Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) will chair the Home Freedom Caucus by the top of 2025, members of the group selected Monday evening, cementing his management of the hardline conservative caucus.
“It is my honor to continue to serve as House Freedom Caucus chairman,” Harris stated in an announcement on his reelection. “This coming year will be pivotal as we work to deliver on President Trump’s agenda, continue the fight to reduce government spending, secure our borders, and defend our constitutional freedoms.”
Harris grew to become chair of the Freedom Caucus in September, changing Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) after he stepped down following a main loss.
The Maryland lawmaker, who has represented the state’s 1st Congressional District since 2011, additionally has a strong place on the Home Appropriations Committee, chairing its subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Improvement, and the Meals and Drug Administration.
The Freedom Caucus, which has roughly three dozen members, has emerged as a frequent antagonist of Home GOP management during the last a number of years, significantly on spending points, pushing for federal spending cuts. It additionally goals for inside Home GOP guidelines and insurance policies that decentralize energy and provides extra authority to particular person Home members.
In its most up-to-date place, the caucus took a aspect on the technique on methods to push by President-elect Trump’s bold legislative agenda.
The Freedom Caucus in a letter instructed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) that it helps a “fully offset” and “focused” border reconciliation package deal in January, after which shifting “forward to a second, larger reconciliation bill covering taxes, spending, energy, bureaucracy, and more.”
That stands in distinction to some Republicans, comparable to Home Methods and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who desire a single reconciliation package deal and warn that tax provisions ought to come first, or else danger lacking a window to increase expiring tax cuts.
Good, who was elected chair in December 2023, stepped down as chair after shedding a main to Trump-endorsed challenger, Rep.-elect John McGuire (R-Va.). Trump was vocally bitter about Good’s prior endorsement of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis within the 2024 GOP presidential main, and was not inspired by Good’s assist for Trump after DeSantis dropped out. Good’s time period was imagined to final by 2025.
Harris is the sixth chairman of the group that was based in 2015 by a bunch of conservatives that included Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and former Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.).
