Rep. Todd Platts (R)

Last updated: January 18, 2012

The congressman from the 19th District is Todd Platts, a moderate Republican elected in 2000. He has made his reputation as a stickler for good government as a senior member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Platts has announced that he will retire from the House at the end of 2012.

Platts grew up in York, graduated from Shippensburg University and Pepperdine University School of Law. In 1992, at age 30, he was elected to the state House, where he served four terms. In 2000, he was the first to announce his candidacy after longtime Republican Rep. Bill Goodling, chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, said that he would retire. Platts’ chief primary opponents were state Rep. Al Masland, attorney Dick Stewart, who was endorsed by Goodling, and Charlie Gerow, head of the state Citizens Against Government Waste. Platts refused contributions from political action committees and was outspent by his chief Republican rivals, but he campaigned on the theme “Putting People First.” He won with 33% of the vote to 29% for Masland and 19% for Stewart, rolling up huge margins in his home base of York County. In the general election, Platts won 73%-26%. He has been re-elected with only minor opposition.

In the House, Platts has a moderate voting record for a Republican, especially on social matters. He sided with his party on the major economic issues of the 111th Congress (2009-10), but joined Democrats in voting to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and overhauling food safety laws. He also cosponsored the law enabling the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco as well as the 2009 Employment Non-Discrimination Act barring employers from discriminating against homosexuals. In early 2007, he was one of only three House Republicans who voted in favor of all six bills that the new Democratic majority brought to the floor as part of its “first 100 hours” agenda. Also that year, he was the chief Republican co-sponsor of a successful bill to increase fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.

In naming Platts one of the 10 best members of Congress in 2009, Esquire magazine observed: “He manages to be straitlaced in the extreme without being a moralist, which is harder than it sounds.” He is among the rare lawmakers who refuse PAC contributions. With his party’s return to the majority in 2011, he took over the chairmanship of Government Reform’s Government Organization, Efficiency & Financial Management panel and vowed to find ways to cut spending through identifying fraud and waste. A year earlier, he and Democrat Henry Cuellar of Texas won unanimous House approval of their bill requiring federal agencies to work with the Office of Management and Budget on developing plans to meet specific performance goals. He also has pushed legislation to require review of all government programs at least once every five years to evaluate their performance, and another bill to overturn a federal court ruling that he said created loopholes in the Whistleblower Protection Act.

Platts has not been afraid to challenge sacred cows in Congress. He sponsored, with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, a bill to repeal automatic annual pay raises for members of Congress. He supported “real lobbying reform,” including an outside Office of Public Integrity to police the behavior of members of Congress. But in 2009, he abandoned a pledge not to accept earmarked spending for his district because, he said, it would be an unfair disadvantage for his constituents. Instead, he created a vetting committee to help him decide which local projects should receive funding.

Platts may hold the title for the longest daily commute to Congress. He drives the roughly 100 miles from his home in York to Washington nearly every day that the House is in session.

Due to redistricting, Platts was expected to run in a newly-configured 4th District. It was slightly less Republican than his old 19th District, but the moderate Platts was not expected to have difficulty getting re-elected. Platts said he was leaving for family reasons, and he added that he did not want to remain in office for a period longer than 12 years. In the past, Platts has sponsored term-limit legislation that would limit House members to 12 years in office.