Idaho’s biggest winner: Mike Simpson

The Republican takeover of the U.S. House makes Rep. Mike Simpson chairman of Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies and the second-ranking Republican on the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. Agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Environmental Protection Agency will have to go through Simpson’s committee for their budgets...more

With the Dems still controlling the Senate and the White House, any victories in the short run will be through the appropriations process, which does put Simpson in a key position. By using budget cuts and insertions of language significant changes to current policy and programs can be made.

Will Simpson be a enthusiastic budget cutter or will he seek to protect the federal agencies as best he can?

Simpson said the first priority will be to find $100 billion in budget cuts, which he said won’t be easy but is necessary. As an Appropriations subcommittee chairman, known in the House as a “cardinal,” he will be in the center of the budget-cutting effort. “We’re going to have to decide what’s essential and what’s just nice to do,” he said.

And his second priority?

Even though the man who likely will be his seat-mate, Raul Labrador, opposes it, Simpson also may again be able to push passage of his legislation to protect 300,000 acres of the Boulder-White Clouds as wilderness. He was blocked when Democrats took control of the House and has been held up in the Senate until now.

To be fair, there is no quote there. Is this just the reporter speculating or was it suggested by Simpson or his staff?

It will be interesting to see if the Republican majority in the House will bring us more wilderness and possibly omnibus public lands bills just like the Dems.

We should also be watching to see if they have the gonads and the skill to bring about change using the appropriations process.