Once power players, committee chairmen head for the exits
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers spend their careers eying coveted committee chairmanships, angling for the chance at the perks and power that came with the top spot.
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen is bowing out after one term.
Frelinghuysen’s announcement Monday that he would not seek re-election, giving up the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee, punctuated the dwindling prestige and influence of the positions once consider an apex of power on Capitol Hill. Term limits, legislative dysfunction and gridlock-inducing polarization have gradually tarnished the very chairmanships that are so prized.
“Before the farm bill and my tenure as chairman, I had neither grey hair nor did I take hypertension medicine. I now have both for the rest of my life,” said former House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla. “Right now you have to deal with a situation where you have the extreme demands of the left on one side of the room and the extreme demands of the right on the other side.”