Committee Assignments Announced... Pelosi Finally Unveiled

That's part of a press release Pelosi's office sent me Wednesday evening. It also has the new appointees for Ways and Means:

• Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia
• Congressman Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania
• Congressman Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania
• Congressman Steven Horsford of Nevada
• Congressman Dan Kildee of Michigan
• Congresswoman Gwen Moore of Wisconsin
• Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy of Florida
• Congressman Jimmy Panetta of California
• Congressman Brad Schneider of Illinois
• Congressman Tom Suozzi of New York

The Congressional Progressive Caucus made a deal with Pelosi. One crucial component was that she would guarantee the CPC 40% of the seats on crucial committees like the 3 above. Last week I mentioned that there was a potential problem with the deal. Not everyone in the Congressional Progressive Caucus is actually progressive. CPC co-chair, Mark Pocan, has made membership a farce by selling ($5,000 annual dues) them to "moderate" congressmembers who need cover-- protection from progressive activists-- back in home. I immediately guessed that Pelosi would appoint all the rubbish in the caucus to the committees and say, "see I upheld my end of the bargain." There are at least 13 members of the CPC who are also New Dems (Wall Street shills-- and unless you want to define "progressive" as, basically, being pro-choice, not racist and not homophobic these are not progressives.

There are 26 members named to these 3 key committees. The only freshmen were former members Ed Case, one of the most conservative members of Congress, Ann Kirkpatrick, another right-of-center member, and Steven Horsford, a garden variety Democrat. Let's start by showing each member's ProgressivePunch score. The bolded named are CPC members:

Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog, just switched to New Dem-IL)- F
Ed Case (Blue Dog-HI)- F
Charlie Crist (Blue Dog-FL)- F
Lois Frankel (FL)- C
Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)- F
Brenda Lawrence (New Dem-MI)- B
Norma Torres (New Dem-CA)- F
Bonnie Watson-Coleman (NJ)- A

Nanette Barragán (CA)- B
Lisa Blunt Rochester (New Dem-DE)- F
Robin Kelly (IL)- B
Ann Kuster (New Dem-NH)- F
Donald McEachin (New Dem-VA)- D
Tom O’Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ)- F
Darren Soto (New Dem-FL)- F
Marc Veasey (New Dem-TX)- F

Don Beyer (New Dem-VA)- D
Brendan Boyle (New Dem-PA)- F
Dwight Evans (PA)- B
Steven Horsford (NV)- F
Dan Kildee (MI)- A
Gwen Moore (WI)- A
Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL)- F
Jimmy Panetta (CA)- F
Brad Schneider (Blue Dog-IL)- F
Tom Suozzi (New Dem-NY)- F

Just over a month ago, in a post called The Battle For Plum Committee Positions Begins-- Alexandria Ocasio v Tom Suozzi, we mentioned that progressives Ro Khanna and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were trying to get appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee, "whose jurisdiction over taxes and revenue puts most of the economy within its mandate." By tradition, one seat is guaranteed to New York and in the last Congress that was Joe Crowley's. Although Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley, the committee seat went to the far more conservative Long Islander, Tom Suozzi. As Ryan From wrote for The Intercept, "Any major piece of legislation-- whether it’s Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, or free public college-- would involve some level of revenue, putting it squarely in the domain of Ways and Means, which makes it a key spot for a legislator looking to have an impact. Ocasio-Cortez is routinely asked how she plans to pay for her aggressive economic agenda, and the first answer begins with securing a spot on the House’s key tax-writing committee."

Traditionally, the seat is sought after for its fundraising potential, as every industry in the country is concerned with federal tax policy, meaning that members of the committee are more likely to get their fundraising calls returned. That makes the decision of who to give the seat to a tricky one for incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has the final say on committee assignments. Placing a lawmaker who refuses corporate PAC contributions on the Ways and Means Committee could be seen by some elements of the party as leaving money on the table.

But giving it to the other New York applicant presents its own problems. Ocasio-Cortez is competing with Rep. Tom Suozzi, who represents the North Shore of Long Island, a district not far from Ocasio-Cortez’s Bronx and Queens-- but a world away in terms of wealth and privilege. He would no doubt make efficient fundraising use of the seat, but he also took part in a recent assault on Pelosi’s power as speaker.

The contrast between how Ocasio-Cortez and Suozzi have approached the incoming Congress has been stark. Ocasio-Cortez began by joining a sit-in at Pelosi’s office to demand an empowered select committee to focus on legislating a Green New Deal. It was a risky move, but one that ended with Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez praising one another, and the issue of climate change was elevated on the agenda. Ocasio-Cortez then threw her support behind an embattled Pelosi for speaker of the House.

Pelosi’s bid for speakership was threatened by the so-called Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of lawmakers funded by the dark-money group No Labels, which threatened to withhold voting for Pelosi unless she agreed to a suite of rule changes that would largely empower Republicans. Suozzi was one of the nine signatories on that letter. Pelosi ultimately ceded to some of their demands.

