Representative Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Senior Representative of the Republic, is on the verge of retirement

Wisconsin representative Jim Sensenbrenner said on Wednesday that he will not show up at the center of Washington's most controversial political debates over the last four decades.

"When I started my public service in 1968, I said I would know when it would be time to step back," said Mr. Sensenbrenner, representing the North and West suburbs of Milwaukee in Congress since 1979, in a statement. "After careful consideration, I decided at the end of my mandate, my 21st term in Congress, it will be that moment."

The announcement adds to what appears to be a growing exodus of House Republicans this summer, which promises to change the character of the chamber for years to come, as the party regains control next year. Sixteen lawmakers, including Mr. Sensenbrenner, have announced their intention to retire or look for another position in 2020. Just hours earlier, Texas Representative Bill Flores had stated that he did not want to be re-elected, invoking a limited-term appointment. himself. And more lawmakers should follow this example.

By contrast, Democrats have hardly attended the retreat so far, although Wednesday, 75-year-old California representative Susan A. Davis, declared that she would not seek to be re-elected in his solidly blue district of San Diego.

Unlike the departures of some Republicans, that of Mr. Sensenbrenner should not change the political balance in the House. Republicans have been crossing its suburban and ex-suburban neighborhoods comfortably in recent years, and the politically disabled say there is little reason to believe that his retirement would change that.

Yet few outgoing lawmakers played such a central role in party identity in the House as long as 76-year-old Sensenbrenner garnered more than 23,000 votes. Former chairman of two committees, including the influential Judiciary Committee, he played a leading role in the dismissal of President Bill Clinton, in the drafting and adoption of the Patriot Act after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and in the debates persisted on immigration that took place. traveled over Washington in the last decade.

An heir to Kimberly-Clark's fortune, Mr. Sensenbrenner in the late 90s, won $ 250,000 in the D.C. lottery.

As chair of the Judiciary Committee, he helped to carry out an extension of the law on voting rights. After the attacks of September 11, it enacted the bipartisan Patriot law in 2001 to strengthen the US national security apparatus in the fight against terrorism. And more than ten years later, after learning that the National Security Agency had used the law to collect telephone metadata on millions of Americans without valid justification, Mr. Sensenbrenner contributed to the legislative struggle to limit certain provisions of the law.