Three Women Are Helping the House GOP Change Its Image
House Republicans did something significant this week that didn’t gain much notice in the press: Rep. Diane Black was named interim Budget Committee chair.
On the face it, perhaps a new committee chair, and an interim, at that, is not noteworthy. But Ms. Black (R., Tenn.), is one of three Republican women serving as committee chairs this term. Together these legislators will not only help shape the debate on critical issues, they’ll help the Republican Party begin to tell a different story than what has been the case historically for women in the House.
As Budget Committee chair, Ms. Black will play a prominent role on a signature issue, Obamacare replacement legislation. The former nurse, who has decades of experience in health care, will be able to hit the ground running while Rep. Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services and her predecessor on the committee, prepares for Senate confirmation hearings.
Ms. Black’s appointment is a much-needed improvement within the House Republican Caucus. Former Rep. Candice Miller, a respected and hardworking Republican member, served as chair of the House Administration Committee in the 113th and 114th Congress. But beyond that, Republican women in the chamber have struggled to obtain leadership positions.
During the 2013 government shutdown, the struggle was clear as House Republican leadership hatched a plan to appoint a special committee of select House Republicans to negotiate with the Senate to re-open the government. It was a foolproof plan: Republicans would convene a meeting and press event with members sitting down, sleeves rolled up, ready to negotiate with the Senate, knowing that Senate Democrats would dismiss the idea (as they did). One problem: There were no women on the negotiating committee. This was immediately obvious to the media, but not to the staff (myself included) who worked on building the committee.
In the process of building the committee, some members–knowing full well that the negotiations would never come to fruition–objected to this member or that member being on the committee. Twice, female House Republicans were scratched from the committee, and so there were none. In other words, we were unable to put women on a fake committee. This was not lost on Democrats, and it blew up in Republicans’ faces–as it should have.
Ms. Black is joined by two other women this year. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) is the new chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee. In 2013, perhaps no member of Congress worked harder on moving a bill than Ms. Foxx did on the Skills Act, legislation reforming federal jobs training programs. It is no exaggeration to say that Ms. Foxx’s successful efforts in 2013 – the bill was signed into law – are why she is a committee chair in 2017. She was so persistent that many of the members – and this former staffer – to whom she pressed her case can still hear her reminding them of her disdain if the term job training was used in reference to the bill, telling us, “You train a dog, not people!”
The House Select Committee on Ethics is also run by a woman, Rep. Susan Brooks (R., Ind.). The Ethics Committee is viewed as a “short-straw” committee, one that members are hesitant to join or lead. That’s not the case for Ms. Brooks however. A former criminal lawyer and U.S. attorney, she is uniquely qualified for this role.
Republicans shouldn’t injure themselves patting themselves on the back. Three committee chairs won’t erase the gender gap Republicans have seen up and down the ballot for years. But, this does help change what has been a sore point for Republicans for years.