The Republican Steering Committee named the winners of four contested House chairmanship races on Jan. 9.
The committee includes several regional representatives who make determinations on committee assignments, including who receives the top spot on a committee. While the winners of uncontested chairmanship bids were announced in December, the panel held off on making picks for contested seats until the battle over the Speakership was settled.
Newly minted Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is on the committee and has an outsized influence, with four votes, while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) gets two votes. The other lawmakers on the about 30-member panel get one each.
Homeland Security
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) was tapped over Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) for the Homeland Security Committee.
The vacancy on the panel was created by the retirement of Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), one of a handful of House GOP members who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump.
After being elected to the top post, Green told reporters that he planned to have two committee staffers working full-time from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The staffers, Green said, will “be sitting there with [Customs and Border Protection], sending us real-time updates on what CBP needs and the issues—whether it’s a big drug bust at the border, we’ll send a bunch of members down for, you know, for that and those kinds of things.”
Homeland Security is one of the most important committees for Republicans in the 118th Congress, who have vowed to investigate and seek to slow the influx of illegal immigrants along the southern border.
The committee is expected to ask Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to testify about the massive influx of millions of illegal aliens over the past two years.
Ways and Means
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) was selected in a three-way race for the top spot on the House Ways and Means Committee.
Smith defeated Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) and Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) for the seat, which became available after the retirement of the panel’s ranking member, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who also served as chairman the last time Republicans held a majority.
Smith said that Republicans will seek to “build on the success of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and examine how our policies can reward working families with a tax code that delivers better jobs, higher wages, and more investment in America.”
The bill referenced by Smith was passed under the last GOP majority, when Republicans had control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. It was a package that substantially slashed the corporate and personal income tax, and Smith’s comment is a sign that similar goals will drive Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee.
“We will examine using both trade policy and our tax code to re-shore and strengthen our supply chains, where products and services vital to our national security are made here at home using American labor, as well as craft policies that help America achieve food and medical security rather than dependence on nations like China,” Smith said.
Budget
Smith’s decision to seek the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee also made an opening on the Budget Committee, which Smith previously chaired.Three Republicans threw their hat into the ring for the newly opened position, including Reps. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), and Buddy Carter (R-Ga.).
Carter was outvoted on the first battle, leading to a second ballot showdown between Arrington and Smucker. Arrington was ultimately given the position.
To clinch the victory, Arrington discussed his work with the “30 for 30” caucus, a group of 30 Republicans and 30 Democrats working together to address the national debt.
Federal spending and addressing the national debt, which at the time of publication is around $30 trillion, has been a key GOP priority, particularly as Americans continue to suffer the blows of record-breaking levels of inflation.
Republicans have blamed Democrats’ “out of control spending” for the rising debt and inflation. But Arrington noted after he was selected to head the committee that Democrats aren’t the only ones who have played parliamentary tricks with spending.
“Republicans don’t get a pass either,” Arrington said. “We’ve waived budget points of order. We’ve waived spending caps before … I think the Democrats are more of the profligate spenders, but it doesn’t mean that we’ve been, you know, rock solid, in terms of our fiscal responsibility.”
As part of his deal to win his party’s support for him taking the speaker’s gavel, McCarthy agreed to cuts in several spending items. However, Republicans have emphasized that they have no interest in cutting Social Security or Medicare.
Education and Workforce
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) will take the contested position to lead the Education and Workforce Committee, the Steering Committee also announced.
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) challenged Foxx for the position.
Small Business
Additionally, the Steering Committee made its final pick for the uncontested Small Business Committee leader position. It is the only uncontested position that had yet to be chosen by the committee.The Steering Committee selected Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) to chair the panel.
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