Cardinal Amodei? NV Republican may be tapped for appropriations subcommittee chair

By: April Corbin Girnus - January 13, 2023 11:58 am

Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei is reportedly slated to chair the House Appropriations Committee legislative branch subcommittee, which oversees Congress’s budget.(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Update: Amodei’s appointment to chair the legislative branch subcommittee was made official January 16.

Nevada’s Rep. Mark Amodei is expected to be recommended as chair of the legislative branch subcommittee of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, according to Politico.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas) is expected to finalize and submit recommendations for 12 appropriations subcommittee chairs to the GOP steering committee for ratification next week.

Those 12 subcommittee chairs are collectively known as “the cardinals” — a nickname that speaks to their power by likening them to senior leadership of the Catholic Church. Cardinals and their subcommittees wield control of budgets for key agencies and departments.

Amodei currently serves on the House Appropriations Committee and three of its subcommittees — interior, environment and related agencies; financial services and general government; and legislative branch.

The legislative branch subcommittee oversees Congress’s budget.

Under Democratic House control, the legislative branch subcommittee was most recently chaired by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), who has since lost reelection.

Amodei was one of three Republican members on the subcommittee.

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) was the ranking Republican on the subcommittee but lost in her state’s primary last year. She was one of 10 GOP House members to vote with Democrats to impeach President Donald Trump in 2021. (Amodei was not.)

Amodei, whose congressional district is solidly red, cruised to an easy victory last year. He has represented the Nevada district since 2011.

Amodei told the Nevada Appeal in November he hoped to chair the interior subcommittee. That committee, which he joined as a member in 2015, oversees budgets for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forest Service, among others. It is of particular note to Nevada because more than 80% of state land is directly or indirectly controlled by the federal government.

According to Politico, Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson is expected to be recommended as its chair. Simpson also currently sits on the interior subcommittee.

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April Corbin Girnus

April Corbin Girnus is an award-winning journalist with a decade of media experience. She has been a beat writer at Las Vegas Sun, a staff writer at LEO Weekly, web editor of Las Vegas Weekly and a blogger documenting North American bike share systems’ efforts to increase ridership in underserved communities. An occasional adjunct journalism professor, April steadfastly rejects the notion that journalism is a worthless major. Amid the Great Recession, she earned a B.A. in journalism from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper. She later earned an M.A. in media studies and a graduate certificate in media management from The New School for Public Engagement. A stickler about municipal boundary lines, April enjoys teaching people about unincorporated Clark County. She grew up in Sunrise Manor and currently resides in Paradise with her husband, three children and one mutt.