This is an accepted version of this page John Rice Carter (born November 6, 1941) is the U.S. representative serving Texas's 31st congressional district since 2003.

[1][3] After graduating from law school, Carter served as the first general counsel to the Texas House of Representatives' Agriculture Committee.

[5] For his first term, 2003–05, Carter represented a district that stretched from the suburbs of Austin to far western Houston, and included College Station, home of Texas A&M University.

[7] Carter was the sponsor of the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act, which George W. Bush signed into law in 2004.

[11] Carter is also a proponent of the "Rangel Rule," where IRS penalties and interest would be eliminated if one paid back taxes, similar to the treatment Rangel, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and former Senator (and onetime Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee) Tom Daschle received after their tax problems were publicized.

[14][15][16] Carter amended his financial disclosure forms in October 2009 to list nearly $300,000 in capital gains from the sale of ExxonMobil stock in 2006 and 2007.

[17] On November 16, 2009, Carter introduced legislation to give combatant casualty status to the victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, similar to those who were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[19] On May 16, 2018, Carter was named the new chair of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Appropriations after Charlie Dent retired.

On January 6, 2021, Carter voted against certifying the results of the 2020 United States presidential election based on spurious allegations of voter fraud.