{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://cole.house.gov/roll-call-year-according-rep-tom-cole", "Roll Call: The Year According to Rep. Tom Cole", "2014-12-31", "2014", "2014-12", "Republican", "House", "OK", "Tom Cole", "C001053", "cole.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Roll Call - Matt Fuller\nRep. Tom Cole, the unofficial spokesman of the GOP rank and file in the House, has never been shy about telling the truth \u2014 at least the truth as the Oklahoma Republican sees it \u2014 with anyone who\u2019ll listen.\nContinuing a tradition that began last year, Cole got on the phone recently with CQ Roll Call for more than an hour to review the ups and downs of 2014 (something he also did in a recent column). Like last year, the 65-year-old former history professor thinks Republicans \u2014 and especially Speaker John A. Boehner \u2014 enter the new year with momentum.\n\u201cThe Boehner coalition is the largest coalition in the conference, and it\u2019s not even close,\u201d Cole said, dismissing ongoing anti-Boehner grumblings among some of the conference\u2019s most conservative Republicans.\nRep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., recently said there were roughly 16 to 18 Republicans planning to vote against Boehner for speaker when the 114th Congress convenes in January. While that\u2019s nearly enough Republicans to throw the contest to a second ballot, Cole said the number of Republicans who would only vote Boehner for speaker was \u201chigher than 130,\u201d meaning he believes there is no other Republican who could feasibly take the gavel.\nBoehner was vindicated by the government shutdown and the November election results, Cole said.\nBut Cole, who begins his seventh term in the 114th, also thinks Boehner was \u201cstrengthened\u201d by former Majority Leader Eric Cantor losing his primary. There\u2019s now no \u201clogical alternative\u201d to the Ohio Republican.\nWhile Cole said he didn\u2019t want \u201capply anything critical\u201d to Cantor \u2014 \u201dI think he was pretty selfless\u201d \u2014 the Oklahoma Republican thought that, in Cantor, \u201dyou had a ready-made backup, you had a guy who could clearly step in.\u201d\nWith Cantor gone, members seem satisfied with the new leadership team of Boehner, California\u2019s Kevin McCarthy at majority leader, Louisiana\u2019s Steve Scalise at majority whip, and Washington\u2019s Cathy McMorris Rodgers at GOP Conference chair. \u201cI feel pretty good about our top four,\u201d Cole said. \u201cThere\u2019s clearly less tension.\u201d\nCole acknowledged there was \u201cno question\u201d that there are some who remain unhappy with Boehner, but he called the anti-Boehner crowd a \u201cvery small gathering.\u201d\n\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s any threat to denying him the speakership,\u201d he said.\nInstead, he had stern words for those planning to register that discontent in the form of a protest vote during the speaker election. \u201cYou\u2019re not attacking John Boehner; you\u2019re attacking the Republican Conference,\u201d Cole said, adding that it was \u201ca great way to marginalize yourself.\u201d\n\u201cYou\u2019re just embarrassing yourself in my view,\u201d Cole continued, \u201cand undermining the unity of the conference.\u201d\nCole called Cantor\u2019s primary loss to Dave Brat a \u201cprofound moment\u201d and \u201cthe most single unexpected, shocking political moment of the year.\u201d\nBrat ran to the right of Cantor on issues like immigration, but Cole said that doesn\u2019t mean an immigration overhaul is out of the question in 2015.\n\u201cIf we don\u2019t put a border security bill on the president\u2019s desk in this year, I\u2019ll be amazed and disappointed,\u201d Cole said.\nHe added that there were things Republicans and Democrats generally agree on, like seasonal labor visas, that Congress could move \u201cpiecemeal.\u201d It\u2019s just a question, he said, of whether President Barack Obama, who has promised to implement his own sweeping executive action that would defer deprtations for millions of immigrants, will accept a step-by-step approach from Congress.\n\u201cHe\u2019s got to decide if he\u2019s willing to take half a loaf, or if he\u2019s going to try to shove the whole loaf down our throats,\u201d Cole said.