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#Michigan’s #GaryPeters won’t seek reelection to #US #Senate.
Peters, Michigan's senior senator & a fmr congressman, said he won't seek reelection next year & will retire from the US Senate when his 2nd term ends in Jan 2027.
In an exclusive interview, the #Democrat told The Detroit News that he is ready to leave public office in 2 yrs & move onto a "new chapter" that includes spending more time with his family-particularly a new grandchild who lives on the West Coast.
"I always thought there would be a time that I would step aside & pass the reins for the next generation. I also never saw service in Congress as something you do your whole life," said #GaryPeters, who was first elected to the #Senate in 2014.
"And that goes back to 2008 when I first won that #House seat. I thought it would be for a matter of a few terms that I would serve, & then I would go back to private life."
Peters' decision is likely to surprise many of his colleagues & ignite an intense scramble on both sides of the aisle for his seat in battleground #Michigan.
…Sen #GaryPeters has trained much of his focus in #Congress on issues related to Michigan's auto industry, the #GreatLakes, #cybersecurity, #veterans issues, toxic #PFAS contamination & initiatives to make government more efficient. His annual motorcycle tour around the state has become a staple of lawmakers’ August recess.
Peters also has been a major advocate for Selfridge Air National Guard Base, leading the #Michigan delegation in securing a new squadron of KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers & getting funding & authorization for the Macomb County base to host the new Northern Border Mission Center.
…Peters’ departure would deliver another blow to #Michigan’s clout in Washington. He’s the delegation’s most senior #Democrat & has secured seats on some of the #Senate’s most influential cmtes, including #Appropriations, #ArmedServices & the powerful Senate #Commerce, #Science & #Transportation Cmte that’s important to Michigan’s #AutoIndustry.
…Peters said he’s most proud of his record of #bipartisanship while in the #Senate. The nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked him the No.1 senator for effectiveness in the 116th & 117th #Congresses. In the 117th, he had 19 measures signed into #law, …& 10 in the 116th.
…”every bill that I've got passed is because I've actually walked over to the #House, I've set up a meeting w/the Republican leader in that cmte, & I'll sit down & first build a relationship.….”
While in the #House, Peters sat on the conference panel that finalized the sweeping 2010 Dodd-Frank #reforms to #WallStreet & the #banking system. During his House days, Peters was also intimately involved in the federal rescue of General Motors Corp & Chrysler LLC when the #Michigan #automakers were hit by the 2008 financial crisis.
More recently, Peters wrote parts of the #CHIPS & #Science Act to ensure the #legislation supported not just the domestic manufacturing of top-of-the-line computer chips but also the “legacy” chips used in automobiles.
A 2018 legislative provision authored by Peters created the National Center of Expertise for the #GreatLakes, located at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste Marie & at the Great Lakes #Environmental Research Lab in Ann Arbor. The center’s mission is to do research & training activities to prepare the #CoastGuard for #OilSpills in #freshwater or ice-laden environments.
Peters was among the first in the Senate to sound the alarm about toxic #PFAS contaminants, holding the first #Senate hearing on the topic in 2018. He passed a bill to discontinue use of PFAS- containing fire-fighting foams at commercial airports.
#HomelandSecurity investigations under Peters as chair probed #SecretService failures…, #intelligence failures ahead of the #Jan6 attack in 2021, & the country's overreliance on #China, #India & other countries for crucial #pharmaceutical #drugs.
The panel also passed #legislation to protect people's #privacy & protect systems from #ransomware & other attacks. A 2022 bill by Peters required that the owners of critical #infrastructure like banks & electric grids promptly report to federal ofcls major #cyberattacks or ransomware payments.
A bill that was meaningful to Peters personally, he said, was one to help #veterans who were given a less-than-honorable discharge from the #military due to behavior resulting from #PTSD or undiagnosed Traumatic Brain Injury [#TBI] conditions.
The idea for the bill came from a homeless veteran in Grand Rapids who fit that description, Peters said.
“He went to the #VA because he knew something was really bad, & the VA said, ‘Well, you're suffering from #PTSD as a result of your service in Afghanistan, but because you have a bad paper discharge, we can't treat you,” Peters recalled.
His 2016 #legislation allowed #veterans like that individual to get their status changed so they can get care or educational benefits from the VA.
“He's now getting the treatment that he certainly earned & deserves,” Peters said.
#GaryPeters doesn’t have plans for after he leaves the #Senate, but a teaching job in academia or #policy work at a think tank fit his interests. He wants to continue to play a role in developing public policy, he said, particularly around ensuring #equitable #access to changes in #technology like #ArtificialIntelligence.
@Nonilex we're losing a competent, successful, decent human being and senator who finds himself surrounded by greedy, incompetent, corrupt, selfish scoundrels. Well, at least he'll be around for the next two years.