Steve Flowers: Our congressional delegation has garnered good committee assignments
For the past several decades, Alabama’s power has been centered around the U.S. Senate – primarily because of Richard Shelby’s immense power and influence. During Senator Shelby’s 36-year tenure, he chaired the Intelligence, Banking, and Rules Committees. However, he became immensely powerful his last six years as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Shelby practically moved Washington to Alabama when it came to bringing home procured earmarked funds to the Heart of Dixie. We received more federal funding than any state in America. National publications labeled Shelby the Greatest Pork King in federal history, surpassing the late Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Less we forget, Shelby also had a very respected and tenured wingman in Senator Jeff Sessions, who served with distinction for 20 years in the Senate. They were a great team. In the halls of Congress, and especially in the U.S. Senate, seniority equates to power, and we had it. However, we who follow Alabama politics have been cautioning you that our day of reckoning would arrive in January 2023, when Richard Shelby retired from the Senate, and that day has arrived. Alabama will never be able to raid the federal vault like Shelby has done. Fortunately, as he was walking out the door, he brought so much largesse home with him that it will take other states ten years to catch up. Under the U.S. Senate seniority system, it will take young Katie Britt about ten years before she will have any impact and influence in the Senate. Katie Britt took office with zero years seniority, and that places her 99th in seniority status in the U.S. Senate. Our senior U.S. Senator, Tommy Tuberville, has two years seniority. That places him 89th in seniority in the 100-member Senate. However, we have several members of our U.S. House delegation who are garnering some seniority and are emerging as powerful members of the lower body. Therefore, for at least the next decade, our power in Washington will be in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jefferson/Shelby 6th District Congressman Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) has been instrumental in helping to garner extremely good committee assignments for our six Republican members of Congress. Palmer, who is a quiet, policy-issues congressman, was the founder and leader of the Alabama Policy Institute prior to going to Congress. Therefore, it was apropos that he would gravitate to the 30-member Republican Party Steering Committee. This committee has emerged as a powerful entity in the past decade. They essentially chose the House Committee Assignments along with Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Congressman Gary Palmer will serve as Chairman of the House GOP Policy Committee. He will also retain his position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This committee has jurisdiction over healthcare, which is vital to UAB – the heart and soul of the 6th District. Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) is our senior Congressman. He got to Washington at a very young age. He is now only 57 years old and has 28 years seniority. He is one of the cardinals on the House Appropriations Committee and is now chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Resources. This committee will be very important to Alabama because of the biomedical research going on in Birmingham and Huntsville. If the Republicans maintain their majority into 2025, Aderholt is in line to become Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Saks/Anniston) has emerged as Chairman of the House Armed Service Committee. This is a very important coup for Alabama and an impressive appointment for Mike Rogers. The U.S. Military has a very large footprint and importance in the Heart of Dixie. Defense dollars dominate Alabama’s economy. In addition to Rogers, two of our newest members of Congress have scored seats on the Armed Services Committee – Representative Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) and Representative Dale Strong (R-Huntsville). Both Carl and Strong are bright stalwart stars for our congressional delegation. They have also become close friends and allies. In addition to garnering a seat on the Armed Services Committee, Jerry Carl has been placed on the Appropriations Committee. He will be a workhorse for his coastal Alabama district. Freshman Congressman Dale Strong’s appointment to the Armed Services Committee is a great feather for Strong, given the importance of the Redstone Arsenal and the immense amount of defense dollars in Huntsville. Representative Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) landed an appointment to the prestigious Judiciary Committee. Alabama’s lone congressional Democrat, Representative Terri Sewell, will retain her position as Chief Deputy Whip within the Democratic caucus. Sewell will also continue to serve on the powerful and prestigious House Ways and Means Committee. The paradigm of our power in Washington has moved to the U.S. House of Representatives. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at: www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Richard Shelby’s last hurrah will benefit Alabamians for generations
