U.S. Rep.-elect Jaime Herrera, R-Camas, learned Wednesday that she has been named to two House committees, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Small Business.
That’s good news for Herrera, who had coveted a seat on the Transportation committee but thought her chances of winning one were slim.
Competition among freshmen members for plum assignments is fierce, she said. “It’s one of the downsides of being in a class with 90-plus. “
Herrera also announced that she has named Afton Swift, an experienced congressional staffer, to serve as chief of staff in her Washington, D.C., office.
Swift grew up in northern Idaho but has worked mostly in Washington state politics since 1997. He served on the staffs of four Republican congressmen, including former Reps. Rick White and Jack Metcalf and Rep. Doc Hastings, all of Washington. He managed Republican Dino Rossi’s 2004 and 2008 gubernatorial campaigns and served as a consultant to Herrera’s congressional campaign this year.
Herrera said she is still interviewing candidates to head her district office in Vancouver. “I’m wanting people with really strong roots in the community, but who also know how to run an effective office,” she said. “Casework is not easy to do. Some of it is customer service, some is how to navigate federal agencies.”
She said she plans to staff her district office in Vancouver with seven or eight people and is considering deploying staff to keep weekly office hours in other cities around the district.
Herrera is touring the 3rd District this week to become more familiar with local issues she is likely to be asked to address as a member of Congress. She hopes to be involved in energy, health care, and transportation infrastructure issues.
“I’m grateful that I have had a little experience, and I know you don’t have to be on a committee of jurisdiction to be effective,” she said.
Herrera declined to state a position on the sweeping tax package negotiated by President Obama and congressional Republicans, which passed the Senate Wednesday on an 81-19 vote and is now headed for the House.
“I don’t get a chance to vote on it or to weigh in,” she said. “During the campaign, I made it clear I’m not going to raise taxes. I’m committed to that.”
She said she likely would have voted for the 13-month extension of federal unemployment benefits. “With as many people unemployed in our region as we’ve got, I don’t see that there’s an option. However, I believe it should have been offset” with cuts in other areas, she said.
She also questioned why the vote on extending Bush-era tax cuts, which were set to expire Dec. 31, wasn’t held earlier in the session. “The 11th-hour nature of it is what concerns me.”
Herrera also declined to take a position on whether she would support an increase in the federal gas tax if that becomes necessary to help pay the federal share of a new Columbia River Crossing. During her campaign, she said she was opposed to burdensome tolls on commuters who use the bridge and believed the federal government should pay “the lion’s share” of the cost. The total cost of the project is estimated at $3.6 billion.
“I’m on board with making sure the federal government understands this is something that needs to be taken care of,” she said. “I’m operating under imperfect information.”
Herrera, who remains a state legislator until January, got an unexpected chance to return to Olympia for Saturday’s special session. Gov. Chris Gregoire called the session to win the Legislature’s approval of more than $500 million in cuts to the current year’s state budget.
Herrera said she was pleased to see that the governor solicited and endorsed ideas offered by Republicans.
“The sense of bipartisanship was amazing to me,” she said. “Nobody was happy, but those are the kinds of decisions we are going to have to make.”
Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.
