Reps. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Tom Latham (R-IA) both serve on the House Appropriations Committee, and both of them announced their retirement today. Maybe this shouldn’t be surprising, but the deal that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) cut with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) actually made appropriators relevant again. Under sequestration, the appropriators had no discretion about how money was spent, which made being a Republican appropriator a very lonely and fruitless experience. So, I am a little surprised to see these two gentlemen hang up their congressional careers at the exact moment that they’ve regained an agenda to pursue.
I think the problem is that the Conservative Movement has become so implacably hostile to the federal government that it is pretty much impossible to be a Republican appropriator without running afoul of conservative ideology.
It used to be that a seat on the Appropriations Committee was a real asset for a politician seeking reelection because their constituents knew that they could bring home the bacon. But, lately, the Republican base hates appropriators and seeks to primary them out of existence.
Even the end of the budget-by-crisis era isn’t enough to make veteran GOP appropriators want to stick around and fight for their careers.