Members Competing for House Trade Subcommittee Chairmanship
Current House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee ranking member Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., has already asked colleagues for support in his staying on as chairman when the Democrats take the majority in the chamber in January (see 1811080038), but Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis. is also a strong contender, one senior Ways and Means Committee Democrat said. Committee members with the most seniority can bid on a subcommittee post; both Pascrell and Kind started at the same time, which means coin flips were used to determine who was most senior within a class. By that standard, Kind is more senior.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Rep. John Larson, a Connecticut Democrat who serves in the party's leadership as well as Ways and Means, said either Pascrell or Kind would end up leading the Trade Subcommittee. "They're both excellent. And that will be determined by Rich Neal, and members of the caucus, and obviously they're both interested," he said in a brief hallway interview with International Trade Today on Nov. 14. Kind has not been as public with his desire to lead the subcommittee, but a spokesman said he supports elevation based on seniority. Kind "will not break this long-standing tradition of the Ways and Means Committee and the larger Democratic Caucus," a spokesman in his office said.
Trade Subcommittee member Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who is more senior than both Pascrell and Kind, said he is interested in leading a new subcommittee on infrastructure financing, if Democrats agree to create it. If not, he said he'll look at the other subcommittees. Blumenauer didn't take a position on who he'd like to see in the top spot for the Trade Subcommittee. "We'll be meeting on that," he said. "There's some spirited interest in it, people will make their case."
It's not just Ways and Means members who have a say on who becomes the subcommittee leader. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who's led trade skeptics in the House, said she supports Pascrell. "I've worked with him over the years ... . Bill Pascrell has been stalwart, he has been there, he knows what he's doing and what he's talking about and he deserves to continue to be in that position."