King: House Homeland Security panel will be vigorous, demanding
Long Island congressman Peter King will take over as the new chair of the House Homeland Security Committee — New York state’s lone chairman in the new Congress (and even this only until 2012, when he will be term-limited out of the chairman’s chair, unless he gets a waiver from the Republican leadership); he has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration on a number of issues over the last two years, and says he plans for a much more vigorous — and possibly controversial — committee when he re-takes the gavel; King expressed concern about Obama administration officials’ response to what he calls the “incalculable damage” caused by the massive document leak released by WikiLeaks; “Considering how fast they moved [to file a laswsuit] on Arizona’s immigration law and how determined they were to move against our CIA agents—- there is definitely something missing here,” he asserted
Come January, Long Island Congressman Peter King will be the New York state’s lone chairman in Washington, D.C. House Republicans officially voted Wednesday morning for King to retake the gavel of the Homeland Security Committee when the new Congress convenes next month.
New York Democrats are set to lose a number of powerful posts in the wake of last month’s 60-seat loss, making King — who passed on rumored runs for governor or Senate — the big winner among the state’s congressional delegation.
King previously chaired the committee until 2007, when Democrats retook control of Congress and he was relegated to the ranking member role. He has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration on a number of issues over the last two years, and last month told Reid Pillifant of the New York Observer that he plans for a much more vigorous — and possibly controversial — committee when he re-takes the gavel.
Pillifant notes that while King’s confirmation was widely expected, there was another vote that could bear on his future. The House Steering Committee declined to recommend Texas Congressman Joe Barton as chairman of the Energy Committee, and he lost the vote in the full House Wednesday. Barton was term-limited out of the chairman’s chair, but had asked for a waiver from the House leadership, arguing that time spent in the minority should not count against the term limits. The committee declined to recommend him, though it is unclear whether that was a result of term limits, or simply a preference for his challenger.
King will have to ask for a similar waiver to maintain the gavel beyond this term. He stands to be term-limited out his own chairmanship in 2012, when there happens to be an election on the Senate side.
King known for his candor. He shared his views on U.S. foreign and defense policy with the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin:
—On extraditing WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange: King says that “Well, first we have to indict him.” King agrees with Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-California) that the United States should bring charges under the Espionage Act. If it does not, he argues, “other countries won’t take us seriously. And so, yes, we should make every effort” to bring him to the United States. He discounted the notion that the British have not been helpful in previous extradition matters, saying, “Listen, they are a strong ally in the
