SPOKANE — Cathy McMorris Rodgers says she didn’t drop out of the race for a higher position in House Republican leadership. She never officially got in it.
“I did spend time over the weekend making phone calls and talking to my colleagues about what’s next,” she told The Spokesman-Review on Wednesday, shortly after the House passed legislation to keep the federal government open through Dec. 11.
Those conversations convinced her that leadership needed to rebuild the trust with House members, and by extension the trust of the American people, that Congress can actually get things done. Some news accounts said she was lining up support for a run for majority leader, the position Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California will vacate if he moves up to speaker.
“I didn’t drop out,” she said in her first interview since Speaker John Boehner said he will resign. “I just never announced a candidacy. I decided to stay chair of the House Republican Conference.”
It is that body that will hold the meetings to vote on the new Republican leadership, and leading that group keeps her in touch with other caucus leaders and committee chairmen, she said. “It’s a great place for me to bring the issues of Eastern Washington to the forefront,” she added.
It’s also the place where Speaker John Boehner made his surprise announcement last Friday morning that set the leadership scramble in motion. McMorris Rodgers was leading the meeting and had just introduced Boehner when someone handed her a slip of paper.
“It said ‘The speaker is going to announce his retirement,’ ” she recalled Wednesday. She knew just seconds before the rest of the House Republicans. “It was totally unexpected.”
McMorris Rodgers’ decision to stay out of the leadership race and remain conference chairwoman has prompted some speculation the House GOP has a “glass ceiling” for women. All the announced candidates for speaker, majority leader and majority whip are white men.
With more than 100 women in the House for the two parties and a woman running for the Republican presidential nomination, she believes “we’re seeing that ceiling shattered.” She insisted she’s in a key spot to make the House more effective and less dysfunctional through changes in rules and the overall structure.
“Members need to believe their voice is heard. Many believe too many decisions are made by leadership,” she said. “That has a ripple effect across the country because every person in the country needs to believe their voice is heard through their representative.”
From that leadership position, McMorris Rodgers said she has been able to push for quicker relicensing of hyrdoelectric dams, advocate for a better system to schedule veterans into VA medical centers and increase the number of graduate medical education residency programs.
Some in Washington state, including the Spokane City Council, would also like her to push for reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, a federal program that helps foreign countries get money to buy U.S. products. Boeing customers are among the biggest users of the Ex-Im Bank. The Spokane City Council passed a resolution in July urging her to “stand up for the workers and employers of her district” by supporting the reauthorization.
But McCarthy, the most likely successor to Boehner, has led the charge against the Ex-Im Bank. McMorris Rodgers has said she would support reauthorization if the program is reformed. Ex-Im reauthorization currently is included in a Senate transportation bill, which is in a conference committee with leaders of both chambers.
“I believe some kind of a reformed Ex-Im Bank will be attached when it comes out of conference,” she said.
Another top regional concern, money to help pay for fighting last summer’s wildfire fights, was part of the bill the House passed Wednesday to stave off a partial government shutdown – at least until Dec. 11. McMorris Rodgers voted for an amendment that called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, but noted there was no money in that legislation for the organization. That amendment wasn’t accepted by the Senate, and members knew it wouldn’t survive to make it to President Obama. She was among the Republicans who joined most Democrats and voted for the overall bill, known as a continuing resolution, anyway.
