The Associated Press
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks is positioned to take the reins of a powerful committee that controls more than $1 trillion in federal spending, following news Wednesday that the current chairman is retiring.
Dicks, a 17-term Democrat from Belfair, is chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending and is the second most senior member on the House Appropriations Committee behind Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.
Obey, the panel’s longtime chairman, made a surprise announcement about his retirement Wednesday.
George Behan, Dicks’ chief of staff, said Wednesday that Dicks, who represents Washington’s 6th District, including the North Olympic Peninsula, has a good claim for the top job on the committee.
“He wouldn’t take it for granted,” Behan said, but “it certainly would be his intention to seek it.”
Behan noted that it’s still ultimately a decision to be made by the Democratic caucus and leadership.
Also looming in the background is the outcome of this year’s congressional elections, and any power shifts that may result from them. Democrats currently have a 254-177 majority in the House.
Obey first became chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in 1994, and was a top architect of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill.
This year, Dicks, 69, succeeded the late Rep. John Murtha as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Defense.
Murtha died in February after suffering complications from gallbladder surgery.
Behan said that there’s a possibility Dicks could hang on to that subcommittee if he ultimately takes the top spot on the appropriations committee.
Gov. Chris Gregoire, who was traveling to Washington, D.C. Wednesday for a Thursday meeting with the state delegation, called Dicks a “talented and capable legislator.”
“I have incredible respect for his skill and expertise and can’t imagine a better person to lead the House Appropriations Committee in the next Congress,” Gregoire said in a prepared statement.
