Rep. Jason Smith a finalist to lead powerful House panel

Southeast Missouri's U.S. Rep. Jason Smith is one of three men vying to become chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in the 118th Congress, which is set to begin Jan. 3.

A spokesperson in Smith's Washington office told the Southeast Missourian a decision on the chairmanship by the House Republican Steering Committee could be pushed to early January — at least until after the speakership election.

Republican Kevin McCarthy of California is the odds-on favorite to reach the necessary 218 votes to become speaker.

Ways and Means

Referred to in an April 2, 2021, article on www.politico.com as Congress's "most prestigious committee," the 45-member tax-writing panel — of which Smith is already a member — has jurisdiction over all taxation and tariffs and has oversight for the following programs and functions, among others:

• Social Security
• unemployment benefits
• Medicare
• enforcement of child-support laws

Candidacy

Smith, reelected in November with 76.6% of the vote to the U.S. House seat representing 30 counties in Southern and Southeast Missouri, talked Dec. 7 to Punchbowl News in the nation's capital about his "closing argument" to GOP colleagues in his quest to lead Ways and Means.

Smith, who said the GOP is "the party of the working class," stressed his personal roots in the 19-minute interview, noting he grew up in a single-wide trailer, with an auto mechanic father and a mother who worked in a factory.

"My mother worked on an assembly line until the business closed and the jobs were sent to another country," Smith said. "My working class background, how I was raised, will drive the policies I'll have — growing jobs, growing wages, financial security and providing for American workers, families and farmers."

Competition

The two other announced GOP candidates are Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida and Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska.

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer of Jefferson City, Missouri, is one of the steering committee members who will select the next Ways and Means chair and says Smith has his vote.

"To rise to the point where [Smith} has coming from the humble background that he had is a testament to his work ethic, his intelligence, his ability to work with people," Luetkemeyer told Roll Call, a D.C.-based magazine.

Smith, 42, has represented the 8th District since 2013, and is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee.