House Republicans will select new chairs for several powerful committees this week, with the leaders inheriting both a gavel and the task of advancing President-elect Donald Trump 's agenda through a united GOP Congress . With the new members' swearing-in on Jan. 3, 2025, and Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, the newly selected House committee leaders will have the power to deliver on the president-elect's top priorities, including a tax bill, government spending , and border security, among other policies. The new chairs will be selected by the House GOP Steering Committee, a panel of over 30 Republican leaders and regional representatives that recommend the committee chairs for approval from the full Republican conference. The Steering Committee is meeting Monday to make their selections, with some of the most influential committees attracting multiple challengers. Unless they receive a waiver, Republican chairs can not serve more than three consecutive terms as the head of the committee. Many current GOP chairs, such as Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), did not seek a waiver to remain chairman, while others, such as Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), were approved to stay as the top GOP lawmaker on the committee. Several committees also have leaders who decided ahead of the 2024 election that they would retire or seek another office off Capitol Hill, leaving many vacancies . MEET THE NEW CONGRESS: THE HOUSE AND SENATE FRESHMEN ELECTED TO SERVE NEXT YEAR Financial Services Committee Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who had a brief stint as speaker pro tempore during Kevin McCarthy's ouster, is retiring, with four contenders vying for the gavel. Reps. Andy Barr (R-KY), French Hill (R-AR), Frank Lucas (R-OK), and Bill Huizenga (R-MI) are all in the race to succeed McHenry as the top GOP lawmaker on Financial Services, a panel that holds hearings regarding the Federal Reserve, cryptocurrency, and Wall Street. All three areas, particularly the Fed and crypto, will likely be top priorities of the Trump administration. Barr is widely considered to be the favorite in the race. He is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, stating in a letter to colleagues he can "build a bridge between those traditional Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street Republicans, and the America First populists who elected Donald Trump.” However, Hill is vice chairman of the Financial Services Committee and chairman of the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion. He's become a leading GOP source on crypto, making him a key player in the gavel race. Lucas is the longest-serving GOP lawmaker on the committee, touting his three decades in the House, while Huizenga has campaigned on his relationship with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs next year. BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, CONGRESS, AND UNIONS TRY TO ‘TRUMP-PROOF SCIENCE’ Foreign Affairs Committee The House Foreign Affairs Committee, which led the high-profile investigation of the United States's withdrawal from Afghanistan, will have a vacant chairmanship as McCaul did not seek a waiver to remain chairman as he's terming out. The HFAC will also have a four-way contest between Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ann Wagner (R-MO), and Joe Wilson (R-SC). Wagner is the vice chairwoman of the committee, touting her foreign policy experience as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg during former President George W. Bush’s administration and co-chairwoman of the Abraham Accords Caucus as a reason she is seeking the gavel. She has vowed, as chairwoman, to crack down on Russia, Iran, and China, as well as touted a key GOP talking point about securing the border. Issa, however, has also campaigned on his foreign affairs experience, having visited over 100 countries, and his prior experience as chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Mast, a Purple Heart recipient and U.S. Army veteran, became a staple in the GOP conference after he wore his Israeli military uniform to the Capitol to show solidarity for the Jewish state following the Hamas attacks. Similar to Issa, Wilson pitched himself as the senior lawmaker equipped to lead the committee after leading 70 congressional delegation trips to over 80 countries. The Hill reported that Wilson was giving members of the steering committee pieces from the Berlin Wall that he brought back from Germany in 1990. DEMOCRATS SEARCH FOR ANSWERS AS BARACK OBAMA’S INFLUENCE WANES Energy and Commerce Committee Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), a powerhouse who led the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee, did not seek reelection in 2024, setting off a competitive race between Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Bob Latta (R-OH). The Energy and Commerce Committee will be a key panel moving into the Trump administration, holding jurisdiction over healthcare, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Energy — all areas that have been targeted by Trump and Republicans over the last two years due to Biden administration-era rules and regulations on everything from electric vehicles and appliances to the aftermath of COVID-19. Latta will be the most senior GOP lawmaker on the Energy and Commerce Committee, holding experience on all six subcommittees and having 33 bills signed into law. Guthrie has sat on five of the six subcommittees and is currently chairman of the Health Subcommittee, pitching his top priorities as permitting reform and the U.S. beating China to developing 6G, the latest wireless communication network expected to arrive in the 2030s. