Baumgartner has big plans for his first term

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Capitol Hill regulars like to compare Congress to a high school — with its cliques, class clowns and that guy who won’t stop boasting about his athletic exploits. One similarity is certain: It’s not easy being a freshman.

Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a first-term Republican from Spokane, has especially big shoes to fill after being elected to replace retired Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, one of the most senior members of the House GOP. But the former Spokane County treasurer and Washington state senator is set on making the most of his freshman year.

“I work for all the people of eastern Washington, whether they voted for me or didn’t vote for me, and it’s important to represent their interests here,” Baumgartner said in an interview in his D.C. office on Wednesday.

The congressman said he plans to hold frequent town hall events like the one in Spokane on Jan. 11, which he called “checking in with the bosses,” referring to the nearly 790,000 constituents he represents.

While emphasizing his bipartisan bona fides, Baumgartner said the Republican-controlled House, Senate and White House have a clear mandate from voters to improve border security and “bring common sense” to U.S. immigration policy after the Biden administration saw a historic influx of migrants between 2021 and 2023.

In an institution where plum committee assignments typically come with seniority and freshman lawmakers often have few opportunities to influence policy, Baumgartner has a relatively favorable portfolio, with seats on the House Judiciary Committee, Education and Workforce Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee.

The Judiciary Committee promises to be a major locus of legislative activity this year, with Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, planning to implement the crackdown on immigrants living in the country unlawfully that was central to President Donald Trump’s campaign. Baumgartner said Jordan invited him to ask for a seat on the panel after the two men met during the campaign last summer.

Baumgartner said immigration and border policy changes will be one of the first orders of business for the new Congress to address through the procedure known as budget reconciliation, which allows the majority party to pass certain kinds of legislation without being subject to the Senate filibuster rule requiring a 60-vote supermajority to pass most bills.

But he acknowledged that major challenges could get in the way of that process, including differences among the GOP’s slim House majority and rules that restrict how budget reconciliation — which applies only to tax and spending measures — can be used.

Although Trump rarely talked about the federal deficit during his campaign, the congressman said he and many other House Republicans are concerned about the nation’s debt, which now exceeds $36 trillion. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Trump’s alma mater, has estimated that the incoming president’s proposals would add at least $4.1 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.

From his perch on the Education and Workforce Committee, Baumgartner said he hopes to make his mark by introducing sweeping legislation aimed at reforming college sports in response to the seismic changes that have followed a 2021 Supreme Court decision that enabled student-athletes to earn money for their “name, image and likeness” and the conference realignment that began that same year. He declined to share details of that bill on the record.

The Foreign Affairs Committee is sometimes seen as less politically relevant than other panels, but Baumgartner said people in eastern Washington are deeply affected by what happens overseas, including Fairchild Air Force Base’s vital role in the Pacific and the importance of export markets for the region’s farmers and ranchers.

For the Harvard-trained former diplomat and State Department contractor, the committee also presents an opportunity to shape how his former employer operates around the world.

Baumgartner said the panel will try to redefine the programs and duties of the State Department for the first time since 2002, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, “which would provide an opportunity for some needed reform.” Since then, he said, the nation’s diplomatic agency has drifted away from its essential functions and mission of protecting U.S. interests abroad.

“In general, our State Department needs to be doing a little less wine and cheese in Brussels and Geneva, and I would like to see the State Department more expeditionary,” he said. “We are going to have continued challenging conflicts around the world, and we need a civilian force that has the skills and is well-equipped enough to do that.”

Baumgartner said he has been in regular contact with Ryan Crocker, a Spokane Valley native and decorated former diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to a half-dozen countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq. While making sure not to speak for Crocker, with whom he worked in Iraq, the congressman said the State Department “needs to be about America first,” rather than “some of the ‘woke’ stuff that’s gone on with State of trying to social-engineer or promote some left-wing ideology.”

“It should be about America’s national security and prosperity objectives, not about advancing any social agenda,” Baumgartner said. “Each and every thing the State Department is doing should be about America’s security.”

Baumgartner said he would also like to see institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund — which he said “were set up to advance capitalism and American values” — return to those priorities, “especially with the rising threat from China.”

Even if U.S. foreign policy returns to a bygone era, diplomats and members of the House and Senate panels charged with oversight of the State Department will have to contend with a commander-in-chief whose approach to international relations has no real precedent in White House history. In the weeks before taking office for the second time, Trump has made waves around the world by openly speculating about annexing Greenland, the Panama Canal or even Canada — and telling reporters he wouldn’t rule out the use of military force or economic coercion to do so.

Asked to respond to Trump’s statements — something he and other GOP lawmakers will need to do frequently in the next four years — Baumgartner said, “What I do appreciate is that, by him saying that, it helps Americans focus on what are our key national security issues.”

“I think people understand Trump as a negotiator and someone who likes to create space with his statements for things to happen,” Baumgartner added. “I think Greenland and Canada have a lot of natural resources, from rare earth minerals to hydroelectric power, which are going to be increasingly important.”

Pressed on the notion of a president speculating about seizing the territory of allied nations, the congressman said he didn’t think Trump would really order military action.

“I do think the opportunity to have closer connections and to better utilize those resources, that’s important,” he added. “I’m not looking for us to have an invasion of Greenland or Afghanistan.”

Like most Republicans in Congress, Baumgartner was careful not to criticize Trump, but he described a personal view of the world that contrasts with the incoming president’s frequent claims that the United States is getting a raw deal from its alliances and trade agreements.

“Essentially, the system that we have set up now is to America’s benefit,” he said. “We essentially have an empire of free trade and rule of law that serves our prosperity well.”

More important than the work he does on any committee, Baumgartner said, is his responsibility to represent his constituents and address their concerns as the Republican trifecta begins with Monday’s inauguration of Trump. Success in his first term, he said, would mean “that through my being a member of Congress, the people of Eastern Washington have a significant voice in what happens in Washington, D.C., that our concerns are taken care of.”

“Nothing was more important to talk about on the campaign trail than the issues of fentanyl and the insecurity of the border and how that impacts itself across Eastern Washington,” he said. “And so if we make meaningful and significant steps to better protect our borders and end that scourge of drugs coming into the country, that’ll be a great success off the bat.”

Orion Donovan Smith’s work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund.