GOP Steering Committee Settles Contested House Chairmanships

GOP Steering Committee Settles Contested House Chairmanships
The exterior of the U.S. Capitol building in a file photo. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images
Joseph Lord
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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.

The four contested chairmanship positions were for the Homeland Security Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, the Committee on Budget, and the Education and Workforce Committee. Here are the new chairs on each of the committees:

Homeland Security

Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) was tapped over Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) for the Homeland Security Committee.
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) (R) confers with an aide during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 11, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) (R) confers with an aide during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 11, 2020. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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.

Green’s selection for the post over Crenshaw is a win for the conservative wing of the GOP, which demanded more conservative voices on the top panels as part of the negotiations in McCarthy’s bid to be speaker.

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.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) at Trump's Make America Great Again rally in Springfield, Mo., on Sept. 21, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) at Trump's Make America Great Again rally in Springfield, Mo., on Sept. 21, 2018. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

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.

He added, “We must also look at ways to encourage domestic energy production and achieve energy independence through the tax code instead of using it as a tool to punish energy producers as President Biden has suggested.”

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.

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) at SiriusXM's Congressional Veterans Forum at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on May 23, 2017. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) at SiriusXM's Congressional Veterans Forum at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on May 23, 2017. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for SiriusXM

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.

Because showdowns over the budget are expected with the new GOP majority, it is likely that the Budget Committee will play a far larger role in the 118th Congress than it did in the previous Congress.

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.
In this image from video, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) speaks to NTD in Washington during an undated interview. (The Epoch Times via NTD)
In this image from video, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) speaks to NTD in Washington during an undated interview. The Epoch Times via NTD

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) challenged Foxx for the position.

However, Foxx had the incumbent’s advantage for the post, having led Republicans on the committee during the past three Congresses.

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.