Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), who is mulling a bid to succeed House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX), said the appropriations process “cannot continue” to operate the same in the aftermath of the uphill battle to pass the fiscal 2024 spending bills.
A spokesperson for Aderholt, the senior Republican on the appropriations committee, told the Washington Examiner that the congressman is being “very deliberate” in making a decision whether to replace Granger. The Texas congresswoman announced on Friday that she asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to begin the process of finding a new committee head “as soon as possible” — just hours after the House passed the final six appropriations bills.
“The congressman is being very deliberate in making a decision because it’s clear: We cannot continue under the same appropriations process and expect a different outcome,” Aderholt’s spokesperson said.
Aderholt joined 111 House Republicans in voting against the spending bill last week, which some hard-line conservatives said was “not a Republican piece of legislation.”
Passing the 12 appropriations bills for fiscal 2024 proved to be a difficult task for House Republicans, with the chamber needing to pass four continuing resolutions to keep negotiation moving forward: one under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and three under Johnson. The delay in passage of the bills was another display of fighting within the GOP, with hard-line conservatives warning that their colleagues and Johnson could face ramifications on the campaign trail and in the House chamber for the deal.
The Appropriations Committee is one of the most prestigious to which members can be appointed. Granger joins several other committee chairpeople who are stepping down from their leadership positions, including Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC).
The front-runner to succeed Granger is Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK), who described himself as a “budget hawk” and pledged, if appropriations chairman, to make sure “we are not wasting and abusing.” Cole has sat on the Appropriations Committee since 2009.
The last time there was a vacancy for the top GOP leader of the Appropriations Committee in 2018, five lawmakers sought the role that Granger eventually received. Aderholt was one of those lawmakers, along with Cole, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), and former Georgia Rep. Tom Graves.
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Who eventually succeeds Granger will serve as chairperson until the end of this Congress. However, if House Republicans lose the majority in the 2024 election, the GOP successor would shift to serve as ranking member. Though still a powerful and influential position on the committee, a shift in party majority would change the way appropriators approach federal spending and the fiscal 2025 process.
When the GOP’s Steering Committee will appoint the next appropriations committee chairperson remains to be seen. Johnson, who has other vacancies to fill, announced Monday that Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) would succeed Gallagher on the Select CCP Committee.