Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House’s new Select Committee on China and a member of the Armed Services Committee, has announced he won’t seek reelection.
While the China Committee, which focuses on examining Beijing’s technological and security priorities and ongoing competition with the United States, may or may not be extended past this current Congress, Gallagher’s departure is expected to leave a high-priority opening for House GOP leadership on the issue.
“Electoral politics was never supposed to be a career and, trust me, Congress is no place to grow old. And so, with a heavy heart, I have decided not to run for re-election. Thank you to the good people of Northeast Wisconsin for the honor of a lifetime. Four terms serving you has strengthened my conviction that America is the greatest country in the history of the world. And though my title may change, my mission will always remain the same: deter America’s enemies and defend the Constitution,” Gallagher said in a statement announcing his decision on Saturday.
Gallagher, a Marine Corps veteran, has represented Wisconsin’s solidly-red 8th district since 2017 and quickly established a reputation as a national security hawk, with a particular interest in issues ranging from China concerns, DoD technology innovation, cyber security challenges and artificial intelligence.
In his announcement, Gallagher cited his time in office as a “high-intensity deployment,” noting his work on the Armed Services Committee, chairing the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, which resulted in a slate of cyber-focused proposals adopted in recent defense authorization bills, and his time leading the new Select Committee on China.
Gallagher, considered a moderate, faced scrutiny from his conservative colleagues last week when he was one of three Republicans to join all Democrats in voting against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The House established the Select Committee on China last January and named Gallagher as its chair and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), with the two lawmakers having cited the panel’s bipartisan approach to examining issues and working on policy recommendations related to the U.S.’ competition with Beijing (Defense Daily, Jan. 11).
“China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it. The threat posed by [China] is not abstract. [China’s] aggression is not limited to Taiwan, the South China Sea, Hong Kong or even Xinjiang,” Gallagher said in floor remarks at the time of the committee’s establishment last year. “We see this aggression here at home where [China] has stolen American intellectual party, technology and industrial capacity, undermining our economy and good-paying American jobs.”
Gallagher has pushed Congress to address the reported $19 billion backlog of foreign military sale cases with Taiwan, most recently reiterating his concerns following a trip to Taipei (Defense Daily, Feb. 24).
“I return from my trip to Taiwan even more convinced that the time to arm Taiwan to the teeth was yesterday. Taiwan is on the frontlines of authoritarian expansion. We must surge hard power west of the international date line in order to deter a Chinese Communist Party invasion before it’s too late,” Gallagher said in a statement following his visit. “In particular, we should move heaven and earth to clear the nearly $19 billion backlog of Foreign Military Sales Items that have been approved but not delivered to Taiwan.”
While it remains to be seen whether the select committee will continue past the 118th Congress, top Republicans on the panel who could possibly succeed Gallagher in the leadership role include Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), a senior member on HASC, or Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who previously led a bipartisan task force focused on how the Pentagon is prepared for defense innovation challenges over the next 30 years.
Gallagher also chairs the HASC’s Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation (CITI) subcommittee and recently called for the Pentagon to embark on a “multi-billion dollar” initiative to work on AI with non-traditional contractors (Defense Daily, Dec. 4).
“In simplest terms, what can the Pentagon do? Pick winners and losers in this space. Put their thumb on the scale. Have a multi-billion dollar ACAT I program in procurement involving a non-traditional company leveraging AI and autonomous systems. I don’t think we have that right now. That’s where we in Congress need to provide the flexible funding in the form of multi-year appropriation. We need to encourage the Pentagon to take intelligent risk, but we cannot simply admire the ethical and policy dimensions of this problem at the expense of fielding capability right now,” Gallagher said during an AI panel at the Ronald Reagan National Defense Forum in December.
Last month, Gallagher reiterated his support for new multiyear munitions procurement authorities to help replenish DoD stockpiles, which he cited as “essential if you want to send a consistent signal to the defense industrial base to maximize the production of critical munitions and allow for companies to invest in facilitization” (Defense Daily, Jan. 23).