“They need Democratic women”: How the DWC plans to run a tough bargain with the GOP
By Michael Jones
On the same day Mike Johnson (R-La.) was barely reelected as House speaker last month, the Democratic Women’s Caucus welcomed 16 new members to bring its ranks to 96 members, the most in the organization’s history and almost half of the entire House Democratic Caucus.
And if the first three weeks of the Trump administration are any indication, the DWC will need every one of those members to push back against what the caucus views as constant attacks on women and families from the president, shadow executive Elon Musk, and congressional Republicans.
But the strength in numbers—along with House Republicans’ historically slim majority—also gives the DWC significant negotiating power in the months ahead as the fight to fund the government and raise the debt limit takes center stage, which DWC Vice Chair Hillary Scholten (Mich.) told me last week she and her colleagues won’t hesitate to maximize.
“They have a three-seat majority. I have said since the election, they might have a technical majority, but they do not have a governing majority. They need Democrats. They need Democratic women to vote with them in order to accomplish what they need to accomplish,” she said. “And I think we have made clear throughout this week that we’re not going to just roll over without some serious concessions from the Republicans.”
The stakes are incredibly high: On President Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order mandating federal agencies to define sex strictly based on biological characteristics determined at birth, effectively rolling back the Biden administration’s recognition of gender identity. It also rescinded previous policies that acknowledged gender identity and prohibited federal funding for gender-affirming care.
This order was enough to raise concerns among women’s rights and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups said it could lead to discrimination against transgender individuals and limit access to necessary healthcare services. Still, last week, the president signed another that bans transgender women and girls from discrimination against transgender individuals and limits access to essential healthcare services. The House passed a bill last month to ban transgender students from girls’ sports, a step House Republicans claimed was necessary to safeguard the integrity of Title IX—the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding. All but two House Democrats opposed the legislation.
And days after the gender-identity order, Trump signed another to reinstate the Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal funding for elective abortions and revokes prior executive orders that expanded access to reproductive healthcare. Reproductive health care providers warn this action could limit access to abortion services for women who rely on federally funded programs.
Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week, which could lead to policy shifts that may adversely affect public health initiatives, access to reproductive healthcare, and the management of critical programs for women and families.
RFK Jr. faced intense scrutiny during his confirmation hearing over ambiguous positions on abortion and reproductive freedom, raising concerns about potential restrictions on access to reproductive healthcare, including medication abortion, for women.
During those hearings, Kennedy also repeatedly demonstrated a lack of understanding of Medicare, Medicaid, and other key healthcare programs. Critics say this calls into question his ability to effectively manage HHS programs that provide essential health services to millions of women and families.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has primary jurisdiction over HHS and seats more than a dozen DWC members. Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.) leads the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, which oversees most HHS-related matters, including public health, biomedical research, healthcare programs (such as Medicare and Medicaid), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In addition to DeGette, seven of the 12 subcommittee members are in the DWC. (The House Ways and Means Committee also has jurisdiction over certain HHS programs, particularly those related to Medicare, Social Security, and some aspects of Medicaid financing. Six DWC members serve on the committee.)
Despite this influence, the DWC – and Democrats at large – are still boxed out of power on Capitol Hill and in the White House. And while most major legislation is subject to a 60-vote threshold in the Senate, thus requiring support from at least seven Democrats to pass, the House is a majority-led institution, so there are limits to the impact the DWC can make beyond engaging in the funding and debt limit debates. Not to mention, Hill Democratic leadership has yet to coalesce around a formal strategy to exploit Republicans’ slim majority, so members like Scholten and other rank-and-filers risk jumping ahead of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his deputies in the fragile negotiations.
But can you blame them? Women were central to the resistance of the first Trump term in 2017. Although the magnitude of the current pushback may not be breaking through into the national conversation, Scholten said women are united with the rest of the country against what the DWC views as a Musk-led and Trump-blessed unconstitutional takeover of the federal government on top of the specific attacks on women and families.
“It is literally Congress’s number-one job to allocate funding to decide how we’re going to tax and spend those taxpayer dollars, and Trump is choosing to do this exclusively through an unelected businessman who has serious conflicts of interest in the work that he’s doing and not bringing it through Congress,” she said. “So, I will just reiterate that we feel a strong unity in opposition to what he’s doing, and accountability needs to be placed at the feet of the Republicans.”
Michael Jones is an independent Capitol Hill correspondent and contributor for COURIER. He is the author of Once Upon a Hill, a newsletter about Congressional politics.
