Loads of Republican Committee Chairs In The House Are Retiring

Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House. In a normal world, rather than the Trump world we live in, this would usually result in a string of legislative victories and a party well positioned for the next elections. For the party in power, it is a chance for every member of Congress in that party to bring home the bacon and gather more power and prestige. Instead, no major legislation has been passed and important and powerful Republican legislators, especially in the House, are retiring in droves.

This week, the chairman of both the Financial Services Committee and the House Science, Space and Technology Committee retired. In the last few weeks, chairs of multiple subcommittees on the most powerful committee in the House, the Ways and Means Committee, have retired. The chairmen of the health care, trade, and Social Security subcommittees have all decided to not run for re-election. The head of the appropriations committee for veterans' affairs and military construction has also retired, citing the constant internal battles in the Republican caucus. Earlier this summer, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also retired.

The chairwoman of the House Budget Committee is running for governor in her state, as is the chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance and the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. The chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is running for the Senate as is the chairman of the Education Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education. In addition, to these twelve, there are another ten GOP House members who will not be running in 2018. All told there are 22 House Republicans who will definitely not be returning to the chamber in 2019.

Over in the Senate, we have seen Bob Corker and Jeff Flake already announce they were retiring and it is expected that Orrin Hatch will as well.

Democrats have 10 House members in the House who will also not be running in 2018. But seven of those ten are running for governor or Senator.

By my count, that makes twelve GOP committee chairs deciding not to run in 2018. It's true that Republican rules do not allow for committee chairs to remain in their position for more than six years and that is probably a motivation for some of these members deciding to move on. In addition, the internal battles within the Republican caucus and the threat of challenges from the right, as well as the general grind of fundraising and travel, are all reasons not to run in 2018. And there are always the distractions and chaos created by Trump. But there is also a real fear among those House Republicans that 2018 will be a bloodbath, whether at the hands of the far right or Democrats.

Now most of these districts seem safely Republican. But Democrats will be contesting every one of them and the Republican will not be running with the advantage of incumbency. And there is always the possibility that the GOP could nominate a complete lunatic that would be unacceptable to even a strongly GOP-leaning electorate. Whatever the case, Democrats should be encouraged that so many powerful and easily re-electable Republicans are retiring, at least as far as the 2018 election goes. For the country, however, it may be worse as more of the extreme right wing takes their positions. And there will surely be more retirements to come.