Richard Shelby’s last week as our United States Senator was poetically amazing. The nation watched as he gave his farewell address to the Senate. His speech was followed by a tribute from his longtime friend Senator Patrick Leahey. Senator Shelby and Senator Leahey from Vermont are best friends and co-chaired the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee together for their final six-year terms, which ended January 3, 2023. They walked out together after a lasting three-decade partnership. The national media made note of the fact that Leahey, a Democrat, and Shelby, a Republican, were the last vestiges of bipartisanship in Congress. They worked together congruently to get things done for the nation and, yes, primarily for the states they represented. Shelby, who served 36 years as our senator, retired at 88 last month. To say that he went out with a bang would be a dramatic understatement. As he was making his farewell adieu speech, he and Leahey were crafting their final federal budget. The budget was passed the next day, two days before Christmas. When the experts discerned the 4,000-plus page document, it revealed that Richard Shelby had again played Santa Claus to the people of Alabama. He not only brought most of the money from Washington to Alabama, practically speaking, he brought the entire North Pole and Rudolph and all of the reindeer to the Heart of Dixie as he was walking out the door of the U.S. Senate. The national media dubbed Shelby the “Greatest King” of earmarked procured money for their state in history. Indeed, the amount of federal dollars Senator Shelby brought home to our state as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee is historical. He probably surpassed the previous “King of Pork” for their state, the late Robert Byrd of West Virginia. In his last hurrah, Senator Shelby appropriated a mind-boggling $660 million of extra earmarked dollars to our state. Folks, that is quite an amazing, unfathomable, incomprehensible Christmas gift for our state. As I was exchanging Christmas greetings with a state senator who is a close friend, I commented about Shelby’s departing $660 million Christmas gift to the state. He quietly commented, “Flowers, that is over 25 percent of our entire state General Fund Budget.” However, if you dig deeper into the federal budget that Shelby passed, his $660 million is also met with upgrades of funds Shelby allocated in previous years to amount to $4 billion. That is more than the entire State of Alabama’s annual budget. Every part of Alabama was showered with Shelby’s gifts, which will make generational changes to our state. In Huntsville alone, Shelby has played a pivotal role in shaping this Tennessee Valley area into the science, space, and technology capital of the south, if not the nation. In his final hurrah, the Huntsville Redstone area received funds for Army research weaponry, a space launch system, nuclear thermal propulsion for the Marshall Space Flight Center, and construction of a new FBI Headquarters, which Shelby moved from Washington to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, and several other new buildings at the Redstone Arsenal. Shelby earmarked a great deal of federal money for his home area of Tuscaloosa, including millions for new buildings and education centers for the University of Alabama, funds for a new bridge, and millions for the Tuscaloosa airport. He took care of the Montgomery/Wiregrass area, which is military-laden for years to come. This area received multi-millions in new money for Ft. Rucker for flight training and Air Surface Missiles, along with millions for the Hellfire missiles made in Troy. There is over a billion dollars going to UAB for biomedical research and new buildings. Shelby has been instrumental in transforming UAB into one of the most pronounced medical research institutions in the nation. He took care of Mobile for generations to come. There are millions of earmarked funds going to the Port City. In addition, Shelby completed his mission of building Alabama a new deeper and wider Port with a $200 million dollar appropriation for the Alabama State Port Authority. In my 2015 book, Of Goats and Governors: Six Decades of Alabama Political Stories, I have a chapter entitled “Alabama’s Three Greatest Senators, John Sparkman, Lister Hill, and Richard Shelby. If I were writing that book today, Richard Shelby would be alone as Alabama’s greatest United States Senator by far. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Two new U.S. Senators for Alabama
