Kathleen Rice beats out AOC for spot on coveted House committee

[Ptarmigan]

Kathleen Rice beats out AOC for spot on coveted House committee
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/17/kathleen-rice-aoc-house-committee-448001

Rep. Kathleen Rice has captured a prized seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee after a contentious showdown with fellow New Yorker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Rice and Ocasio-Cortez have been battling behind the scenes for weeks to secure one of the few open seats on the exclusive committee, which oversees everything from health care policy to climate issues. Tensions spilled into the open Thursday in a private meeting of the Steering and Policy Committee, where Democrats were forced to choose between the two members in a tense — and awkward — secret ballot vote.

Rice ultimately won in a lopsided vote of 46-13, though it wasn’t without some drama after some moderate Democrats openly criticized Ocasio-Cortez.

Kathleen Rice beat out Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Ten Democrats had been initially vying for spots on the panel, though several withdrew their names in the final minutes, just before the Steering Committee announced Pelosi’s slate. Democrats had expected to fill just two or three seats, though the committee was ultimately expanded to add five amid intense interest from the caucus.

Not everyone was happy with their leadership’s decision to put only the New York seat up for a head-to-head vote. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) argued that the Steering Committee should vote on each individual seat, saying she wouldn’t vote on a “partial slate.”

Pelosi, though, stepped in and convinced the panel to adopt the leadership picks, while taking a separate vote on the seat Rice and Ocasio-Cortez sought.

The Democrats vying for that coveted seat.

Progressives both inside and outside of the Capitol said it would be critical to have Ocasio-Cortez on the Energy and Commerce Committee to help influence critical policies in the early days of the Biden administration.

But some senior Democrats, including on the Energy and Commerce panel, had privately voiced concerns about Ocasio-Cortez landing the seat. Some feared that the firebrand Democrat, who backs progressive priorities like the "Green New Deal" and "Medicare for All," could cause issues as Congress attempts to draft bipartisan health and climate policies next year.

The New York delegation wasn’t the only one with issues: The Texas delegation, too, ultimately decided to back two members rather than choose one. Both Reps. Sylvia Garcia and Lizzie Fletcher were vying for a spot, and Fletcher was later picked as part of Pelosi’s slate.

[Ptarmigan]

The Establishment Strikes Back
https://prospect.org/politics/establishment-strikes-back-aoc-versus-centrist-democrats/

Committee assignments are one of the least eye-catching parts of politics, but they’re also one of the most important ways in which actual political power is wielded. Certain committees in the House, like Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Appropriations, have outsized influence and money power. (They are often called the “money” committees, not just because they’re where the action is but because members can earn lots of money in campaign contributions from industries with business before them.)

Deliberations over the next several days will be extremely important for progressives in the House, as they angle to lock down seats on these powerful committees for their members. To that end, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was expected to secure a prized position on the Energy and Commerce Committee, a seat vacated by outgoing New Yorker Eliot Engel. Among other issues, the committee has jurisdiction over health care and climate change issues, a natural for a congresswoman who has championed Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

Ocasio-Cortez was expected to cruise comfortably to the position. She was the first to raise her hand for the seat, and she won the backing of dean of the New York delegation Rep. Jerry Nadler. But last week, as Politico reported, Long Islander Kathleen Rice made an out-of-nowhere, last-second bid for the seat, interrupting the process. Rep. Rice is a backbencher from the party’s right flank who, in 2018, refused to support Nancy Pelosi for Speaker. Without the support of Nadler, and with the famous opposition of Steering Committee leader Pelosi, Rice’s attempt didn’t seem to be serious.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not get the position. It was Kathleen Rice.

Many of the representatives who came out most forcefully against Ocasio-Cortez have close ties to oil and gas, especially Cuellar. But perhaps more important was Cuellar’s personal opposition to AOC, as evidenced by his statement. Ocasio-Cortez backed Cuellar’s primary challenger, 27-year-old progressive Jessica Cisneros, in March’s primary. Cuellar won narrowly, with backing from the Koch political network and some last-minute campaigning from Speaker Pelosi herself, despite the fact that Cuellar regularly votes against the Democratic caucus and has routinely fundraised for Republicans. According to multiple people familiar with the proceedings, Ocasio-Cortez’s recent interview with The Intercept, where she said Speaker Pelosi needed to go, though there was no one to replace her, loomed over the proceedings.

Rice’s triumph is especially surprising, given that she is not known to be well liked within the caucus. She made powerful enemies of Pelosi and Nadler, and was shut out of a much-desired spot on the House Judiciary Committee just two years ago, because of her refusal to back Pelosi’s speakership in 2018. It’s unclear how her selection might influence her vote this time around. AOC, meanwhile, voted for Pelosi’s speakership.

It’s not the first time Ocasio-Cortez has been frozen out of Energy and Commerce. In 2018, she made a play for a vacant seat, only to be turned away on the grounds that it couldn’t go to a freshman. It was given to sophomore Tom Suozzi instead.

Sylvia Garcia, meanwhile, was expected to be a priority for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, given that the seat was once held by Lujan, a Latino. But in a meeting last week, it was Cuellar who again voiced opposition, leading some to believe that the seat would not be filled by a representative from the state at all.