There are four Members of Congress who are vying to lead Republicans on the Judiciary Committee in the next Congress. I am one of them. The other three are Doug Collins of Georgia, Tom Marino of Pennsylvania, and Jim Jordan, like myself from Ohio.
Since Democrats won back the House in the midterm elections last week, they will control all twenty or so committees in the House, including the Judiciary Committee. The lead Democrat on each committee will be the Chairman (or Chairwoman), and the lead Republican will be the Ranking Member. There will be a majority of Democrats on each committee, so if they stick together, they will mostly control legislation that makes its way through the committee, as well as determine what hearings will be held in the committee.
What does the Judiciary Committee do? Well, it has the responsibility of overseeing the administration of justice in the United States. The committee has oversight over such agencies as the FBI and the DEA. It is also responsible for handling impeachment matters.
As you may know, I am currently the Chairman of the House Small Business Committee. Democrats have no limits on how many years a person can lead their Members on a committee – Republicans have 6 year term limits. This is my fourth year leading Republicans on the Small Business Committee, so I could do so for one more term – two years.
However, as I mentioned at the outset of this week’s blog, I have chosen to seek the Ranking Member position on the Judiciary Committee in the next term, with the hope that Republicans win back the House in 2020, and I could then serve four additional years as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. (If I stayed on as Ranking Member of Small Business, my six years would be up, and I’d be ineligible to Chair the Small Business Committee in 2020.) Also, both the current Chairmen of the Judiciary Committee, and the Foreign Affairs Committee, announced their retirements at the end of this term, so the time to act was now.
Who chooses who will be the Republican Ranking Members? Something called the Steering Committee. That’s a group of Republican Members of Congress, including the Leader, the Whip, and Representatives from various regions of the country. Any Republican Member who wishes to be considered for leading a committee (either as Chairman or Ranking Member) appears before the Steering Committee and makes their case and the Steering Committee decides.
What’s my best case with the Steering Committee? Well, I believe I am by far the most qualified person to lead Republicans on the Judiciary Committee. I will be the most senior Republican, having served on the committee for 22 years. Prior to that I practiced law in the private sector for nearly two decades, handling cases from wills to divorces to capital murder cases.
We know that the Democrat base will be pushing the Democrats on the committee to pursue impeachment of everyone from Cabinet officials, to a Supreme Court Justice, to the President of the United States. I am one of only two Republican Members on the committee who have been through a Presidential Impeachment before. Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and I are the only two left of the 13 House Managers (prosecutors) of the Senate trial of President William Jefferson Clinton. Such experience may well be invaluable in the very near future.
I have also had considerable legislative success on the Judiciary Committee over the years. I was the author and principal sponsor of the most significant pro-life legislation since Roe v. Wade – the Ban on Partial Birth Abortion. I was the lead sponsor of perhaps the most significant Victims Rights legislation to pass Congress in decades. And as Chairman of the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, I oversaw the Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, one of the most significant pieces of Civil Rights legislation to ever come before Congress. (And perhaps one of my strongest selling points to the Steering Committee will be the fact that for the six years I chaired the Constitution Subcommittee, my Ranking Member was none other than Jerry Nadler, who will be the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the next Congress. I already have a working relationship with him, and I know his strengths and weaknesses, probably as well or better than anyone else in Congress.)
I’ll make my case before the Steering Committee, and I’ll either get it, or I won’t. But whatever happens, it is my commitment as always, to do everything within my power to make sure that the people of the First Congressional District of Ohio, and the people of this great nation, get my best effort.