WASHINGTON — Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan, a longtime member of the Ways and Means Committee, announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection this year after nearly two decades in Congress.

Buchanan, 74, joins a growing list of Republicans departing the House, including fellow Floridians Neal Dunn and Byron Donalds, who is running for governor.

“I came to Congress to solve problems, to fight for working families and to help ensure this country remains a place where opportunity is available to everyone willing to work for it,” Buchanan said in a statement. “After 20 years of service, I believe it’s the right time to pass the torch and begin a new chapter in my life.”

Buchanan’s decision will leave open a safe Republican seat in southwest Florida, just north of Sarasota. President Donald Trump carried the 16th District by about 15 points in 2024, according to calculations by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales, while Buchanan won a 10th term by 19 points. The makeup of the district could change this year, with Florida poised to redraw its congressional map as soon as this spring in an effort to help Republicans flip more seats.

Buchanan was first elected to the House in 2006 after a career in business, including as the owner of a car dealership and a copy and printing company. He narrowly won his first House race to succeed Republican Katherine Harris, the former Florida secretary of state, but has been comfortably reelected since.

One of the wealthiest members of Congress, Buchanan has been a strong fundraiser for Republicans. He’s been active throughout his 10-term career on tax, trade and health care issues. He currently chairs the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and serves as vice chair of the full panel.

He lost a high-profile race for the Ways and Means full committee gavel to Missouri Rep. Jason Smith after Republicans took back the House in the 2022 midterms, and some observers say that was probably the beginning of the end of Buchanan’s time on Capitol Hill.

Buchanan had more seniority and was the early favorite to get the Ways and Means nod, and Smith’s come-from-behind win stung the Floridian. After Smith’s victory, Buchanan said the outcome was a “big loss” for the Sunshine State, which deserved “a seat at the leadership table” given its large population and congressional delegation.

Still, Buchanan has used his remaining time in Congress to work productively with Smith and Republican leaders, including on policies to help implement Trump’s second-term agenda.

He was an early proponent of Trump’s “no tax on tips” proposal, which he wrote into legislation with bipartisan support. Ultimately, a version of the plan made it into the final GOP budget reconciliation package, which Republicans dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”

Representing a district with a sizable population of seniors receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits, Buchanan has prioritized preserving those programs and, in some cases, expanding them. He led House passage last year of legislation that would expand Medicare coverage of hospital care at home, for instance.

Early in Trump’s second term, he became a founding member of the House’s “Make America Healthy Again Caucus.” But Buchanan has also been cognizant of the cost of health care, with the U.S. generally spending more on care than other developed countries.

“We’ve just got to find a way together,” he said in December, ahead of the expiration of larger subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance plans. “It needs a major overhaul. It’s just too expensive. We’re spending over $2 trillion on health care. It’s just out of control.”

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(Peter Cohn contributed to this report.)

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