WASHINGTON -- In his five years as chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Rep. Lamar Smith transformed the once almost invisible position into a powerful bully pulpit. From it, he tried to dismantle climate policies of President Barack Obama's administration, undermine scientific consensus and browbeat federal agencies for what he called scientific fraud.
But with his run as chairman nearly done, the 69-year-old Texan announced Thursday that he would retire rather than seek a 17th term in Congress and a spot on the backbench. The news followed closely on the heels of another powerful Texas Republican facing the end of his chairmanship, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of the Financial Services Committee, who said just two days earlier that this term would be his last.
With a year left before the midterm elections, the line of senior House Republicans heading for the exits continues to grow. Democrats argue that the wave of retirements will help them retake the House.
Regardless of who controls the chamber in January 2019, it is becoming increasingly clear that the House will be a different place, with some of its biggest personalities and powerful committee and subcommittee leaders leaving it behind.
"Part of our original thinking was there is always new talent, there are always new people," said Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker who in 1994 instituted a three-term limit for top Republican committee positions. "I don't know that having fresh blood is necessarily a bad thing."
Beyond Smith and Hensarling, those seeking to depart include Reps. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas, a longtime member of leadership; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, a moderate but strong voice in Republican foreign policy; Diane Black of Tennessee, the first woman to lead the Budget Committee; and Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, an Appropriations subcommittee chairman and leader of House Republican moderates. A special election will be held Tuesday to replace Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who was chairman of the high-profile Oversight Committee before he resigned this year.
In all, six House Republicans have left and 21 more have announced plans to retire, compared with one departed Democrat and six others planning to retire.
Those numbers are expected to rise in the coming weeks, as filing and fundraising deadlines for next year's election near. Just how high could depend on the success or failure of Republicans' latest legislative push, an ambitious rewrite of the federal tax code that House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has pledged to get through the chamber in a matter of weeks. Should the effort fail, current and former lawmakers said, the number of demoralized Republicans leaving the chamber could jump.
Republican campaign strategists and congressional aides said they were watching at least two other committee chairmen facing term limits for potential retirements: Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, who is chairman of the Transportation Committee, and Robert Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Smith, a long-serving conservative and former Judiciary Committee chairman, said the decision to retire was largely personal. He wrote on Thursday that with his chairmanship ending and a new grandchild arriving, the time felt right to step aside after 16 terms.
"It is humbling living in a small apartment in Washington four nights a week," he wrote. "And I seldom leave the office before late at night."
Smith took over the science panel in 2013 and turned it into a powerful counterweight to Obama administration environmental policy. He subpoenaed scientists, accused federal agencies working on climate change of engaging in scientific fraud and supported stripping NASA of much of its climate change research.
Hensarling, 60, cut a less divisive but still influential figure on Capitol Hill. As chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Hensarling was one of the House's leading lieutenants in the Republican fight to scale back the government's role in regulating the economy. In June, the House passed Hensarling's Financial Choice Act, which would dismantle many of the Obama-era banking regulations codified in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
He also broke with big business in his crusade to eliminate the Export-Import Bank, the government agency that guarantees loans for the overseas customers of U.S. exporters. That effort put him at odds with many members of his party, even on his committee.
Hensarling, who has been in the House since 2003, wrote in a letter explaining his decision on Tuesday that he had already stayed longer in Washington than he had intended, and the end of his chairmanship provided a natural break.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Tea Party conservative who has clashed with party leadership over the years, said the departures of his fellow Texans, Smith and Hensarling, were merely part of the natural cycle of life in the House.
"Nobody lasts up here forever," Gohmert said as he left the House floor on Thursday. "And if they do, they shouldn't."
A Section on 11/06/2017