Rep. Anna Eshoo pointed at the newly empty walls of her office. “It looks like this place is saying goodbye,” she said.
After 32 years, she’s retiring from Congress at the end of this term. The Californian spent most of that time serving on the powerful Energy and Commerce panel, rising to become the top Democrat on the Health Subcommittee.
“You walk in without anything, but when you’re leaving, there’s an accumulation of the manifestations of the work,” she said.
Between packing up photos and papers, Eshoo sat down with Roll Call before Thanksgiving recess. She cited some of her legislative highlights, like her role in creating BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. And she described the “sea change” she saw in the House soon after she arrived in 1993.
“I’m at peace with my decision, but it’s hard to leave, because I have loved my work,” she said.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Q: What made this the right time to retire?
A: A little voice inside of me was just tugging at me. The press has its own story, and they want you to reconfirm their story, which is that members are running away from Congress. And my response to that is, I’ve never run away from anything.
I just felt it was time, and I can honestly say I’ve given it my all. Right now, I have 68 bills that five presidents have signed, and I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few weeks, whether we’ll get a couple more over the finish line.
Q: What’s one that stands out?
A: The number one reason for bankruptcies in our country is health care, and if you don’t have health care coverage, you can’t sleep at night. So I have an enormous sense of pride in the Affordable Care Act, and there was more than one section of the bill that I wrote.
I remember having a hearing with the disabled community, and over and over again, whoever was speaking kept referring to “the cap.” Finally, I interrupted and said, “What’s the cap?”
I didn’t know, but they certainly did, because they had to live with it in the very fine print of insurance policies. In that community, they reached [a dollar limit] very early in life, and then no insurance for the rest of their lives. It was like a death sentence.
So I introduced legislation. At that time, John Dingell was head of Energy and Commerce, and “Oh, yeah, you know, my dear,” whatever. Zero. Republicans weren’t interested. They wouldn’t go up against the insurance companies. So I kept reintroducing this bill for years, and then the stars were aligned, and it went into the Affordable Care Act.
Q: Do you have any regrets?
A: For Democrats in this election, it was a wipeout across the country of working people. I think back to NAFTA, you know? My decision was, I’m going with the future. It was said that it would lift all boats, the cooperation with other countries. But my mind keeps going back to the communities where industries left and their lives were hollowed out. What we do has an impact on people’s lives.
I can’t say I regret the vote, but I question it. That was my first term, and it was hell on the ground, especially with labor. I did a deep dive. I knew it was a big thing.
Q: What else do you remember from your first term?
A: The average person would say it was a club, and yeah, it was decidedly masculine, even all the furniture. All these huge leather chairs, massive desks. And slowly, I got rid of it. First of all, it wasn’t comfortable. I mean, I couldn’t even reach across the desk. Just bring me a writing table.
But there were some real giants here. I mean, they knew how to use power. People like George Miller. And Nancy Pelosi had come in the special election when Sala Burton had died, and we had already been friends since our children were little ones. I remember Nancy saying, all right, you have two years. What do you want to get done?
Q: How has Congress changed since then?
A: I used to go to the floor to watch and learn how they did things. And I remember saying to George Miller one day, “Newt Gingrich is just going right up Bob Michel’s pant leg. I think he’s going to take this guy down.”
And Bob Michel was such a gentleman. In my first term, there were things I didn’t like, but I saw how masterful many of the members were. I saw how they would debate like hell on the floor, but then they went to dinner with them. They had real friendships. And then with Gingrich, it changed. He poisoned it.
Democrats lost the House, and Gingrich was the toxic substance in this place. He would say and do anything; there were no borders, no limit, no anything. And even though they put a stamp on his butt and got rid of him, that toxicity remained.
Q: Was it just Gingrich?
A: The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United was corrosive. It was like putting acid on a pipe, just eating away at it. When we were in the majority, we passed very good campaign finance legislation, but it didn’t go anywhere in the Senate. An individual can, if they want to, put a billion dollars [into politics], and you don’t know who they are.
I’m not a Girl Scout. I mean, you throw a punch, take a punch. You still have to raise money. Campaigns have become very expensive. But more and more I saw members from both sides of the aisle, especially if votes end early, go right over to the Republican club or the DCCC to dial for dollars.
And now with what Trump has unleashed, there’s a brittleness in the country. One of the saddest things I’ve seen here is members wiping out their own party. I’ve said to so many of the guys that I’ve served with for a long time, “What are you doing? You’re overseeing the destruction of a great political party. You don’t deserve to call yourself a Republican.” These are grown men, and many of them [are going along] out of fear.
Q: What’s next for you?
A: I don’t want to work hard at relaxing. I’m a Californian, so I have commuted across the country every week all of these years.
So many members have asked me where I’m going to live. I was with Charlie Dent, and he asked me, and I said, “Why do people always ask that?” He said, “It’s one of the biggest decisions members make when they’re leaving Congress. They decide whether they want to stay in D.C. and lobby.” And that was lost on me. It never even crossed my mind. I’m not damning people who do, but I’m not interested in that.
But I really do still have an unswerving belief in the decency and the goodness of the American people and our system. Very few have been chosen to serve in the Congress, and I’m the first generation of my family that was born here, so I’ve never lost sight of that.
Especially at night, when the buildings are lit up, if we leave here late, I wonder how many other members think, isn’t this something? I mean, I’m in awe of it. We’re all flawed. It’s the mark of humanity. But what’s been built is beyond extraordinary, and that I came here for a while, that’s a big deal.
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