Former House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger, the first Republican woman to lead the powerful spending committee, has died at the age of 83.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced her death in a Sunday night post on X, calling her a “dear friend who will be greatly missed.”
“Throughout her career, she broke barriers for women in public service,” Johnson wrote.
Granger was the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee from 2018 to 2024, serving as the chairwoman after Republicans won control of the House during the 2022 midterms until she stepped down in 2024. She was absent from Congress for much of that final year, when her family reported she was suffering from dementia.
Granger, first elected to Congress in 1996, was the mayor of Fort Worth from 1991 to 1995 before heading to Washington. She was the first Republican congresswoman from Texas, and was a major voice in favor of additional defense spending and other conservative priorities.