\nThe president has long maintained that he would take the piece-by-piece approach. Up to this point, it has been House Republicans who have had difficulty coalescing behind any portion of the immigration issue. But they will have a chance soon. As Cole noted, Congress has to deal with the president\u2019s immigration action and Department of Homeland Security funding when they get back; DHS funding runs out Feb. 28.\nCole did see some positive signs, with House Republicans passing a border supplemental bill before leaving for the August recess \u2014 something he said was a major 2014 accomplishment, particularly when you consider that lawmakers, while dealing with the influx of children crossing the U.S. border, also passed \u201cthe largest reform of the VA system in a generation\u201d and provided emergency money for Israel to fund their Iron Dome missile defense system.\n\u201cCongress has gotten a little better,\u201d he said.\nCole saw the year-end \u201ccromnibus\u201d deal as the crowning achievement in 2014. He said it was \u201cpretty unusual\u201d to see the White House and the speaker \u201ccooperating\u201d to pass such a sweeping spending bill, and he thought it portended well for 2015.\nCole himself had a pretty good year. He\u2019s shot up through the ranks on the Appropriations Committee, and will serve as the Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee chairman in the 114th, this after becoming an Appropriations cardinal just late last year.\nCole, who was chairman of Legislative Branch Appropriations, explained that his office thought he might have a choice to be chairman among four subcommittees. \u201cLet\u2019s just say Labor-H\u201d \u2014 as it\u2019s often called among those in the appropriations know \u2014 \u201dwasn\u2019t the preferred path of choice.\u201d\nLabor-HHS is notoriously the most controversial subcommittee, and it\u2019s one of the most difficult bills to get on the floor, with members looking to avoid tough votes on issues like abortion riders.\nBut when Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., came to Cole late this year to discuss subcommittee assignments, Rogers asked Cole to take Labor-HHS. \u201cI said, \u2018I thought I had a choice,\u2019\u201d Cole recounted. And when Rogers said he did have a choice, Cole replied, \u201cWell, in that case, my choice is to do what my chairman wants.\u201d Which resulted in a \u201cbig grin\u201d from Rogers.\nCole\u2019s realistic about getting the Labor-HHS bill to the floor next year \u2014 \u201cI don\u2019t know, I think it is a difficult and complex bill\u201d \u2014 and he\u2019s first concentrated on getting the measure to through the full committee. \u201cWe haven\u2019t done that in four years,\u201d Cole noted.\nHe said his plan was to try to create opportunities for moments of bipartisanship, whether it be working on a bipartisan issue like Native American affairs (Cole\u2019s a member of the Chickasaw Nation himself) or by taking some time with fellow members to enjoy a cigar. (At one point in the conversation, Cole evidenced Rep. David Joyce\u2019s worth by noting that, \u201cHe smokes cigars, so he\u2019s a great guy.\u201d)\nBut Cole is realistic about what Congress can accomplish, even with Republicans controlling the Senate. In one of his extended sports metaphors \u2014 in which he also worked in conservative Republicans who are discontent with Boehner \u2014 Cole said every player had a role to play for the team\u2019s success.\n\u201cSometimes it\u2019s better to be the left guard than the quarterback, no matter how much you want to be the quarterback,\u201d he said, noting that, over the course of his own football career, there were \u201cplenty of times I held the dummy.\u201d\nIt\u2019s that team attitude that has endeared Cole with many in leadership, despite some past conflicts with Boehner. But, even though many reporters pretend Cole is a sanctioned spokesman for Boehner, Cole made it clear that he speaks just for himself, never for the speaker.\n\u201cEvery time I hear that, I think that\u2019s somebody who hasn\u2019t been here very long,\u201d Cole said.\nOnline: Roll Call", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://cole.house.gov/roll-call-year-according-rep-tom-cole"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0102192647755146, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}