Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Recommended Videos
Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
LEWISVILLE — U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess is leaving on his own terms.
The North Texas Republican and former OB-GYN has served more than two decades in Congress, making his mark on both energy and health care policy through posts on several powerful committees. Known to colleagues as an affable and mild-mannered policy wonk, he was also tapped earlier this year to chair the powerful Rules Committee, which plays a major role in what bills make it to the floor, though he will relinquish the gavel after just four months.
He is one of several long-serving Texans to leave Washington in recent years, along with Reps. Kay Granger of Fort Worth at the end of this term and Kevin Brady of Houston who retired at the end of 2022. In an era where the average age of a member of Congress is increasing, with many serving into their eighties, Burgess is bowing out, at the peak of his influence.
Burgess, 74, spoke with The Texas Tribune about his experience as a physician-politician and where his party goes from here.
Members of Congress who have left in recent years have talked about gridlock and infighting as a reason. Did that play a role in your decision?
No, it’s just time. The founders never intended for these to be permanent jobs. I’m really one of the luckiest people around, and I got to practice medicine here in my hometown for 25 years, and I’ve gotten to represent my hometown for 22 years. I really can’t ask for much more.
Politicians have accused each other of staying in office longer than necessary, pointing out President Biden’s age, for example. Was that a factor for you, setting your own terms on your way out?
We only have a certain amount of time on this earth, and we’ve had some very sad things happen. [Former Dallas Rep.] Eddie Bernice Johnson retired, and she unfortunately passed within a year. I want to have a few more years around after I leave this job, to work on other things, on family. I imagine I will do something else after this, but I don’t really know what that is. I didn’t have a job lined up, but I decided not to file for reelection.
(Burgess says his medical license is still active but doesn’t carry malpractice insurance anymore.)
Other longtime members of the Texas delegation are leaving or have left recently: Republican Reps. Kay Granger, Kevin Brady are among the examples. (Longtime Democrat Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas retired last year before she died, and Houston Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee passed away last month.) What’s your advice to the Texas delegation as they move on to a new chapter?
Bear in mind, the Texas delegation on the Republican side is about 10 members larger now than when I joined. It’s a much bigger delegation, which makes it a little bit harder.
We used to meet as a family every Thursday at noon. The one thing that impressed me the most when I first started out was how cohesive the Texas delegation was. The only good things that have happened to me while I’ve been in Congress have been a result of the Texas delegation. The only reason I was on the Energy and Commerce Committee, early in my career, was because [U.S. Rep.] Tom Delay. The work I’ve been able to do, and some of it is bipartisan, was work through relationships in the Texas delegation.
Would you say that cohesiveness has remained until now, or is it different?
It seems to have diminished. [Former] Sen. [Kay Bailey] Hutchinson was extremely focused on making certain that the Texas delegation of Republicans and Democrats met at least monthly. Mind you, she was a senior member, so when she would call us all over to her office, she’d get pretty good attendance.
We haven’t quite had that cohesiveness. Even on the Republican side, the weekly luncheons that we’ve had going back for years and years, attendance has dropped off a little bit. I think we’re better if we do meet.
We’re not all going to agree on things. At the same time, when we function as a group, we can be pretty powerful. If you’ve got 24 members of the Texas delegation, that’s a pretty big block to move, and people have to pay attention to you.
You became chairman of the Rules Committee in March. That’s a position that carries a lot of weight (The Rules Committee is the “traffic cop” of legislation and controls what bills are voted on by the full House.) Tell me about the power of that gavel and what it means to have it for this short time.
The Rules Committee is a behind-the-scenes committee and has a really important function. All the work that’s done in the committees, all the hearings that are held, all the bills that are marked up — that work comes to the Rules Committee, and we put it in a format to bring to the floor of the House. We’re so big, that if we brought a bill to the floor without any structure around it, nothing would ever get done. We’d be immobile as a governing body.
It’s the most open process we have in the House of Representatives. Anyone who wants to come in and talk may do so. In fact, most members don’t take advantage of this. If you want to speak, Rules Committee is always a place where you can do that. I’ve not had anyone that I can recall ever take me up on that.
What’s your proudest accomplishment from your years in Congress? What will be the one thing you remember?
