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Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, was living in a retirement home, a source told Fox News on Sunday. The source also denied a local news report that said she was in a memory care facility.
Granger, who retires at the end of this congressional mandate, has been largely absent from the Capitol in recent months, having last voted on July 24. This year, she was not present at more than 54% of the votes.
The Dallas Express investigated the 81-year-old congresswoman’s absence, releasing a report Friday that quoted a constituent from her district as saying Granger was staying at a memory care facility in Texas. The report was later picked up by other news outlets.
Fox News spoke with a source in Granger’s office who denied that Granger is in the memory care unit. A source told Fox News that Granger is in a retirement facility where memory care is provided, but not in the memory care unit itself.
REPRESENTATIVE FINAL CONCLUSION PASSES FUNDING LAW WITH JUST HOURS TILL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, leaves the Republican Caucus meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Granger gave a statement to Fox News, saying she was confronted “health challenges” and is “deeply grateful for the outpouring of attention and care” over the weekend.
“As many of my family members, friends and colleagues know, I have faced some unforeseen health challenges over the past year,” Granger said in a statement. “However, since early September, my health issues have progressed making frequent trips to Washington both difficult and unpredictable. During this time, my incredible staff has stood firm, continuing to provide exceptional service to constituents, as they have for the past 27 years.”
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference with other Republican members of the House of Representatives at the Capitol on July 21, 2020, in Washington, DC (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Granger, who did not seek re-election for the upcoming term, has served in the House of Representatives since 1997. She previously served as the first female mayor of Fort Worth, Texas.
Although Granger does not appear to have voted since July, she returned to the Capitol in November for the unveiling of her portrait as chair of the Appropriations and Appropriations Committee that followed. Speaker of the House Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also spoke at the event.
A senior Republican source told Fox News that Granger did not resign early because of a lack of paperwork GOP House Majority.
“Frankly, we needed the numbers,” a source told Fox News.
The thin majority presents a challenge for the Speaker of the 119th Congress, in which attending the vote could be the difference between success or defeat for the Republicans.
Fox News has reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.
Granger’s long absence was condemned by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., in a post on X.
“Kay Granger’s long absence reveals a problem with a Congress that rewards seniority and connections more than merit and ideas,” he wrote. “We have a sclerotic gerontocracy. We need term limits. We need to get big money out of politics so a new generation of Americans can govern and serve.”
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Khanna was one of the few MPs who had previously criticized what he called the “gerontocracy”. In May 2023, he called on Democratic Rep. Dianne Feinstein, then 89, to step down because her health problems kept her away from the Capitol. Feinstein died a few months later, in September 2023.
