Rep. Steny Hoyer Set to Announce His Retirement From Congress

Longtime Rep. Steny Hoyer is set to announce his retirement from Congress on the House floor Thursday, marking the end to a 45-year-long career in the House of Representatives and six decades in public service.

The news, confirmed to NOTUS by a person close to the lawmaker, comes after he told the Washington Post he was going to retire after this Congress.

“I did not want to be one of those members who clearly stayed, outstayed his or her ability to do the job,” Hoyer told The Washington Post, adding that he plans to publicly announce his retirement in a speech on the House floor Thursday.

Hoyer, 86, has served in Congress since 1981, when he was elected to Maryland’s 5th Congressional District. He served as the chair of the House Democratic Caucus from 1989 to 1995; Democratic whip from 2003 to 2007 and 2011 to 2019; and as majority leader from 2007 to 2011 and 2019 to 2023.

Hoyer is known among colleagues in Congress as an institutionalist, working with Democrats and Republicans alike. He told the Post that his retirement announcement would be different from many of his more than 40 colleagues who have recently announced their own departures from the chamber — because he still believes in the institution.

His announcement comes two months after Speaker emerita Pelosi said in a video that she would retire at the end of this Congress, ending questions about whether she planned to run for another term as an octogenarian member of the Democratic caucus.

All eyes shifted to Hoyer and Rep. Jim Clyburn, the other members in Democratic leadership who stepped aside after 2022 to allow a new wave of leaders in the party.

Hoyer helped Pelosi lead Democrats in passing President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law during his administration. He’s a centrist Democrat who also helped lead the chamber in passing the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990.