With two long-serving and influential appropriators facing tough reelection contests, along with several others down the dais, the upcoming elections could rejigger the influential spending panel’s roster.
House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert, R-Calif., and Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, are again facing tight races. So are Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee Appropriations ranking member Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., and Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Valadao, R-Calif.
Losses by any of those members would open up a coveted subcommittee leadership spot, and with control of the House up for grabs this cycle, that slot could be a “cardinal” role leading a subcommittee.
Defense
Calvert’s race against former federal prosecutor Will Rollins is rated Tilt Republican by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales. However, even if Calvert wins reelection, he will be term-limited at the top of the Defense panel.
House GOP conference rules allow members to be the top Republican on a subcommittee for three terms, or six years, before they have to give up the position. Calvert is expected to seek a waiver to continue on the top of the subcommittee, although it’s not clear whether GOP leadership will grant it.
If Calvert were to lose or not get his waiver, current Transportation-HUD Subcommittee Chairman Steve Womack, R-Ark., is considered a leading contender for the job. Womack is the most senior member on the subcommittee behind Calvert and the former full committee chairman, Harold Rogers, R-Ky.
Womack, a longtime member of the Arkansas National Guard who deployed to Egypt after the 9/11 attacks, is a strong proponent of defense spending, including aid to Ukraine. He’s steered funding to Arkansas’ Ebbing Air National Guard Base, which is a training base for the F-35 fighter jet and last month held a ribbon-cutting for new facilities for training international F-35 pilots.
There are a few members with longer tenures on the full committee who could also make a play for the defense role.
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., sets the lineup of subcommittee leaders, but if Cole does put a waiver forward it will ultimately be up to the Republican Steering Committee, which officially recommends the assignments, to ratify it.
House Military Construction-VA Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Carter, R-Texas, is also facing term limits for his role. Whether he will seek a waiver to continue isn’t clear.
