In a single week, the Republican chairs of three US House of Representatives committees announced they would not be seeking re-election, raising questions about whether the chaos that has reigned in the US Congress is driving out some of the Republican Party’s top talent.
What makes the retirements particularly noteworthy is that none of the chairs were at risk of losing their position due to the term limits that House Republicans impose on their committee leaders. They conceivably could have returned to the same leadership roles in the next Congress, but chose instead to leave and give up jobs they had worked years to obtain.
“They would clearly rather be home with their family than in Washington with a dysfunctional Congress,” Republican strategist Doug Heye said. “I would have said this to you 10 years ago, but it’s just gotten worse. Congress has become a bad workplace.”
Illustration: Yusha
The three Republican chairs are: representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Mike Gallagher and Mark Green.
McMorris Rodgers was the first to announce she would be leaving, after four years as the chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, one of the most prestigious panels on Capitol Hill. Past chairpersons such as former US representative Billy Tauzin helped add prescription drug coverage to Medicare, while former US representative Henry Waxman authored the Affordable Care Act, expanding health coverage for millions of US citizens.
The second retirement announcement came from Gallagher, who chairs the US House Committee on China.
He announced “with a heavy heart” that he would not seek re-election.
Gallagher’s announcement came days after he voted against impeaching US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, frustrating the right flank of the Republican Party and generating a likely primary challenge.
Gallagher told a Fox News affiliate in Wisconsin that he and his wife were thinking about his leaving Congress long before the impeachment vote.
He also said that the pushback was nothing compared with what he endured when he refused to object to the US Electoral College vote count in 2021.
On Wednesday last week, Green, who is just in his second year as chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, was the third to announce that he would not seek re-election. The move came one day after he oversaw the impeachment of Mayorkas.
He said he wanted to get in front of a pending story about his retirement that had been leaked to the press.
Green came the closest to acknowledging the role the chaos of the past 14 months played in his decision.
“Well, the work to productivity ratio may have had a little bit to do with it,” Green said, adding that Republicans would have to increase their majority in the House to get anything done.
“So I’m going to go do a few other things,” he said.
McMorris Rodgers said chairing the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has been the best position that she has had in her 10 terms in Congress.
She said there were a lot of factors in her decision and that it was mostly about her family.
“It was a difficult decision. I’ve worked very hard and I’m proud of what we accomplished, but for me, this was the time,” she said.
Gallagher also said it was time for him to go.
“The Framers [of the constitution] intended citizens to serve in Congress for a season and then return to their private lives. Electoral politics was never supposed to be a career and, trust me, Congress is no place to grow old. And so, with a heavy heart, I have decided not to run for re-election,” Gallagher said.
US Representative Frank Lucas said he believes the exodus includes the possibility that Republicans could be serving in the minority next year if they lose the House in the November election.
“Who wants to finish your career here in the minority?” Lucas said. “It’s also a frustration with the difficulty of legislating at this time, because of issues within factions and the balanced nature of the House membership.”
He also said that there has been no wage adjustment for lawmakers’ cost of living. They make the same wage they did 15 years ago: US$174,000 a year.
“Most of these members are experienced people on really important, relevant committees and the outside world realizes their skill sets, and they’re probably trying to pull them,” he said.
Lucas, who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said he is not considering stepping down any time soon.
He recalled how former US representative Don Young, the longest-serving Republican member in the House before his death in 2022, admonished him during a particularly tough day.
“He looks me in the eye and says: ‘Lucas, people like you and I were here when this place still worked. We can’t leave, because if you leave before we get back to that point, some of these underclassmen don’t have a clue about how things are supposed to happen, how to do anything,’” Lucas said.
US Representative Byron Donalds had a different take, saying that the turnover is actually a good thing for the House.
He said members of Congress are isolated because they go from meeting to meeting and from dinners to conferences.
“We’re not living normal lives. I think having fresh perspectives come in is the best thing for the system,” Donalds said.
US Representative Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, called McMorris Rodgers and Gallagher “serious legislators who want to make things right.”
“It’s pretty clear, if you’re holding a gavel and to say you’re leaving, and you’re not term-limited, I think it speaks volumes for where their side of the chamber is,” Aguilar said. “And it’s unfortunate, but that’s where we are.”
The number of lawmakers retiring at the end of this term or seeking higher office stands at 44, with Democrats making up 23 of those members and Republicans accounting for 21.
US Representative Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that all of the party members leaving are in safe Republican seats, but that some of the Democratic retirements would lead to “flips for us.”
“I’m not concerned about it,” Hudson said.
The retirements of McMorris Rodgers, Green and Gallagher would not make sense in normal times, Heye said.
“It just makes sense in this current context of a broken Congress that can’t do the good, normal work that it should be doing,” he said.
He also doubted they would have many regrets about leaving.
“Every ex-member you talk to, who is of some import, they’re all happier now,” Heye said. “They all see greener pastures now.”
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