 New York congressman Brian Higgins says he will leave office before the end of his current term early next year. After 19 years, the Buffalo, New York, Democrat says he's grown frustrated with dysfunction in the US House of Representatives. Congress is not the institution that I went into 19 years ago. It's a very different place today, he said. We're spending more time doing less. And the American people aren't being served. Higgins joins a number of Congress members who have recently announced they would not seek re-election next year, including Republican Representative Brad Winstrup of Ohio, who added his name to the list last week, I want to come back to the city and serve the city that I have represented in Washington for the past 19 years. Higgins said during his announcement at the Buffalo History Museum that he said he will leave during the first week of February, adding that he had been fielding offers but did not know what he would do next. Now there was a time where leadership could discern between what was serious and what was not. Unfortunately, those days are over. So we're in a rough patch right now as a country. The country is deeply divided. The economist just did a piece not long ago stating that in the midterm elections in 2022, 1.107 million people voted for members of the House of Representatives. The difference between Democrats and Republicans was 6,670 votes and that idea of crossover appeal has been, you know, replaced with performative audacious behavior which makes a mockery of the institution of Congress. For the first time in 40 years, the population of young Buffalo is increasing, not decreasing. The fastest growing neighborhood in Western New York is downtown Buffalo. Young people are coming back here. Our economy is diversified. That work must continue but it will continue without me representing in this community in Congress. There's just a time for change and I think this is the time and that's what the basis of my decision was. I want to come back to the city and serve this city that I've represented in Washington for the past 19 years. The people of Buffalo are genuine. They are good. They are hard-working. The one thing they want at the end of the day is just something to believe.