Tom Lantos (D), the head of the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, announced Wednesday he would not be seeking another term in November. "Routine medical tests have revealed that I have cancer of the esophagus. In view of this development and the treatment it will require, I will not seek re-election," a statement from Lantos read.
"It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country," he added.
Lantos, a Hungarian-born Jew, is considered a great friend of Israel.