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Washington, D.C.
The nation’s capital may be convulsed in controversy over Iran, immigration, walls and massacres that never happened, but U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, appears to float serenely above it all — for now.
As the curtain rises on the 115th Congress, Stefanik is more and more at stage center as something of a rising star in the constellation of Republicans controlling Capitol Hill — which includes House Speaker Paul Ryan, her mentor whom she helped on debate prep in 2012 when he was the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee.
She is conservative by inclination but willing to diverge from GOP orthodoxy when it conflicts with her view of her North Country district’s interests.
At age 32, she has been named chair of the House Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities — an unusual honor for a sophomore lawmaker. The subcommittee is focused on cyber threats, counterterrorism and controlling proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
And she won appointment to the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community and receives classified briefings on the most sensitive intelligence matters facing the nation.
All in all, not bad for a 2002 graduate of the Albany Academy for Girls whose family operates Premium Plywood Products in an industrial park in Guilderland Center.
In normal times, a Republican in the White House would make Stefanik’s job easier. But if there is one thing all sides of the partisan divide can agree on, it is that these are not normal times.
Analyzing the quirks and contradictions of President Donald Trump “is not what I spend my time doing,” Stefanik said in an interview before Trump took the oath of office. “My job is to be an effective member of Congress and focus on these new leadership opportunities that I am honored to have earned.”
Rather than shunning Trump in the campaign, Stefanik offered lukewarm support. Arguably it was a wise move since Trump beat Hillary Clinton in New York’s 21st Congressional District by 14 percentage points — a marked contrast to 2012 when then President Obama bested Mitt Romney by six percentage points.
“Stefanik has proven very adept at dealing with first candidate and now President Donald Trump, selectively backing him and distancing herself from him and his policies,” said Harvey Schantz, chair of the political science department at SUNY Plattsburgh. “True, there is an expectation that members of Congress will support a president of their own party, but there is also a recognition that representatives have to adapt their voting record to please their own particular districts.”
Stefanik already has put herself at odds with Trump’s travel ban imposed on seven majority-Muslim nations, calling his executive order “rushed and overly broad.”
But her voting record suggests she is generally a Republican loyalist, supporting GOP efforts to build the Keystone XL pipeline, defund Planned Parenthood and repeal Obamacare.
“The only way to judge a moderate is if they vote against the party on a reasonable number of occasions,” said her predecessor, former Rep. Bill Owens, a Democrat who is now a lawyer in Plattsburgh. “Her record does not show that.”
But Stefanik also has bucked the conservative party line on issues where she feels North Country interests come into play.
Among them, she favored reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank as a valuable asset in helping U.S. exports, and opposed GOP efforts to dilute air-quality standards and cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, and she sided with Democrats against Republicans who opposed a measure to bar federal money to contractors who discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
Stefanik also is distancing herself from Trump’s climate-change-denier position by joining the Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, which says it wants to “explore bipartisan policy options that address the impacts, causes, and challenges of our changing climate.”
And she opposes dumping Obamacare until there’s a replacement ready to go.
Hearst intern Laura Castro Lindarte contributed reporting. dan@hearstdc.com
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