House Picks New Appropriations Chair, Subcommittee Cardinals Named as Funding Fight Looms
House Republicans selected Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole as the new chairman of the Appropriations Committee, as Congress gets ready to start considering appropriations legislation for fiscal year (FY) 2025.
Chairman Cole, who recently served as Chairman of the Rules Committee, replaces Representative Kay Granger (R-TX), who gave up the gavel and announced she’s retiring after shepherding the FY 2024 bills through Congress.
Chairman Cole had also been chairman of the Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee.
His accession to the top job caused some musical chairs at the top of the subcommittees, as appropriators get ready to work on the FY 2025 appropriations bills, which are already behind schedule due to the series of continuing resolutions that were needed to fund FY 2024.
The final appointments include the following:
· Representative Steve Womack (R-AR) replaces Chairman Cole as head of the Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee.
· Representative Mark Amodei (R-NV) will lead the Homeland Security Subcommittee, taking over for Representative David Joyce (R-OH).
· Rep. Joyce left Homeland Security to take Rep. Womack’s prior position as chairman of the Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee.
· Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) takes over for Rep. Amodei has head of the Legislative branch subcommittee.
The other chairs remain the same.
“I’m proud to partner with such a skilled and seasoned group of subcommittee chairs,” Chairman Cole said in a statement. “Working together, we will leverage their expertise and leadership to responsibly fund the needs of the American people. I look forward to engaging with them, the entire Committee, and all of Congress as we move through the Fiscal Year 2025 process.”
The first step will be working with leadership to negotiate a topline funding number, a necessary step before individual bills can be written. The compromise number set in last year’s debt limit deal, will once again be a guiding number.
“I don’t think it’s going to take forever, because we do have [the debt limit law] as a general guideline, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sniping and negotiating,” said Chairman Cole.
The 74-year-old Cole, first elected to Congress in 2002, faces a tough road to get appropriations bills passed. Not only does he have to deal with opposition from Democrats, but also opposition from more conservative members of the Republican party, who have demanded deeper fiscal cuts and tougher action on the border. Not to mention the election looming in November.
In a recent Politico profile, Chairman Cole was described as a “throwback to the days of cross-aisle dealmaking on Capitol Hill” who has supported earmarks and is one of the few Republicans whom Democrats say they enjoy working with.
“Tom Cole understands the importance of compromise and being reasonable,” said Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), ranking Democrat on the Rules Committee, who believes that Chairman Cole will “help steer us back to a place where hopefully we can get some stuff done, we don’t have a government shutdown, and rationality and reason will prevail.”
