Rep. Reid Ribble Announces Retirement
Rep. Reid Ribble intends to retire at the end of this term, the Republican congressman from Wisconsin announced over the weekend.
In a statement published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ribble said he wants to spend more time with his family and added that he didn’t see his time in Congress as a long-term career move. “I feel very fortunate to have a strong marriage, grown children and three wonderful grandchildren. I want to dedicate more time to them,” Ribble said.
When he defeated then-Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen in 2010 to represent the 8th congressional district, he had said he would not to serve more than four terms.
A member of the influential Transportation and Infrastructure panel in the House, Ribble has been a staunch advocate for increasing weight limits for trucks. In November, as Congress debated a five-year highway bill, Ribble sought to include a proposal that would have allowed an increase in truck weight limits to 91,000 pounds from 80,000 pounds — the standard weight limit for interstate highways. His House colleagues ultimately voted not to attach the proposal to the highway bill. A month later, the highway bill was signed into law.
“I’m from an area of the country where there’s not a lot of rail. We have very modest rail, and so the truck weight issue is important to us,” Ribble told Transport Topics in December.
Before Congress, Ribble spent 30 years managing a roofing company. He often said the skills managing a business helped him build relationships on the T&I panel and throughout Capitol Hill.
