House GOP elects new spending chief

Republicans have elected Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a prominent negotiator, as the new head of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

The House GOP conference on Wednesday adopted a unanimous recommendation from the Steering Committee Tuesday night backing Cole for the top spot.

“It’s kind of hard to lose a race when you’re the only guy,” Cole, who ran unopposed for the chairmanship and has been serving on the committee since 2009, told reporters at the time.

Cole announced his bid for the role late last month, shortly after retiring Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) said she would step down as chair before finishing the remainder of her final term in Congress. 

Cole had notched backing from the vast majority of the lower chamber’s other GOP spending cardinals, several of whom serve on the Steering Committee, and some conservatives in the weeks leading up the vote. 

However, there had been some resistance in the conference to installing a new spending chief so soon amid calls for reform. 

Last week, Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), chair of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for departments of Health and Human Services and Labor, called for the Republican Party to hold off on a speedy election for the panel’s next leader.

At the time, Aderholt, the most senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee that hasn’t served as chair, said the conference should instead focus on “correcting the process and developing our theory of government on how we will manage our responsibilities.”

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who heads the subcommittee that crafts funding for agriculture programs and rural development, also told The Hill on Wednesday that he “didn’t see the urgency” and that “the appropriations process is completely broken.”

“I think this would have been an appropriate time to have that discussion,” added Harris, who said he didn’t take part in the vote on Wednesday. 

Aderholt similarly outlined a list of changes for the House to take up later this week that included reforms to the earmark process and how policy riders are considered. 

Still, many Republicans have come out in strong support of Cole’s ascension.

“He understands you can’t you cannot save this country from a debt crisis and solve our unsustainable deficit spending merely by saving some nickels and dimes on the discretionary side,” House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said.

“You have to go for the big dollars through entitlement reforms,” Arrington said, adding that “he understands that when you talk about these politically sensitive topics of Medicare, Social Security, etc, you’ve got to tackle those on a consensus basis with both Republicans and Democrats at the table.”

In comments to The Hill on Tuesday, Cole also said lawmakers can’t balance the federal budget “with appropriations funding alone” while discussing the lack of “progress on entitlements.”

“If you’re not willing to do that then just please don’t come talk to me about a balanced budget because we can’t get there that way,” he said.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Cole, who had previously served as head of the subcommittee that crafts funding for transportation and housing programs, said one of the first steps will be working “closely with leadership” to figure out a topline for the lower chamber’s 12 annual funding bills. 

“I don’t think it’s going to take forever because we do have the Fiscal Responsibility Act as a kind of general guideline, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sniping and negotiating,” Cole said. 

Cole is referring to the spending limits deal brokered between former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the Biden administration last year. 

However, the agreed-to caps have been fiercely opposed by conservatives who say it doesn’t go far enough to curb annual spending, underlining challenges GOP leadership has faced in getting partisan funding plans across the floor this session with a narrow majority. 

Cole also noted the potential of some movements among spending cardinals on the committee.

“Obviously, there’s always a little bit of musical chairs amongst the cardinals,” he said.

“I’m going to be giving one up and we got to talk [to] my colleagues, and, on the basis of seniority, see who wants to go there.”

Updated at 11:58 a.m.