The congressman from the 5th District is Harold Rogers, a Republican first elected in 1980, and now chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Read More
The congressman from the 5th District is Harold Rogers, a Republican first elected in 1980, and now chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Rogers grew up in Wayne County, graduated from the University of Kentucky, served in the National Guard, and then practiced law in Somerset before buying the Citizens National Bank in Somerset. In 1969, at age 34, he was elected Pulaski-Rockcastle Commonwealth attorney. In 1979, he was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. The following year, when the 5th District congressman retired, Rogers was one of 11 Republicans in the primary. He got the nomination with 23% of the vote (Kentucky has no runoff except in gubernatorial races) and then easily won in November. His toughest race came in 1992, after redistricting. At first, his likely opponent was 7th District incumbent Rep. Chris Perkins, a Democrat and the son of longtime Rep. Carl Perkins. But then Perkins suddenly retired from Congress, just before it was revealed that he had 514 overdrafts at the House bank when such overdrafts were developing into a major Washington scandal. Rogers ended up facing state Sen. John Doug Hays of Pike County. Rogers won with 55% of the vote.
Rogers rose to chairman of Appropriations in 2011 after Republicans won control of the House. He had first sought the post after the 2004 election, but the GOP leadership chose the more senior Jerry Lewis of California. After the 2010 election, Lewis sought a waiver of the Republicans’ three-term limit on chairman and ranking member positions, but the Republican Steering Committee did not agree and named Rogers as chairman.
His voting record is mostly, but not always, conservative. His district has long been hungry for federal aid, and Rogers often has found it difficult to maintain an impeccably conservative record on spending issues. In Republicans’ earlier stint in the majority (1995-2007), he supported zeroing out many domestic programs, but not those important to his district—the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Legal Services Corporation. Over the years, he secured $162 million to protect the solvency of the United Mine Workers Combined Benefit Fund, $15 million for a 760-seat theater near Somerset, and $341 million for a massive concrete wall to close off leaks at Wolf Creek Dam at Lake Cumberland after the lowering of lake water levels caused a drop in tourism. When he chaired the Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee in 2001, Kentucky became the fourth-highest state in transportation funding per capita. The Daniel Boone Parkway, from London to Hazard, has been renamed the Hal Rogers Parkway. “The rate of return on highway spending far exceeds most other investments and is a proven engine,” Rogers once wrote when he was criticized for his earmarked spending. The Lexington Herald-Leader dubbed him “the Prince of Pork.”
In recent years, controversy over earmarks, the special provisions that lawmakers slip into spending bills for their districts and states, put an unaccustomed spotlight on Rogers and other powerful appropriators, who for years were used to going about their business quietly on Capitol Hill. When he was criticized for fighting to keep the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program in Corbin, he replied that it was one of only three government facilities with sufficient security to produce the cards. Rogers has continued raising significant sums of political cash from firms that have won homeland security contracts. He responded, “I’ve had a lot of fundraisers. Campaign contributions mean nothing on my watch.” Rogers says that he has created 15,000 jobs in his district and brought his constituents “peace of mind.”
But Rogers rose to Appropriations chairman just as most House Republicans, especially the 87 freshmen, were determined to end the practice of earmarking. Despite his work over the years funding projects at home, he went along with the GOP leadership’s moratorium on earmarks in November 2010. “We are at a crossroads, with the most serious fiscal crisis staring us in the face,” Rogers said. “Now is the time to fix a broken system and demonstrate to the American people that we are listening. We will rein in spending and get this economy back on track.”
On national issues, Rogers over the years has focused on homeland security. Even before the September 11 attacks, he lamented that most airport screeners were not U.S. citizens, and after Congress voted to federalize airport screeners, he kept a close watch on the new agency. In 2006, he took Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to task for a proposed budget that Rogers insisted was way short of meeting the country’s needs. His bill out of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee that year was $1.8 billion above the administration’s request. Rogers also demanded that the agency rearrange some of its priorities more to his liking.
More recently, he questioned in March 2010 the Obama administration’s proposals for airport body scanners because, he said, it was unclear whether such a costly and manpower-intensive approach would get results. In June 2009, he criticized the Homeland Security Department for delaying a requirement that federal contractors use the E-Verify system to confirm the immigration status of new employees. Rogers also questioned the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s policy of giving work permits to apprehended illegal immigrants who testify against their employers. The Obama administration, he complained, had practically given up deporting illegal immigrants arrested at work sites in favor of what he derisively called “virtual amnesty.”
Rogers has been re-elected by overwhelming margins, carrying even the most Democratic counties, and has never received less than 65% of the vote. Many Republicans urged him to run for governor in 2003, but he said he felt he could do more for the state in Congress. He was re-elected without Democratic opposition in 2008 and won 77%-23% in 2010.
