House GOP Posts Selection of Key Committee Chairs

The House GOP Steering Committee, a panel of roughly 30 lawmakers who decide most chairmanships and committee assignments, made its choices for House chair committees that were left uncontested in December.

The Steering Committee made selections for chairs of three out of the four contested committees, The Hill reported Monday evening. The three committees with newly elected chairs include: Homeland Security, Ways and Means, and the Education and Workforce committee. As of Monday evening, the budget committee chair has yet to be decided.

Following a historic battle for House speakership, newly elected Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., selected Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who voted against him on most of the 15 speaker ballots last week, to serve as the "Speaker Designee" in the Steering Committee.

Here is who the Steering Committee has chosen for chairmanships:

Homeland Security: Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn.

Green won out against Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, to fill a vacancy after former Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., retired.

Green told reporters, in light of the victory, he would send two full-time committee staffers to observe the U.S.-Mexico border.

The staffers, Green adds, 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."

In addition to having eyes tied to Congress on the border, the Homeland Security committee will play a major role in oversight and policy relating to the migration surge. It has also been reported the panel has plans to bring Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in to testify.

But as Green adds, his focus will be not only on the physical border but on cyber security and the de facto national firewall as well.

Green, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, marks a victory for hard-liners who were opposed to McCarthy during the initial rounds for speakership.

Amid his selection to chair the panel, Green went on to praise his competitor Crenshaw as one of his "best friends in Congress," adding, beating him was "not easy."

Ways and Means: Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo.

Smith won the chair seat after a contested battle with Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and Adrian Smith, R-Neb.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., confirmed Adrian Smith was the lowest vote-getter on the first ballot, adding the panel voted in a second round between Buchanan and Jason Smith.

In a statement, Jason Smith, a close McCarthy ally, said he would "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," as well as examine tax benefits for "corporations that have shed their American identity in favor of a relationship with China."

"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 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."

Education and the Workforce: Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.

Foxx was granted a waiver from the steering committee to run for chair again despite House GOP Conference Rules allowing members to serve only three consecutive terms as head of the committee.

Foxx's office confirmed she was selected for a fourth term by the GOP Steering Committee. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., challenged Foxx for the seat.

Budget

According to Bloomberg, Reps. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, Buddy Carter, R-Ga, and Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., are all pursuing the top spot on the Budget Committee. And all three agreed Republicans must use the debt-limit deadline to pass fiscally conservative legislation.