Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) was confirmed as the new chair of the House Rules Committee, a powerful panel that decides if and how legislation is brought to the floor for votes.
House Republicans ratified Foxx as the chairwoman during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning, a source in the room confirmed to the Washington Examiner. Foxx will succeed former Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), who retired from the House after the 2024 election.
Foxx will lead the powerful committee over the next two years, which comprises nine Republicans and four Democrats — giving the majority party outsize influence over what bills are brought to the House floor.
Foxx will likely bring a more disciplinary demeanor to the top committee position as the North Carolina congresswoman has established herself as a no-nonsense member of the GOP conference. Foxx’s confirmation to lead the Rules Committee makes her the sole House chairwoman in the 119th Congress.
The 81-year-old, who has spent decades in Congress in a slew of different leadership positions, has also had her fair share of viral moments — particularly when loiterers get in the way of the elevator.
“Move, move, move, move, move, get away from the damned elevator,” Foxx once yelled as she waded her way through a sea of reporters interviewing Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) during the speakership fight of October 2023.
“I love Virginia, I do,” Donalds said with a chuckle as she left. “With Virginia Foxx, you know where you stand.”
GOP membership for the 119th Congress remained mostly the same from the previous Congress, except for Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), who were replaced with Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-TX) and Brian Jack (R-GA), a source familiar told the Washington Examiner.
Massie has often ruffled the feathers of GOP leadership and has acted as a thorn in Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) side throughout his time on the powerful committee. Massie also stood as the lone Hosue Republican to vote against Johnson’s speakership bid earlier this month, telling reporters he wasn’t afraid of losing his committee memberships.
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Instead, he said he offered to be taken off Rules.
“You know, take me off,” Massie told reporters in December. “I mean, [Johnson’s] thinking about it.”
With the Rules Committee being materialized, lawmakers will soon be able to pass legislation and start advancing President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda in earnest. That will put the House in prime position to begin moving key legislation through Congress once Trump is sworn in on Monday.