Virginia Foxx’s Rules

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appointed a new Rules Committee chairwoman on Tuesday morning, rebuffing party hardliners who had hoped to see one of their own in the role. The move signals Johnson’s confidence in his job security and his resolve to push past objections from his party’s right flank.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., 81, will chair the committee in the 119th Congress. She is a more mainstream pick than Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, another rumored candidate for the post.

Asked for his reaction to her appointment, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus and the Rules Committee, maintained that he wasn’t disappointed.

“She’s been there before,” Norman said of Foxx. “She’s been on the committee before. So, that’s Mike Johnson’s pick,” Norman said on Tuesday morning, moments after the announcement.

“I would prefer Chip,” he added.

Unlike the other 21 standing committees in the House that conduct hearings and craft bills, the Rules Committee decides which pieces of legislation reach the House floor. It also sets the parameters for debate. That makes it an influential checkpoint in the legislative process that can act as a bottleneck and thwart the direction of leadership. In the closing days of last year, the most conservative members of the Rules Committee forced Johnson to negotiate with Democrats when they made it clear they would block attempts to pass a stopgap funding bill.

Johnson could have used the appointment to appease more conservative members of his own party, but he said that wasn’t part of his thinking.

“[Foxx] has a broad range of experience,” Johnson told WORLD on Tuesday. “She was vice chair of the [Rules] committee before she rotated off to be the chair of the Education and Workforce Committee. She’s one of the most respected, most senior members of the conference and brings a lot to the table. She’s the perfect person to hold the gavel at a time like this.”

Johnson also removed Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., from the committee. For much of the past year, Massie has called for Johnson to leave the speakership even though President-elect Donald Trump endorsed him. Massie’s removal brings the number of hardline conservatives on the committee to just two: Norman and Roy.

Foxx, now the only Republican woman with a committee chair position, has a considerable track record from 20 years on Capitol Hill and before then. She worked as the president of Maryland Community College from 1987 to 1994 then served in the North Carolina Senate from 1994 to 2004 before running for Congress and taking office in 2005.

“She is a down-to-earth, nose-to-the-grindstone, no-nonsense legislator who, I think, will do a spectacular job” Rep. Chuck Edwards, a fellow North Carolina Republican, told WORLD. “I believe she has core, conservative values. She’s a good listener and she’s a consensus-builder, but she will not bend on her principles.”

Perhaps more importantly for Johnson, her voting record indicates that she tends to side with party leadership.

On Johnson’s second failed attempt to temporarily extend government spending last year, Foxx voted alongside most Republicans even though the bill ultimately failed. Back in April, Foxx voted for all three foreign aid packages for Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific, and Israel despite deep divisions in the party over foreign aid. She did, however, break with party leadership in voting against a package that extended the powers of one of the country’s top surveillance tools early in 2024.

Roy, the Texas representative who was thought to be in contention for the gavel, voted against every single one of those bills with the exception of the one on Israel.

Where moderates worried Roy’s selection would create a power struggle within the conference, many conservatives such as Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., believed Roy could do both—advocate for conservative wins while also playing ball with leadership.

“We don’t have a vote to spare,” Donalds said, referring to the two-seat GOP majority in the House. “Everyone would just get to work getting business done. If my colleagues want to make personal decisions be the thing that holds up President Trump’s agenda, I will let them have that conversation with President Trump.”

When asked about whether he was relieved Johnson chose to go with Foxx over Roy, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the ranking member on the Rules Committee, said he wouldn’t speak to who was better or whom he preferred.

“It’s their choice and I would try to work with whomever they put forward. But Virginia and I—I don’t know if there’s anything we agree on—but we have always had a cordial relationship and a relationship based on mutual respect. I can’t say I’m looking forward to the next couple years, but I can work with her,” McGovern said on Wednesday.