We’re in an area that’s growing so fast, the infrastructure needs are significant. But we could never be at this level of population, had people in the 40s and 50s not made the decision to proceed with the Lewisville Lake Dam.
A couple of years ago, the dam had been labeled as unsafe, in fact dangerous. I worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to find out what the problems were, what needed to be fixed. Water was finding it way under, threatening the integrity of the dam. So I worked and got the money to stabilize that dam, kept that lake from leaving. That’s going to live on long after my time in Congress. We could not exist in this area without the water that is provided.
There were some other big things: I was part of the reauthorization of the Food and Drug Administration in 2017; the fact that hearing aids are now an over-the-counter item, that was my work. We reauthorized the Children’s Health Insurance Program, with a single Democratic vote, I might add. It was paid for.
One last thing, this doesn’t get any headlines: the state Senate passed a bill that allowed for the creation of a mental health facility in Dallas, work is underway on it right now. Now, there’s an exclusion written into the original Medicaid Law back in 1965, which has persisted. Hospitals can only devote 16 beds and still be covered by Medicaid.
I repealed that IMD [Institution for Mental Diseases] exclusion in March, so when this new mental health facility comes online in Dallas, there will be the availability of Medicaid.
A lot of Texans have been thinking about energy more, because of recent storms, affecting them on a personal level. What would you say to people who are worried about energy in Texas?
ERCOT projected that by 2030, the amount of new energy supply they’ll need is going to be staggering. We know we need more energy supply, and some of it has to be natural gas. That’s the bridge to the future. At some point there will be a better way to get renewable energy, wind and solar and store that energy.
Where I think we’re behind in this country, falling further behind is on the nuclear front. People talk about small scale, modular reactors, but don’t forget about the legacy nuclear plants, like Comanche Peak. If they can expand Comanche Peak on the existing footprint and double the nuclear output, that’d be a big deal in an area that’s expanding in population.
You wrote a book in 2011 on repealing Obamacare. That hasn’t happened. Do you feel the same way today? Is that a priority people should pursue next term?
I wish some smart, inquisitive person in the press would look at how much of Obamacare passed in 2009 no longer exists. There was a bipartisan exercise to get rid of what was called the Cadillac Tax [a 40% tax on high-cost insurance plans], which in my opinion, was one of the most pernicious things that Congress has ever done, and [former President Donald] Trump basically sunsetted that in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act in 2017 (the tax was later permanently repealed by a bipartisan vote in 2019).
So the most egregious, offensive parts of Obamacare are gone now. Two other things Trump did, by allowing limited duration plans, and getting rid of the individual mandate, really took the pressure off.
But there’s plenty of other bad things that are still there, part of current law, that you could work on.
You are an OB-GYN. You’ve been clear that you’re pro-life, but that ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages should be treated separately [from abortion]. What is your advice to your party as they navigate this issue?
Well, it’s a state issue now. I do think the state needs to pay more attention to this than they have been. There should be no question about someone who needs treatment for a miscarriage. That shouldn’t be hard. When I was practicing medicine, I was a pro-life OB-GYN, I did not do elective terminations, but I treated miscarriages all the time — 12% of all pregnancies, unfortunately, will end in a miscarriage. We all know someone who’s had one.
In 2018 I passed a bill when I was chairman of the health subcommittee that allowed for the creation of maternal mortality review committees. I’m pro-life, and that means I’ve got to be pro-mother and pro-family. You have to be prepared to take care of people. Parkland Hospital, they have excellent statistics, because they take such good care of the patient. That’s what’s really required, look at places where the right thing is being done. What can we do to make hospitals more like Parkland?
What are you looking most forward to in retirement, being back in Texas?
Being chairman of the Rules has just taken up so much time. I haven’t really thought much about it. I don’t even have a job of any kind in mind. There’s all kinds of cynics that say, oh, he's going for a big payoff. No, I’m unemployed. If you guys are hiring at the Texas Tribune…
The full program is now LIVE for the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival, happening Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Explore the program featuring more than 100 unforgettable conversations on topics covering education, the economy, Texas and national politics, criminal justice, the border, the 2024 elections and so much more. See the full program.