Richard Shelby walked out of the U.S. Senate this week after 36 years. Walking out with him is almost all of Alabama’s seniority and power in Washington. Seniority equates to power in the Halls of Congress, especially in the Senate. National publications have illustrated the fact that Alabama has benefited more than all 50 states from federally earmarked funds due to one man, Richard Shelby. It will be impossible to replace Shelby. His legacy will last for generations, especially in Huntsville, Birmingham, all defense facilities in Alabama, and the new docks he built in Mobile. No senator brought more federal dollars to their state unless it was Robert Byrd of West Virginia. You would think that we would be what some say, “up the creek without a paddle.” We are a state that depends on federal defense dollars, and we have zero seniority in the U.S. Senate. Our senior Senator, Tommy Tuberville, has two years seniority, and our junior Senator, Katie Britt, has zero years. That probably makes us 50th in seniority in the Senate. However, I contend that our freshman senators, Tuberville and Britt, are the best and right choices for this time. First of all, they will work together as a team. They like each other, and deeper than that, Tuberville’s people covertly and almost overtly campaigned for Katie Boyd Britt. She well knows that and appreciates it. Primarily, Tuberville’s and Katie Britt’s personalities will prevail to Alabama’s advantage. They both have larger-than-life gregarious, vivacious, winning personalities, and in a 100-member body, this is admired, respected, and appreciated. You have some pretty big personalities and egos in that 100-member elite chamber. Shelby has shared with me in past years that you can recognize the prima donnas and show horses who are running for president immediately. Then there are those that want to be a long-term, effective workhorse senator for their state. The first group immediately starts looking for a TV camera to get in front of. The second group is finding their offices, making friends, building a solid staff, and jockeying for committee assignments that help them be effective for their state. Katie Britt Boyd will be greeted and treated like a rockstar. She is young and looks even younger than she is. She is a very articulate and attractive media subject. However, if you know Katie, she will not be swayed by this allure from the national media. She is grounded and has already made inroads with the senate GOP establishment leadership and will be rewarded with surprisingly powerful committee assignments. She will settle into being in Washington as a Senator for Alabama rather than a show horse. Tuberville is now our senior U.S. Senator. When he ran and won two years ago, most of us thought it was a whim, something he wanted to do in his later years. When you first meet him, you can gather that he is a very patriotic fellow. He is doing this for the right reason. He truly wants to serve his country. Tuberville, from the get-go, fell in love with politics. He campaigned—especially one-on-one. But, when he got to the Senate, it has been like Katie bar the door. Folks, he likes it, and the other Republican senators like him. He has really fit in. He has the brightest, happiest contented smile on his face. He looks ten years younger than his 68 years. He is always around his GOP senate buddies. He votes totally with the Republican caucus and does not seek fanfare. He knows the golden rule of politics, “Your word is your bond,” and, “You dance with those who brung you.” He knew the Alabama Farmers’ Federation (Alfa) was an integral part of his election. His first allegiance was to gravitate to committees that could help Alabama farmers as well as Alabama military veterans. He has put together a good staff. It will not surprise me if Coach runs for another six-year term in 2026. The aforementioned Alfa Farmers’ Federation is the most important lobbying group in the state with our two U.S. Senators. Alfa early and ardently supported both Tommy Tuberville and Katie Boyd Britt. Their endorsement of Britt and Tuberville were pivotal and instrumental to their wins. Both know it. Another young man named Paul Shashy was an integral part of both Britt’s and Tuberville’s campaigns. We may be in better shape in the Senate than some think. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at: www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Richard Shelby – Alabama’s greatest U.S. Senator
Our iconic senior United States Senator, Richard Shelby, turns 88 this week. Shelby is in the waning months of his monumental career in the Senate. He will end his tenure at the end of this year after 36 years in the U.S. Senate. Shelby is one of the most influential senators in Washington. His prowess at bringing federal dollars to our state from Washington is unparalleled in the annals of Alabama history. Indeed, Shelby may go down in American history as one of the greatest procurers of federal dollars funded to their state from the U.S. Treasury. He may only be surpassed by the late Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. There is not a city or county in Alabama that has not benefitted from Senator Shelby’s seniority and power. Every major university has received additional federal dollars for development and new buildings. He has literally transformed the University of Alabama. An entire section of the massive campus has a cadre of buildings, mostly science, technology, and engineering that are or should be named for him because he brought the money from Washington to pay for them. UAB