Whether or not House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) replaces John Boehner (R-Wis.) as House speaker, one space consultant believes McCarthy’s position in House leadership benefits the commercial space industry.
“(McCarthy) has been a force of support for commercial space for years,” James Muncy, founder of independent space policy consultancy PoliSpace, said Friday. “He did it when he was whip, he’s done it as majority leader and if he becomes speaker…or if he stays as majority leader, either way, it’s good for commercial space.” 
McCarthy represents the 23rd District of California, most of which is north of Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and east of Bakersfield. Northeastern Los Angeles County and eastern Kern County are the sites of the Mojave Air and Space Port as well as government installations like Edwards AFB, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at China Lake and NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.
Muncy said commercial space has been a part of McCarthy’s history dating back to his days in the California State Assembly, where he was first elected in 2002. McCarthy was elected to Congress in 2006 and was elected majority leader in 2014. Boehner on Friday announced he’d retire as speaker at the end of October.
Muncy said McCarthy knows all the players who have come out of Mojave over the years, including Burt Ratan and the leaders of Virgin Galactic, XCOR Aerospace and Masten Space Systems.
“He knows about entrepreneurs, he sees them, talks to them,” Muncy said. “It’s not that he’s pro-commercial (space) because that sends money to Kern County, he’s pro-commercial because these are the Thomas Edisons and Henry Fords of commercial space out there.
“McCarthy knows commercial space,” Muncy said. “He has literally had in his district the Silicon Valley of commercial space flight, it’s all been happening there.”