Rose Law Group Gripe of the Week
One of the messages sent by voters this month to politicians: Women count.
That voter demographic should have fallen hard on the heads of Republicans in the House, but it apparently fell yesterday on deaf ears.
Aside from leadership, the most powerful people in Congress are committee chairmen, and the House yesterday appointed chairs of its 19 major committees.
Women currently are 18 percent of House membership (78), which, at least proportionately, translates to three committee chairmanships. (The new Senate will have 20 women in its 100-member chamber. Currently, five women are committee chairs.)
But at the top of House committees, remains a lilly-white man’s world. Not a single woman will lead any of the major House committees in the 113th Congress.
After a day of meetings closed to the public, the House Republican Steering Committee announced an all-male slate of committee chairs, including 12 returning lawmakers who will head up some of the most important panels in Washington. The chairs for the House Ethics Committee and House Administration Committee have yet to be chosen, so a woman might end up in one of those slots. (The top female contender to lead a major committee was Michigan Rep. Candice Miller, but she lost her reelection bid.)
Your griper-in-chief says don’t count on it, but if it does happen, it would only be because the media justifiably has made a stink about what came down yesterday.
Hey, gentlemen, I mean guys, wake up and smell the General Election coffee, but moreover, finally just do what’s right.
