Richard Edmund Neal was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and was raised and educated in the City of Springfield. He is a 1972 graduate of American International College, where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and was a member of the National Honor Society. He received his Masters Degree in Public Administration from the Barney School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Hartford in 1976.

Richard Neal was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1988 and served his first two terms on the House Banking Committee before joining the Ways and Means Committee in 1993. In January 2019, Congressman Neal assumed the esteemed position of Chairman of that committee, marking the first time since 1875 that a representative from Massachusetts had done so.

Congressman Neal is the dean of both the Massachusetts Delegation and the New England Congressional Delegation. He is a long-time guest lecturer at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and a Trustee at Mount Holyoke College. He is a National Trustee of John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. He served as the Mayor of the City of Springfield from 1984 to 1988, and was highlighted in Newsweek Magazine for his many accomplishments during that time.

Congressman Neal has been a lead sponsor of legislation to prevent American companies from moving offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes. He has sponsored legislation that would increase the national savings rate by encouraging the use of individual retirement accounts, and has worked to make health care and tuition expenses tax deductible for middle class people. He successfully led the charge to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) for middle-class families in America. He has a long legislative history of fighting to preserve and protect Medicare and Social Security.

Congressman Neal is an At-Large Whip for the House Democrats. He is a co-chairman of the New England Congressional Caucus, where he advocates for the unique regional interests of the six New England States. Congressman Neal is the Democratic Leader of the Friends of Ireland Caucus.