| Andy Barr has served as the U.S. Congressman for Kentucky's Sixth Congressional District since January 2013. Congressman Barr is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) and the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC). In early 2023, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appointed Congressman Barr to the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In the 118th Congress, Congressman Barr was named the Chairman of the HFSC Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, which oversees financial regulators, the Federal Reserve, and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). Congressman Barr also serves on the Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions as well as the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia and Nonproliferation.
Congressman Barr is taking an active role in promoting policies that reverse historic levels inflation. To reduce skyrocketing energy prices, Congressman Barr has led the opposition against government financial regulators politicizing access to capital to choke off investments in American energy companies. Barr is a lead opponent of new taxes, burdensome regulations, and reckless spending in Washington. Additionally, Congressman Barr authored and introduced the Promoting Access to Capital in Underbanked Communities Act. This legislation is designed to incentivize and enhance bank formation in underserved areas, including in many rural communities, to help drive economic growth and prosperity.
As a senior member on the HFAC and Select Committee on China, Congressman Barr is currently championing the Chinese Military and Surveillance Company Sanctions Act of 2023, legislation he crafted targeting sanctions against CCP military, surveillance, and technology companies. Congressman Barr has also been instrumental in strengthening ties between the United States and Taiwan by leading a successful, bipartisan push in Congress to deliver excess COVID-19 vaccines from the United States to Taiwan during the height of the pandemic on the island in June of 2021.
Throughout his time in Congress, Congressman Barr has been a staunch advocate for veterans. In the 116th Congress, Congressman Barr served on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. In 2019, he introduced and helped enact into law amendments to the Edith Nourse Rogers Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Scholarship as part of the Forever GI Bill. These amendments lowered the credit hour requirement in the scholarship that made it more accessible to student veterans across the country. Congressman Barr also worked to address the crisis of veteran suicide, successfully expanding equine assisted therapy (EAT) as an innovative treatment for veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other invisible wounds of war. Barr's efforts culminated in historic EAT provisions being included in the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act.
Congressman Barr is also focused on strengthening Kentucky's signature bourbon, equine, coal, agriculture and manufacturing industries, and serves as co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Horse and Bourbon Caucuses. In 2020, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, led by Congressman Barr was signed into law by President Trump. This represented the most transformational and consequential reform of the thoroughbred horseracing industry since enactment of the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978 and solidifies the industry for decades to come. Congressman Barr secured the passage of legislation that made permanent the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) in December of 2020, which was set to expire at year-end. This legislation lowers the Federal Excise Tax (FET) rates for distillers and includes Congressman Barr's AGED Distilled Spirits Act (ADSA), which is a huge boost for the Kentucky bourbon industry.
Congressman Barr graduated from Lexington's Henry Clay High School in 1992, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1996, and received his law degree from the University of Kentucky in 2001.
Congressman Barr and his wife Davis reside in Lexington, Kentucky with his two daughters, Eleanor and Mary Clay. |