House Republicans Have a Big Decision to Make This Week
A new chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee ought to represent the incoming administration’s priorities
This week the House Republican Steering Committee will select a new chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee because Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan is term-limited. Two leading contenders to replace him are Oregon Rep. Greg Walden and Illinois Rep. John Shimkus.
Shimkus has been on the committee for 20 years. He knows the craftiness of the agencies in avoiding congressional oversight in the past, and how to tame them in the future. He has worked for decades with other committee members, both Republicans and Democrats, on issues ranging from energy regulations to Medicare reimbursements. He is a market conservative whose instincts are to regulate less — much less. Shimkus has been a vociferous opponent of Obamacare and a supporter of developing America’s energy resources, two of President-elect Donald Trump’s priorities.
The selection of this chairman is important because much of the business of the new House of Representatives will be conducted before the Energy and Commerce Committee. Among other issues, the House plans to: 1. repeal the failed Obamacare and replace it with a new health-care structure; 2. speed up the approval of new life-saving pharmaceuticals; 3. stop excesses in environmental regulations that have left millions of Americans out of jobs; and 4. end the federal war against the coal industry.
Many important agencies under the committee’s jurisdiction need radical change and oversight. The Food and Drug Administration has criminalized free speech between physicians and pharmaceutical companies regarding off-label use of prescription drugs. The Environmental Protection Agency helped put coal and other industries out of business, and countless Americans out of work. The Department of Energy brought America Solyndra and other failed enterprises that capitalized on crony relationships with the federal government. The Department of Health and Human Services oversees the failed Obamacare program. The Federal Communications Commission has attempted to regulate the internet with network neutrality.
The new Trump administration will lead these agencies in a better direction. But changes in laws are also required to roll back the excessive regulations of the past eight years. The new chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee will need to work with the administration to get these agencies operating for the American people again.
Shimkus’ record is more aligned with that of the incoming administration than that of Walden. Shimkus has fought back against the Obama administration’s regulations against coal, and emphasized the reliable, low-cost benefits that coal provides to the economy. He has requested that the EPA calculate the overall costs of its regulations on carbon, ozone and mercury. He has sponsored legislation on the recycling of coal ash, which can be used to make a wide range of products.
In the medical area, Shimkus succeeded in getting Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to admit that Obamacare was double-counting $500 billion in cuts to Medicare to prop up Obamacare. He was a sponsor of a letter signed by 239 members of Congress in May that protested cuts in drug reimbursements to seniors as part of a Medicare Part B experiment. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services skirted the normal regulatory approval process by creating a required demonstration project.
In contrast, Walden has called for longer tax-credit extensions for renewable energy production. Renewable energy-tax credits distort energy markets, favoring one form of energy — renewable energy — over others. America needs a more balanced, market-oriented approach to energy, one in which all forms of energy are treated equally. Shimkus has consistently opposed the renewable energy-tax credits.
Walden is a co-sponsor of a dubiously titled bill, the EAT Healthy America Act. The bill would further entangle the federal government and the Department of Agriculture in distorting American agricultural markets.
Together with Pete DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon, Walden has urged the Department of Transportation to promulgate better rail-safety rules. Every rail accident is a tragedy, but the solution to better safety is not necessarily more regulations from Washington. Enforcing existing liability rules would go far toward improving safety. So too would allowing more pipelines, which have far lower accident rates than rail.
On his congressional web site, under a heading of “Growing the Economy,” Walden first touts the Water Resources Development Act. Walden is not a co-sponsor of the bill, which is just as well, as it creates more, not less, federal involvement in the economy. But it shows a lack of judgment that Walden would think this bill is the most important issue to boost the economy.
Chairing the House Energy and Commerce Committee is not easy. To succeed, a new chairman must work closely with subcommittee chairmen and members, engender both respect and fear from agency heads who need support from the committee, and execute a well-planned strategy to get the committee’s work done and onto the House floor for full House votes.
Walden has chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee since 2012. But just because he has raised money for Republican candidates does not mean that Republicans need to deviate from their principles in order to elect him.
The American people have trusted the Republican Party with the presidency and control of both houses of Congress. Beltway Republicans have a choice: They can either implement the agenda they ran on, or allow continuation of the status quo. The House Republican Steering Committee should not betray the voters who gave Republicans control of the Congress and the White House.
This piece originally appeared on WSJ's MarketWatch
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Diana Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow and director of Economics21 at the Manhattan Institute. Follow her on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in WSJ's MarketWatch