House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, reportedly does not plan to seek another term in 2026.
Newsmax has not independently confirmed the report.
Arrington, who represents Texas' 19th District and has chaired the Budget Committee in the 118th Congress, has not issued a public statement, but he did make comments in an online interview.
"I have a firm conviction, much like our founders did, that public service is a lifetime commitment, but public office is and should be a temporary stint in stewardship, not a career," Arrington reportedly said.
"It was a very unique, generational impact opportunity, to be almost 10 years into this and to have the budget chairmanship, and to lead the charge to successfully pass that and to help this president fulfill his mandate from the people.
"It just seems like a good and right place to leave it."
In his role as outgoing Budget Committee chair, Arrington will still have a busy year before him in 2026, addressing the kicked-can continuing resolution in January and setting up the Trump cost-cutting spending levels before the midterms.
"The president's committed to it, he talks about it all the time," Arrington said in the online interview. "He's actually doing something about it with very difficult decisions, not politically popular decisions. This is all about political will.
"[President Donald] Trump's doing it. [House Speaker] Mike Johnson is committed to it.
"And we have a growing number of fiscal hawks who are absolutely dogged on this issue."
The reported decision appears to conflict with recent listings that showed Arrington filed to run in the March 3, 2026, GOP primary. Those election pages continued to identify him as a declared candidate as recently as this week.
Additionally, Arrington's congressional office shared a Bloomberg Government report in September about his intentions to run again, forgoing a potential chancellorship in the Texas Tech University System.
Arrington was first sworn in in 2017 and has been a prominent voice for spending cuts and deficit reduction in his role as Budget chair.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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