is one of the premier research and medical institutions in America because of Richard Shelby. Huntsville is one of the fastest-growing and most prosperous high technology cities in America due to the influence of one Richard Shelby. The largest FBI facility in America has been moved from Washington D.C. to Huntsville, Alabama under the direction of Senator Shelby. In his last hurrah, Shelby essentially has brought immense federal funding to completely rebuild and deepen Alabama’s port in Mobile. His last years have been spent chairing the United States Senate Appropriations Committee. However, during his illustrious career, he has also been Chairman of the Banking Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Rules Committee. There has never been nor will there probably ever be an Alabama U.S. Senator to reach the pinnacle of power of Richard Shelby. It should be noted that Shelby served with distinction and effectiveness in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years prior to being first elected to the Senate in 1986. In my 2015 book Of Goats and Governors, Six Decades of Colorful Alabama Political Stories, I have a chapter entitled “Alabama’s Three Greatest Senators.” The Chapter includes Lister Hill, John Sparkman, and Richard Shelby. If I were writing that book today, Shelby would be alone as the greatest. Folks, that is saying a lot. Senator Lister Hill and Senator John Sparkman were giants in Washington and tremendous ambassadors for Alabama. Both Sparkman and Hill served for 32 and 30 years, respectively, in the Senate with austere distinction. They served in tandem for more than 20 years and were respected giants on Capitol Hill. Our Hill-Sparkman team was unsurpassed in power and prestige from 1946 to 1970. They were admired not only in Alabama but throughout the nation. Lister Hill was considered one of the greatest U.S. Senators. He was a statesman and the ultimate southern gentleman. He was chairman of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, as well as a ranking member of the Appropriations Committee. He was known as the father of most of America’s rural hospitals through his authorship and stewardship of the Hill-Burton Act. He also was the father of our crown jewel, UAB Medical Center. John Sparkman was a U.S. Senator from Alabama for 32 years. He like Hill served a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives prior to his Senate career. Sparkman was chairman of the Banking Committee, which also oversaw housing. He was the author of all housing legislation, including creating HUD. Sparkman is also the father of the space and rocket development in Huntsville. In fact, Huntsville would probably be more appropriately named “Sparkmanville”. Senator Sparkman was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1952. Shelby has continued Sparkman’s and Hill’s legacy sustaining our crown jewels of Huntsville Space and Rocket Center and the UAB Medical Complex in Birmingham. Senator Shelby has left an indelible mark on our state that will be felt by Alabamians for generations. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Seniority vs. Senility
Our senior senator, Richard Shelby, will be remembered as Alabama’s most prominent senator when he retires next December. Folks, that’s saying a lot because we have had a host of prominent men serve Alabama in the United States Senate, such as giants like Lister Hill, John Sparkman, and John Bankhead. However, history will record that none of these above senators brought the federal dollars back home to Alabama that Shelby has procured. Seniority is omnipotent in Washington. It is everything, and Senator Shelby has it. He is in his 35th year in the U.S. Senate. He has already broken Senator Sparkman’s 32-year record of longevity in Alabama history and at the end of his term next year he will have served a record 36 years in the Senate. In addition, Shelby was the U.S. Congressman for the old 7th Congressional district for eight years. Shelby has not only been the most prolific funneler of federal dollars to Alabama in our state’s history but he could also be considered one of the most profound movers and shakers of federal funds to their state in American history. His only rival was the late Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Senator Byrd, who was in his ninth term as a senator when he died at 92, funneled an estimated $10 billion to his constituents during his 51 years in the Senate. The obvious question asked by observers of Washington politics is, “Are some of our most powerful senators too old to function cognitively?” I can attest to you that I know Senator Richard Shelby personally and he is the most cognitively alert and healthy 87-year-old man I have ever seen. He works out daily and has the memory of an elephant. In fact, his mental and cognitive abilities are similar to someone 30 years his junior. He very well could run and serve another 6-year term. However, he will be 88 at the end of his term. Shelby is one of five octogenarians serving in the Senate. California’s Dianne Feinstein is the oldest sitting senator at 88. She is followed by Iowa’s Charles “Chuck” Grassley who turns 88 next month. Shelby is the third at 87. James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont are 81. By the way, Grassley and Leahy are Shelby’s closest allies in the Senate. The question becomes, “How old is too old to be a U.S. senator?” According to the Congressional Research Service, the average age of senators at the beginning of this year is 64-years. At some point voters have to weigh, “Is my senator too old to perform the duties of the office or does the weight and power of their seniority and the benefit of their influence to the state outweigh their energy and cognizance?” Voters tend to go with experience and seniority over youth. Senator Feinstein has been the most widely discussed current senator for a decline in health. Liberals believe she was too conciliatory during Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing. There is a pervasive whispering campaign about Feinstein’s alleged cognitive decline and the Democratic senior leadership has indeed quietly removed her as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was common knowledge and apparent that Senator Shelby’s predecessor as Chairman of Appropriations, Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, was not very cognitive in his last years in the Senate although he was younger, chronically. The most notable example of possibly staying too long is probably the story of legendary Senator Strom Thurman of South Carolina. In 2003 Strom Thurman retired at the age of 100 after 48 years in the Senate. It was no secret that his staff did everything for him during his last six-year term. Our founding fathers created a minimum age for serving in the U.S. House or Senate but did not address a maximum. The owner of Grub’s Pharmacy used by many on Capitol Hill in Washington raised eyebrows in 2017 when he revealed he routinely sent Alzheimer’s medication to Capitol Hill. There are continuing attempts to pass a Constitutional Amendment to limit the terms of Congressmen and Senators. Republicans run on the issue of term limits. It was part of their contract with America Agenda in 1994. Alabamians need to consider being for term limits in 2022 because it comes down to the old adage of whose ox is being gourd. We in Alabama are going to be up the proverbial creek without a paddle after Shelby. He is our power in Washington. We need to all jump on the term limit bandwagon beginning next year. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at: www.steveflowers.us.
History shows Marco Rubio resignation would be rare event
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s editorial on Wednesday that called on Marco Rubio to resign “and not rip us off” ignited a number of others to follow suit. It came as Rubio has continued to miss votes in the upper chamber of Congress while on the campaign trail and unapologetic about it. Instead, he’s indicated he doesn’t even really like the job. Historical precedent, though, indicates that if Rubio quit, it would be the exception to usual presidential politics. On his Smart Politics blog, Eric J. Ostermeier of the University of Minnesota writes that since 1972 there have been a total of 50 presidential candidacies by 45 sitting U.S. senators. Only one of these resigned before the presidential election: Bob Dole of Kansas in 1996. Dole only did so, in June 1996, after he had already secured the GOP nomination, and after the last batch of presidential primaries. During the past 40 plus years no other sitting U.S. senator running for the White House cut short their day job before the presidential election. Like Rubio, several of those senators were running for president in cycles in which their term in the nation’s upper legislative chamber was coming to an end – 12 in all: Four opted not to run for re-election: Democrat Fred Harris of Oklahoma (1972), North Carolina Democrat John Edwards (2004), Florida Democrat Bob Graham (2004), and Florida Republican Marco Rubio (2016) Seven failed in their presidential bids but still won re-election to their U.S. Senate seats that cycle: West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd (1976), Texas Democrat Lloyd Bentsen (1976), Washington Democrat Scoop Jackson (1976), Kansas Republican Bob Dole (1980), Texas Republican Phil Gramm (1996), Utah Republican Orrin Hatch (2000), and Delaware Democrat Joe Biden (2008) One is currently running for both offices: Kentucky Republican Rand Paul (2016) And one stat where Rubio would definitely like to emulate Barack Obama: Of those 50 senators who have run for president since 1972, only one – Obama – actually became president. Much has been made of Rubio’s voting record. He’s missed about 34 percent of his from from the start of the year through last week. However, as reported by PolitiFact, from 2007 to 2008, Obama missed more than 64 percent of votes. From 2003 to 2004, John Kerry missed 72 percent of votes, and former Florida Sen. Graham missed about 37 percent of his votes when he ran in 2003-2004. Ironically, the man that Rubio succeeded in the Senate, Mel Martinez, did leave his seat more than a year before his term was set to expire.
