An unusual choice for House Freedom Caucus leader takes reins

WASHINGTON — When the House Freedom Caucus launched in 2015, a senior Appropriations Committee member would likely be among the last lawmakers the hard-line group, a perennial thorn in the side of GOP leadership, would choose as its leader.

But nearly 10 years later, the caucus has evolved and has infiltrated the powerful spending panel, with whom it has often been at odds. In the latest development, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., an Appropriations subcommittee chairman or “cardinal,” is now the Freedom Caucus chairman.

Harris, whom the group chose on Sept. 17 to lead it through the rest of the year, said he will use his understanding of the appropriations process to push for the most conservative spending outcomes possible.

“I think I can give insight to the group as to how we can best leverage that insight into advancing the most conservative position the conference can take in order to deliver fiscal sanity for the American people,” Harris said in an interview.

Harris’ term is only good through the end of the year, as the caucus wanted the opportunity to reevaluate its posture and leadership after the November election results.

But considering he ran unopposed — Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a former Freedom Caucus chair, dropped out and hasn’t said whether he’ll run again for the post after the elections — Harris is in prime position to stay on. For now, he’s not commenting on future plans.

“The outcome is not written in stone, and how you proceed and who should be chair, depending on the outcome of the election, might be very, very different,” Harris said.

Harris succeeds Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., who lost in the GOP primaries to John McGuire, a Virginia state senator. Good decided to step down from his role early, as he would not be able to serve the remainder of his two-year term, which runs through 2025.

Reps. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn. — who, like Harris, are also Appropriations cardinals — said they believe Harris’ ascent to the top of the Freedom Caucus will be good for both the committee and the wider conference.

Simpson said he “never thought” the House Freedom Caucus would be led by a senior appropriator.

“I really think it’s a good thing. Andy is a great guy,” Simpson said. “I think he’ll be able to help inform them of the challenges we face on the Appropriations Committee.”

Heading off problems

Harris is one of four Freedom Caucus members on Appropriations, and the most senior. Two caucus members, Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Michael Cloud of Texas, joined the committee in early 2023, after then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s perilous fight for the gavel.

House Republicans were able to pass only five of their 12 appropriations bills this year, falling short of the seven bills the party was able to pass last year. But Harris said that getting five bills across the floor is a success, considering the GOP’s slim majority requires nearly every member of the party to back the bill.

He said he and other members of the House Freedom Caucus have been able to communicate specific concerns to Appropriations Committee leadership so those could be addressed before the bills hit the floor.

“Our argument has always been to leadership, we should have a significant number of … House Freedom Caucus members on the Appropriations Committee so that we can kind of head off problems,” he said.

Cloud said Harris is “really good at working with people to find solutions to things” and said the Freedom Caucus has been pushing the committee to the right.

“Conservatives think we need a government that is funded; we just think we need a government that’s funded toward constitutional priorities,” he said. “I think that’s exactly the kind of people you want making decisions over where the U.S. tax dollars are going.”

While the House Freedom Caucus is typically adversarial to leadership, Harris was complimentary of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., particularly the speaker’s decision to push forward with a doomed six-month stopgap spending bill this month.

That bill, which was defeated last week with a mix of conservatives and defense hawks voting against it, included legislation that would require those registering to vote to show proof of citizenship.

“For the speaker to have gone to that length to say, you know, this is so important, I’m going to put it on the floor even if it fails, that is real leadership,” said Harris, whom House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., tapped in his stead to represent the panel at the Rules Committee hearing on the six-month stopgap bill.

Johnson also pushed Harris’ “laddered” continuing resolution approach during the last appropriations cycle, which split up the 12 spending bills into two batches for the final negotiations.

While Democrats weren’t fond of the idea — Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., called it the “craziest, stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of” — Harris and Johnson were successful in getting Congress to adopt the approach.

Harris said the laddered stopgap bill was a way to “think of things a little differently” in the face of the country’s mounting debt.

Tilting right

Within the Appropriations panel, Harris has sought to steer his panel’s product in a rightward direction. For example, he used his Agriculture Subcommittee role to advocate a pilot program to restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients from purchasing unhealthy food.

That provision emerged as a sticking point in talks over the final fiscal 2024 spending packages, though Democrats successfully kept the language out. Opponents argue the program would force grocery store employees to police the food choices of low-income SNAP recipients.

Correctly reading that he didn’t have the votes this year, Harris allowed Democrats to strike the provision from the fiscal 2025 Agriculture bill on a voice vote.

Harris, an anesthesiologist who is a member of the GOP Doctors Caucus, also sits on the Homeland Security and Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations subcommittees. He served in the Maryland Senate before challenging a Republican incumbent from the right, defeating former Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest in a 2008 primary.

But he lost his first election for Congress to Democrat Frank Kratovil Jr. by less than 1 point before bouncing back in his second bid and defeating Kratovil in 2010. He has since comfortably won reelection campaigns in his rural district.

The only Republican member of the Maryland delegation, Harris has joined the rest of his colleagues in pushing for the federal government to pay the full cost of rebuilding Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed earlier this year.

President Joe Biden has vowed to do so and asked for $3.1 billion for the Transportation Department’s emergency relief program in June, mainly to cover the cost of rebuilding the bridge. Harris said the bridge will cost $2 billion, but he does not think that will all need to be appropriated this year.

“My job is to come up with some reasonable compromise,” he said. “Look, what do you need over the next fiscal year? Do you need $500 million to start it, get it off the ground and revisit it later, in a different vehicle? That makes sense to me.”

While there is a push from some local activists to rename the bridge, as Key owned slaves, Harris said he believes there should be a provision in whatever bill includes the funding that says the federal government will pay only if the state of Maryland retains the name.

“We’re paying for it with taxpayer funds from all Americans,” Harris said. “They love our national anthem, they actually respect that it is our national anthem, and this is a piece of Maryland history. We should just keep the name.”