The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
DeLauro favored in race for top House spending post
WASHINGTON — There’s a month to go until House Democrats crown a leader to oversee all federal spending and after a more than yearlong campaign, U. S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D- Conn., appears most likely to win to the job.
DeLauro is devoting the final weeks of the three-way contest to locking down support for chair of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, with calls to Democrats. She has more than 40 members of Congress whipping support for her candidacy, lead by U. S. Rep. John Larson, D- 1.
Before the 2020 election, she raised money and lent campaign support to Democrat incumbents and challengers to help secure the House majority and her own shot to lead.
DeLauro is a formidable opponent to the two other candidates for the post, Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, sources said. All three woman have significant experience on the committee.
Kaptur has seniority. Wasserman Schultz has proved herself to the caucus with fundraising
If elected to the position, DeLauro would become President-elect Joe Biden’s foremost House ally when it comes to budgeting and spending trillions on government programs, agency operations and defense. Even if Republicans in the Senate block Biden’s legislative agenda, the appropriations process will move forward each year.
and leading the Democratic National Committee. Kaptur and Wasserman Schultz’s offices both called the race for the chairmanship highly competitive.
DeLauro brings 25 years on the committee, leadership over health and labor spending, endorsements from top union names and a tight rapport with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., and current Appropriations chair Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
“I don’t know how she could have a stronger case to make,” said Matt Dennis, senior vice president of CRD Associates and former communications director for House Appropriations Committee Democrats.
In her calls and letters about her candidacy for chair of the Appropriations Committee, DeLauro’s message is experience and expertise — with a dash of reform.
“People know that I’m a hard worker and I’m a fighter,” said DeLauro in an interview Wednesday. “I’m the only one in the race who has a strong base of support with the various coalitions and parts of our Democratic caucus.”
If elected to the position, DeLauro would become President- elect Joe Biden’s foremost House ally when it comes to budgeting and spending trillions on government programs, agency operations and defense. Even if Republicans in the Senate block Biden’s legislative agenda, the appropriations process will move forward each year.
When Biden crafts his coronavirus recovery package, DeLauro would be the House lawmaker negotiating with Republicans to get him the money. She cited quotes from her subcommittee ranking GOP member Rep. Tom Cole, R- Okla., and Sen. Roy Blunt, RMo., about their solid working relationships.
For Connecticut, she could pave the way for new infrastructure investments in the state, defense contracts and other federal investments.
“We are a defense dependent state,” DeLauro said. “With a Democratic president and a chair of the committee, the priorities of Connecticut, the priorities of my district, but all of Connecticut and the issues I have fought for for a long time, they are likely to happen.”
DeLauro could steer even more federal dollars to Connecticut if she changed House rules to again allow members of Congress to earmark funds for home- state projects in their spending bills. That practice has been criticized for larding up legislation with socalled ‘pork’ and ‘sweeteners’ to get lawmakers onboard.
Democrats have advocated for a return in recent years, arguing earmarks are a way Congress can have more control over federal spending.
“I support reintroducing earmarks with the appropriate guardrails,” DeLauro said.
DeLauro said she also supports overturning a controversial, decades- old provision known as the Hyde Amendment, which is tacked on spending bills to block federal Medicaid money from being spent on abortion, except if pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or results from rape or incest.
In letters to her caucus, DeLauro also said she plans to secure more funds for counties with longstanding poverty and help more members participate in the writing of spending bills.
Kaptur and Wasserman Schultz also support earmarks and reversing the Hyde amendment. They have their own reform ideas, their communications to caucus members show.
Kaptur has served on the Appropriations Committee for three decades and has sat on 11 of its 12 subcommittees, more than DeLauro or Wasserman Schultz. She’s been actively making her case to various Democratic caucuses and individual members. In a letter to the caucus, she positioned herself as the candidate best able to lead the nation through another economic recovery, having weathered multiple recessions since joining the House in 1983.
Wasserman Schultz has distinguished her campaign with a new plan to establish a panel on equity and justice in federal spending to advise the Appropriations Committee. She said she’s best able to communicate the Democratic message to a modern Congress and diverse electorate across a variety of platforms.
Blake Androff, executive vice president of the Signal Group, who spent 15 years working for House Democratic leadership, said he expects DeLauro to win the chair.
“She is widely respected by her colleagues across the entire Democratic Caucus and has proven herself to be a highly effective negotiator by working in a bipartisan manner across the aisle in her role as Chairwoman of the Labor-HHS Subcommittee,” Androff said. “Congresswoman DeLauro has earned the trust and confidence of the Democratic leadership and appears to be locking up the votes from her colleagues to get the gavel to this prestigious Committee.”
U. S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D- Conn., said the Connecticut delegation has been talking to members on both sides of the aisle and helping DeLauro in any way they can.
“We’re all working for her,” he said.
Republican John McKinney, the former Connecticut Senate Minority Leader and son of Stewart McKinney, a Congressman representing Fairfield County until his death in 1987, said even if he disagrees with some of her politics, having a Connecticut face leading federal spending would give the state a boost.
“That is great news for Connecticut,” he said.