House Ways and Means chairman Thomas retiring

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Republican Rep. Bill Thomas, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced today that he will retire from Congress after serving for more than a quarter century.

Thomas, 64, made the announcement in his hometown of Bakersfield.

His resignation was widely expected because, under House Republicans' self-imposed term limits for committee chairmen, Thomas can no longer serve after this year as head of the influential Ways and Means Committee.

"I'm not walking away into the sunset," Thomas said. "Just because I won't be in office doesn't mean I won't have any influence."

He said he still wants to tackle "outdated" entitlement programs and the nation's "flawed income tax structure."

For the past five years, Thomas has played a key role in shepherding President Bush's tax cuts and writing legislation on Medicare, Social Security and pensions.

His knowledge of such complicated issues made him indispensable to party leaders, despite complaints that he was difficult to work with and not conservative enough because of some votes for abortion rights and gun control.

Some colleagues believe Thomas rescued Bush's tax cut proposal in 2003 after the Senate refused to go along with its initial cost. He was instrumental in securing congressional passage of Bush's Medicare prescription drug bill and of "fast track" trade promotion authority.

At the same time, his clashes with other lawmakers, usually Democrats, became famous on Capitol Hill. He called out the Capitol police three years ago to break up a meeting of Democrats on his committee, then expressed regret in tears on the House floor.

In the tussle over the trade bill, he labeled as "dumb and outlandish" questions from Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla. He had to apologize to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., after accusing her of lacking guts on the medical malpractice issue and wrongly attributing her position to the fact that the senator was facing re-election, which she was not.

Thomas' tax policies and his handling of the Medicare prescription drug benefit overhaul have also drawn the ire of The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

The group's president, Jamie Court, called Thomas the "poster child for everything that has gone wrong with the Republican revolution."

"He has literally been the ideological godfather of the privatization of health care and fiscal irresponsibility with regards to the budget deficit," Court said. "Bill Thomas to me as a Republican is an embarrassment."

White House press secretary Scott McClellan praised Thomas for his leadership over the years.

"Chairman Thomas is someone we've worked very closely with to advance important priorities for the American people," McClellan said from the White House. "We appreciate all that he's done."

Several lawmakers have been eyeing the Ways and Means chairmanship, including Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., who chairs the subcommittee on Social Security and has worked closely with Thomas, and Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., who chaired several subcommittees during his 18 years on the panel.

Thomas' 22nd Congressional District, meanwhile, is expected to stay firmly in GOP control. Republicans make up 52 percent of registered voters, compared with 30 percent for Democrats in the district at the southern end of California's agriculture-rich Central Valley.

A contested GOP primary is shaping up between California Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Thomas' protege and longtime ally, and state Sen. Roy Ashburn. The filing deadline is Friday.

Thomas taught American government at Bakersfield Community College before joining Congress in 1979. Lawmakers' financial disclosure forms have showed him to be among the most modest-meaned members of Congress: He regularly listed no assets or income beyond his congressional salary, now $165,200.

Associated Press Writer Erica Werner contributed to this report from Washington.>/i>