Representative Kay Granger (R-TX) spent her 81st birthday — January 18 — debating the bipartian short-term government funding bill that eventually passed both chambers of Congress.
Fun fact: Today is House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger's birthday.
— Jennifer Shutt (@JenniferShutt) January 18, 2024
RM Rosa DeLauro just wished her a happy birthday as they started debate on the short-term government funding bill.
Turning 81 draws the Texas legislator and Chair of the House Appropriations Committee even with her fellow Republican Texas Representative John Carter and with Republican Kentucky Senator and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, too — though it doesn’t put any of them on the top five list of the oldest members of Congress. 90-year-old Republican Seneator Chuck Grassley of Iowa heads that list.
And wedged between Grassley and Granger, McConnell and Carter on the list are octogenarians Maxine Waters (D-CA), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Harold Rogers (R-KY) and more — Democrat Bill Pascrell of New Jersey is 86.
[NOTE: Grassley was hospitalized this week with an unidentified infection. The next eldest Senator after Grassley is the 82-year-old Bernie Sanders (I-VT). More than half of the United States Senate is over 60 years old.]
In an election year when the ages of both presumptive presidential candidates from the major parties will be an issue, it doesn’t look like voters will be offered a choice between seniority and youthful exuberance. Incumbent Democrat Joe Biden is, like Granger, 81, and GOP nominee frontrunner Donald Trump is 77.
[NOTE: The median age of the total labor force in 2022 was 42.3, according to a 2022 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report.]
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