Scalise Discusses New Role as House Majority Leader & Key Priorities for the Coming Year

WASHINGTON, DC – The Ripon Society held a breakfast discussion yesterday morning with U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (LA-1), who discussed his new role as House Majority Leader, and some of the key priorities he expects the House of Representatives to take on in the coming year.

“We made commitments not only to America, but to ourselves,” Scalise said, referring to the set of legislative initiatives that House Republicans ran on – and won on – last year.  “It’s time we deliver … We are more focused than I think we’ve been in a long time on what the mission is.  And it’s a very serious mission. We empowered the committees to do work like we haven’t seen them do in a long time.”

Scalise was first elected to Congress in 2008, after serving nearly a decade in both branches of the Louisiana state legislature. The Pelican State lawmaker has long been involved in leadership on Capitol Hill as he served as House Majority Whip from 2014 to 2019, and as House Minority Whip from 2019 to 2022.

In his remarks, Scalise also touched on changes being made in the day-to-day operations of the House, including an end to proxy voting, and a return to regular order to allow more amendments and more debate.

“We had over a hundred amendments offered last week on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve bill,” the Leader noted.  “It was the first time in seven years that Congress has had an open rule.  And we did two-minute votes. Steve Womack was in the chair. If you didn’t see that first series, we went through about 30 votes in about 90 minutes.

“I think everybody — not just Republicans, but Democrats — were coming up saying, ‘It is really good to see this institution work again and start seeing the process opening up again.’ A lot of people are excited on our side.  I think some Democrats are going to be excited, too, that some of the problems they wanted to confront but weren’t able to, we’re finally going to do.”

Pointing specifically to the bill the new Majority brought up to keep the Department of Energy from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to companies owned or influenced by the Chinese Communist Party, Scalise continued: “The press said it was going to be a partisan exercise. A majority of Democrats voted with us on the bill. You’re seeing that on some of the other bills too.”

Scalise also credited Republicans with helping to spur about the Administration’s recent announcement that they would be ending the public health emergency for COVID-19 in May.

“We said we’re going to bring a resolution to end the public health emergency,” Scalise observed.  “Again, we were criticized: ‘This is a partisan exercise. It’s futile. What does it matter? Democrats in the Senate aren’t going to do it. The President’s not going to do it.’  And lo and behold, yesterday the President announced that he will end the Covid emergency.  He said he is going to wait until May.

“We’re still working on pushing him up a little bit — we can do it now.  But I think you’re starting to see that the Administration is recognizing there’s a partner that they’re going to have to either work with or fight with.  But we’re not going to slow down. We know the big challenges that the country’s facing.”

Scalise concluded his remarks by returning to the promises made and the work yet to be done to fulfill the Commitment to America.

“It’s time for us to start making smart decisions that focus on those families who are struggling,” he declared. “That’s what you’re going to see this next two years focused on. We are already off to a very busy start. I’m excited about it. I’m looking forward to even more fun weeks where we actually debate how to solve the country’s problems and come together and then push those over to the Senate. Let’s get the Senate to go take them up as well.”

The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.