(BVN) – As a result of Democrats losing the majority in the U.S. House, six members of the Congressional Black Caucus will lose the power to wield the gavel as Chairs of House committees. That includes Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott who has Chaired the Committee on Education & Labor for the last four years.
In 2021, the Education & Labor Committee moved legislation that subsidized health care coverage for workers who lost jobs during the pandemic, funded the child care system, pensions and a record amount of funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUS). Virginia has five HBCUS: Norfolk State University, Hampton University, Virginia Union, Virginia State University and Virginia University of Lynchburg.

On Jan. 2, 2023, Republicans will take over the U.S. House with a slim majority over the Democrats.

The Congressional Black Caucus will lose five other chairmanships on top of Rep. Scott. All the members who are now chairs are likely to serve as the most senior members on the Democrats on each committee for the next two years. Rep. Scott has been perhaps the most prolific member of the Virginia’s congressional delegation in terms of bills signed into law.

The current chairs will have to give up the gavel on Jan. 2, 2023.

The other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who are current Chairs of Committees are Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who is Chair of the House Financial Services Committee; Rep. David Scott (D-GA) who is Chair of the House Agriculture Committee; Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY) who is Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) who is Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee and co-Chair of the January 6 Committee.

A sixth CBC Committee Chair is Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX). Johnson, who represents parts of Dallas in Texas’ 30th congressional district, is retiring after 15 terms in Congress. She was Chairwoman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee. Congresswoman-Elect Jasmine Crockett won her election to represent the 30th district on Nov. 8

Chairman Scott’s tenure produced many major legislative wins, six are below:

As a result of the power shift to the GOP, Democratic Chairs will loose half of their committee staff. The change from Democratic to Republican control also means Democrats losing the ability to control decisions on which pieces of legislation moves forward and the ability to control the allocation of billions of dollars in appropriations. Committee Chairs also control the agenda and policy priorities detailed during congressional hearings. That power and control will now go to Republicans (likely) led by California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who is expected to be the next Speaker of the U.S. House even though 31 of his colleagues voted against him for the top leadership post during a House GOP Caucus meeting in the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 15.
Virginia has enjoyed the benefit of having powerful Chairs in the past including Republicans John Warner, who was Chair of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, and Bob Goodlatte who Chaired the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
Former Congressman Jim Moran was a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Defenseand Chairman of the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. Both subcommittees were vital to the specific area Moran represented in Congress given the presence and influence of the defense industry in Northern Virginia. Rep. Moran retired in 2014 and was succeeded by Virginia’s 36th Lt. Governor Don Beyer.
Over the last few years in the Democratic run house, joined with the power of a president signing their agenda into law, Democrats passed legislation that created more jobs in history, brought the child poverty rate to a historic low, funded HBCUS at historic levels and funded businesses impacted during the COVID pandemic — all legislation that passed through Chairman Scott’s committee.

As the Republican Party in the House moves further away from governance and deeper into performative activity, GOP members have already confirmed they will open several investigations into Democrats, in a move similar to how they investigated Hillary Clinton when they last controlled the U.S. House.

That investigation, platformed by the Select Committee on Benghazi, yielded nothing substantial other than a $7 million bill for taxpayers and a job on Fox News for Benghazi Committee Chairman and former Georgia congressman Trey Gowdy.