Women Breaking Barriers on Congressional Committees

Nita Lowey breaks barrier on Appropriations panel



By DAVID ROGERS, Politico.com 12/4/12 11:44 PM EST

Rep. Nita Lowey — Bronx-born, Jewish and Mount Holyoke-educated — was tapped to be the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, making her the highest-ranking woman in the history of that once hidebound Southern male enclave that famously resisted hiring even female secretaries for decades.

The 75-year-old New Yorker will succeed retiring Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) in the new Congress just as Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will move into the ranking spot on the House Financial Services Committee, replacing Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). Together with Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) in the Rules Committee, they pose a remarkable trio for Democrats: women leading the opposition party in three of the House’s five most exclusive committees.

For Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who broke her own barriers as the first female speaker of the House, it’s a personal triumph, made more so in Lowey’s case because of their friendship and Pelosi’s own roots in House Appropriations.

Indeed, in the early 1990s, first Pelosi and then Lowey and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) all won seats on the panel and established themselves as a force on labor, health and education issues as well as foreign aid. When Republicans took over the House in 1995, the three women had to scramble in the minority but those ties remained important even after Pelosi left the panel to climb the leadership ladder.

Among the top committee posts voted on Tuesday by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Appropriations was the only real contest. Lowey had to first get around another woman, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who enjoys more seniority on the panel but less of a following in the party.

In a secret ballot, the New Yorker prevailed easily, 36-10, and by prior arrangement, the two lawmakers had agreed not to contest the outcome in the full caucus. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Kaptur joked beforehand of being the Toledo Mud Hens vs. the New York Yankees: “I’m just happy to be in the league,” she told reporters.

For Lowey, it’s a lesson that patience pays. Elected to Congress in 1988, she has twice been seen as a potential Senate candidate, first in 2000 and then again in 2009. But on each occasion, she opted to stay put, accumulating the seniority that has now allowed her to move into the ranking position.

Indeed, the top Democratic ranks on House Appropriations have seen a remarkable level of change in the past three years, beginning with the sudden death of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) in February 2010, the retirement of former Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) at the end of that year and now Dicks’s surprise decision to leave after a relatively short two-year run in the top position.

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