| Jodey Arrington was raised in Plainview, Texas, the son of a tractor salesman and a schoolteacher. Jodey graduated from Texas Tech University and his passion of public service took him to Austin, Texas where he worked for Governor George W. Bush. He was then tapped by President Bush to join the White House as a senior advisor before being appointed as Chief of Staff to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In 2007, he returned to West Texas where he was Vice Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System before taking the helm as President of a healthcare innovation company in Lubbock.
In January of 2017, Jodey became only the fifth person to represent Texas' 19th Congressional District since its formation in 1935. Starting his 3rd term in Congress, he continues to be an outspoken advocate for reining in the federal government, promoting agriculture and energy, strengthening national security, and respecting the Constitution while serving the largest agriculture and energy district in the United States.
In his first term, Jodey served as a member of the Agriculture, Budget, and Veterans' Affairs committees. He chaired the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Education and Workforce Training. He was also appointed by Speaker Paul Ryan as the only freshman member to serve on the bicameral, bipartisan Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Reform. As a freshman, Jodey played a pivotal role in restoring cotton to the Farm Bill safety net, providing historic tax reform and regulatory relief, and making the largest investment in our military in over a decade.
Since 2019, Jodey has served on the Committee on Ways and Means. Dating back to 1789, Ways and Means has the broadest legislative jurisdiction including tax, trade, healthcare, social security, and welfare. As a member on the Committee, prioritizing rural America's most critical issues-agriculture, energy, and healthcare-will remain his driving force. Jodey serves on the Subcommittees on Select Revenue Measures (tax), Trade, and Social Security.
At the beginning of the 118th Congress, Jodey was elected to serve as the Chairman of the House Budget Committee. With the national debt surpassing $31 trillion and over 120% of our entire economy, he believes confronting our unsustainable debt is the greatest challenge of the 21st century. He looks forward to working with his colleagues to ensure the next generations of Americans inherit the same freedoms and opportunities as the generations before them.
He further serves the food, fuel, and fiber capital of the world by working as Co-Chairman of the Rural Health Care Task Force, leads a bipartisan congressional delegation on fixing the national debt and reforming the federal budget process, and co-chairs the Congressional Term Limits Caucus. In addition, he was appointed to serve a second term as Deputy Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
In 2021, he was appointed to the U.S. Congress' Joint Economic Committee (JEC) by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. The JEC is a bicameral Congressional Committee tasked with reviewing economic conditions and recommending improvements in economic policy.
He is grateful to serve and is especially thankful for the tremendous sacrifice and support of his wife, Anne, and their three children. |