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Graves, the current chairman, will seek his fourth term as the top Republican on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee after the steering committee approved his waiver to surpass the third-term rule. Graves is facing a challenge from Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR), who put out a blueprint focusing on investments in the most-used methods of transportation, including highways, railways, ports, and airways. Rumored to be in the running for Transportation Secretary for the incoming administration, Graves is campaigning on his experience in the role — particularly the five-year Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that passed earlier this year. Education and the Workforce Committee Outgoing Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) received a waiver to seek a fourth term but declined to run for reelection, opening up the race for Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Burgess Owens (R-UT). Whoever serves as the next chair will play a significant role in the House GOP's reconciliation process to push bills to Trump's desk for approval, including on the subject of student loans. Walberg, as one of the senior Republicans on the committee, outlined his top priority as supporting parents' rights, as well as fighting back against antisemitism on campus, which has continued to rise during the Hamas-Israel war. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Owens is also running on combatting antisemitism on campuses, as well as eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements in schools, hiring practices, and school choice. The Steering Committee will hear presentations from challengers Monday and Thursday, with selections expected by the end of Thursday. The full conference vote to approve the committee chairs-elect will likely be held next week.Manchester City, Arsenal, and now Tottenham. The list of top Premier League teams beaten at Bournemouth this season is growing. Dean Huijsen took advantage of Tottenham’s weakness at set pieces to head home a 17th-minute winner in Bournemouth’s 1-0 victory on Thursday. After the game, some Spurs fans appeared to vent their frustration at manager Ange Postecoglou when he went over to the away contingent following his team's insipid display. “They are pretty disappointed, rightly so, and I got some pretty direct feedback as to how we are going,” the Australian coach said, “and that's fair enough.” Bournemouth climbed to ninth — a point and a place above Tottenham in the standings — and underlined its penchant for surprising high-profile visitors to Vitality Stadium. Man City’s remarkable four-game losing run in the Premier League started with a 2-1 defeat at Bournemouth, while fellow title contender Arsenal’s first loss of the season also came at the Vitality, 2-0 on Oct. 19. This was Spurs' sixth defeat of the campaign. They now have as many wins as losses, highlighting the inconsistency blighting their season, and their seven away results so far make remarkable reading: aside from a 3-0 win at Manchester United and a 4-0 thrashing of Man City, Tottenham has lost four and drawn the other at relegation candidate Leicester. “We've got to get out of this space we're in at the moment where we're just not able to get a real grip on our season,” Postecoglou said. An inability to defend set plays continues to hurt Postecoglou’s team. A week after Roma scored twice from them in a 2-2 draw in the Europa League, Huijsen roamed free in the area at a corner and headed home unmarked. Postecoglou said in May said he “wasn’t interested” about his side’s fallibility while defending set pieces, and said after losing 1-0 to Arsenal in September — after a goal from Gabriel at a corner — that “it’s my burden to carry and I’m happy to do that.” “We started well and conceded a really poor goal," Postecoglou said after the Bournemouth game. “It’s a difficult place to come when giving the opposition the opportunity to play in the manner they want.” IWOBI DOUBLE Alex Iwobi scored goals early and late in the game to lead Fulham to a 3-1 win over Brighton. The Nigeria winger intercepted a stray pass out from the back by Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen and slotted into an unguarded net for the opener in the fourth minute and curled home Fulham’s clinching goal in the 87th. Carlos Baleba equalized for Brighton in the 56th before Brighton midfielder Matt O’Riley – a former Fulham academy player – deflected the ball into his own net from a corner to put the home side back in front. Fulham climbed to sixth in the standings, a point and a place behind Brighton. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
How to protect your communications through encryption(The Center Square) – The latest federal numbers show the U.S. deficit is soaring as President Joe Biden heads out of office. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office released its monthly budget review on Monday, which showed that in the first two months of this fiscal year, the federal government has run up a deficit of $622 billion. “That amount is $242 billion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last fiscal year,” CBO said in its report . That figure means the deficit is nearly 40% higher than this time last year. “The most alarming turkey in November was the federal government’s inability to live within its means,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement. “We are only two months into the fiscal year, and we have already borrowed a staggering $622 billion, with $365 billion in the month of November alone." Deficits never surpassed one trillion dollars before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, they remain well above one trillion and for this next fiscal year are well beyond the pace to surpass $1 trillion. The deficit last fiscal year was about $1.8 trillion. Billionaire Elon Musk, now an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, lamented the debt, which is about $36 trillion, on X Monday. “If we don’t fix the deficit, everything will suffer, including essential spending like DoD, Medicare & Social Security,” Musk said. “It’s not optional.” CBO did explain that some of the increase is from accounting changes. From CBO: The change in the deficit was influenced by the timing of outlays and revenues alike. Outlays in October 2023 were reduced by shifts in the timing of certain federal payments that otherwise would have been due on October 1, 2023, which fell on a Sunday. (Those payments were made in September 2023.) Outlays in November 2024 were boosted by the shift to that month of payments due December 1, 2024, a Saturday. If not for those shifts, the deficit thus far in fiscal year 2025 would have been $541 billion, or $88 billion more than the shortfall at this point last year, and outlays would have been $38 billion more.”
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