GOP’s House Committee To Be Chaired By All Men, Despite Binders Full Of Women
In the days and weeks since President Obama’s re-election, plenty of top Republicans (and Donald Trump) have talked of the need to reach out to more diverse demographic groups. Alas, it seems the memo has already been lost.
On Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced who would chair all of the major House committees in the next Congress and — quelle surprise! — the entire roster is all white and all male. Furthermore, 12 of the 19 committee chairmen recommended so far by Republican leaders in the 113th Congress are returning congressmen. So much for binders full of women, eh Mitt?
Of the newcomers, Politico writes:
“New chairmen include Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Texas atop Financial Services, Ed Royce of California on Foreign Affairs, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia on Judiciary, Lamar Smith of Texas on the Science, Space and Technology Committee and Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania atop Transportation and Infrastructure.
“Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan was the only lawmaker to obtain a waiver to bypass House GOP rules to remain as a chairman for a fourth term. He will lead the Budget Committee again.”
In a somewhat limp defense of the nominations to date, Republicans noted that the leaders of the Ethics and House Administration committees were yet to be decided, and Boehner may still back a woman for one of those slots. However, the line-up remains highly exclusive for a party that performed poorly with women voters in the 2012 US election.
The Democrats are leading in the inclusiveness stakes, but only just. House Dems are likely to give ranking positions to at least five women including New York’s Nita Lowey, Louise Slaughter, and Nydia Velazquez; Ohio’s Marcy Kaptur; California’s Maxine Waters; and Texas’ Vernice Johnson.
That said, even five women is a minority, and one that Jezebel‘s Erin Gloria Ryan felt should also be highlighted:
“House Democrats are doing slightly better than the Republicans at including women, but that’s sort of like saying that a person is doing a slightly better job than Chris Brown at reacting to Twitter trolling.”
Indeed. What do you think about the lack of XX chromosomes leading major House committees?
[Image via Rachel Maddow at MSNBC]
