with the costs and burden to general aviation.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, which noted he made the decision earlier this week. He told the newspaper he was interested in a potential private-sector job after Congress.

Paul Sass, who has served as a top staffer for Graves, called Graves “the most consequential chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee” and said that he “brought bipartisanship back to the committee. His leadership and vision will be missed in Congress.”

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