Suozzi is a vice chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, as well as a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a bloc of Wall Street-friendly Democrats that dramatically expanded its membership with the 2018 elections.

...Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to go after a spot on the Ways and Means Committee is part of a broader strategy to grow progressive power in the coming Congress. It began with Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Pramila Jayapal of Washington state extracting a major concession from Pelosi, that in exchange for CPC votes, she would give the caucus proportional representation-- which amounts to 40 percent-- on the most powerful committees, which includes Ways and Means.

So... long story short: this is the worst I ever saw Pelosi screw progressives-- not Pocan's transactional definition, but actual progressives... in her entire congressional tenure. Anyone who ever doubted which side she's on can now set those doubts to rest for all time. Let me a dd a caveat; the deal, apparently, was that 40% of the entire membership of each committee would be from the CPC. So, technically, the deal wasn't broken. But that still, for example, leaves the Appropriations Committee with 11 actual economic progressives,  13 anti-progressives and 6 floating in the middle. The committee can easily be swayed in whatever they want to do by arch bankster-buddies Debbie Wasserman Schultz ($2,485,907), Henry Cuellar ($1,499,463), Ann Kirkpatrick ($1,615,753), Norma Torres ($177,560), Cheri Bustos ($1,097,471), Pete Aguilar ($965,965), Mike Quigley ($1,019,844), Sanford Bishop ($1,223,847), Ed Case ($539,917), Charlie Crist ($3,165,972) and Pete Visclosky ($704,795). I might add that committee chair, Nita Lowey has taken $5,244,643 from the Finance Sector.

Republicans Get Down To Dividing Up The Spoils

The new Republican House chairmen are busy doling out subcommittee chairs this week. Yesterday there was a big hurrah when Texas freak Lamar Smith, tragically the new head of Judiciary, eliminated the House's most anti-Hispanic bigot, Steve King (R-IA) as the top Republican on the Immigration and Enforcement panel. Not that anyone is too excited about the slug he picked instead, California racist Elton Gallegly (although... Gallegly's district is now around 25% Hispanic, which will lead to some interesting organizing possibilities). Still, it's great to get Tom Tancredo's successor's hands off the steering wheel. Smith seemed to target the two worst and most conspicuous clowns on his committee, King and Louie Gohmert, with denial of advancement.

But the big subcommittee moves yesterday were all about Appropriations-- the fount of free-flowing corporate bribes. Or I should say "founts," plural. Regardless of which party is in control, all the most corrupt Members try to get on Appropriations. Under Republicans it was Abramoff's favorite committee and under Democrats, Jack Murtha used it the same way Republicans do. Boehner knew he couldn't get away with reinstating as blatant a criminal as Jerry Lewis as chair so he made sure someone just as corrupt, but less likely to get indicted, Hal Rogers (R-KY), "the Prince of Pork," got the plum assignment. And this week Rogers selected his "12 cardinals," the all-powerful subcommittee chairs whose main functions will be to squeeze money out of special interests for Republican election campaigns.

The biggest source of corruption has always been the Defense subcommittee-- that's where Lewis served before becoming Appropriations Chair and that're why Duke Cunningham is now serving time in a federal prison. It's certainly one of the most singularly corrupt places on Capitol Hill and Rogers picked a singularly corrupt earmarker as subcommittee chair, C.W. Bill Young of Florida, who was granted a rules waver to get the position, despite his reputation of playing fast and loose with the taxpayers' money. Rogers deemed Jerry Lewis (and Young), "chairmen emeritus," a make believe position that allows these 2 crooks to sit on all subcommittees.

Heading the Appropriations Committee's Agriculture subcommittee will be Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) who had also wanted the defense position, Rogers said. [Kingston immediately announced he will work to deny food safety efforts any funding, working hand in hand with Frank Lucas, new head of the agriculture Committee another vicious opponent of food safety.]

The Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee will be overseen by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and the Energy and Water subcommittee will be overseen by Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.).

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) will head the Financial Services subcommittee while Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) will head the Homeland Security subcommittee formerly headed by Rogers. Aderholt is switching subcommittees from the Legislative Branch subcommittee.

The Labor and Health and Human Services subcommittee will be headed by Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-Mont.).

The Interior and Environment subcommittee will be headed by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) while the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs subcommittee will be headed by Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas). Culberson had been seen as in line for chairman of the Homeland Security appropriations panel. [Simpson is eager to do his bit to end the EPA's regulatory functions by defunding them and leaving the environment to the polluters, his campaign financiers.]

Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) will be in charge of State and Foreign Operations while Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) will be in charge of the large Transportation spending account.

Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) will head the Legislative Branch subcommittee which controls the smallest amount of spending. He is switching from the Military Construction subcommittee to do so.