GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine chairs the Committee on Aging
Women now hold a historic 100-plus seats in Congress, including 20 in the Senate in and 84 in the House. Yet because Republicans are in charge, they also wield less influence, reports
Sheryl Gay Stolberg.
Last year, when Democrats controlled the Senate, women led a record nine committees, including male bastions like the Appropriations Committee, which dispenses billions in federal dollars, and Intelligence, which oversees the government’s secret national security apparatus. Now there are only two female committee chairwomen: [Alaska Sen. Lisa] Murkowski and Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine.
Of the 21 committees in the House,
only one is headed by a Republican woman, and it’s more of a custodial committee—overseeing parking lots and the congressional cafeterias—rather than one that shapes important policy.
The problem is partly that more than two-thirds of the women are Democrats and currently in the minority party. But the flip side is that seniority plays a big role in congressional culture and many of the Republican women are either newly elected or haven’t held their seats all that long.
Sen. Murkowski rejected the idea that Democratic women don’t wield influence simply because they aren’t in leadership posts anymore, referring specifically to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who was first elected to the Senate in 1986.
“I don’t think that Barbara Mikulski” — the Maryland Democrat and former Appropriations chairwoman — “goes shrinking away because she’s not gaveling in the meeting.”
But in an institution whose core function — writing laws — rests with committees, chairmen and chairwomen wield enormous influence. They alone can call hearings, the first real step in shaping and passing legislation. “The ranking minority member may have some wonderful ideas,” said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University, “but unless the chair approves, it’s not going to happen.”
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Women in the Senate have also been credited with fostering more bipartisanship than their male counterparts. But that had particular benefits when more women led committees while Democrats were in charge.
Ms. Collins, Ms. Murkowski and Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, bucked their party to push for an end to the 2013 budget shutdown. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, got a long-stalled farm bill passed when she ran the Agriculture Committee. As head of the Budget Committee last year, Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, forged a bipartisan budget with Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, her House counterpart.
But one Republican strategist suggested voters just don't care about that type of productivity.
Kellyanne Conway, a Republican strategist, said that if Democrats had been doing such a good job, voters would not have thrown them out.
“The point that you had nine female Democratic senators chairing committees last cycle was either soundly rejected by voters, or it didn’t matter,” she said. “Any way you slice it, they put Republicans in power.”