Five months after watching an aging president give up his struggling bid for reelection — and weeks after losing in the November elections — Democrats in Congress have embarked on a surprise youth movement, removing senior lawmakers from leadership slots on a trio of U.S. House committees.
One of those pushed aside this week was U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta, who lost his post as the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. The 79-year-old Georgia Democrat was turned out to pasture in favor of a Democrat 27 years his junior.
Other veteran Democrats to lose House committee leadership slots were 77-year-old Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and 76-year-old Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., as Democrats looked for more aggressive voices in Congress.
Even though Democrats declined to elevate 35-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., into committee leadership, the ouster of Scott and the others was a highly unusual rebuke to the seniority system.
“Thanks to Rep. David Scott for his dedication to agriculture,” said Zippy Duvall, the Georgia farmer who heads the American Farm Bureau Federation.
While Duvall and many others said nice things about the veteran Atlanta Democrat, Scott’s loss of his committee post wasn’t really a surprise. The surprise was that it took so long to happen.
After making history by being the first Black lawmaker to head the House Agriculture Committee in 2021, it didn’t take long for fellow Democrats to question Scott’s fitness to lead that panel.
House Democrats actively went around Scott at times, dissatisfied with his work on the Farm Bill and other matters.
At the same time, Scott’s physical health deteriorated. One of the saddest sights on Capitol Hill was watching him struggle to walk from the House floor to a nearby elevator in the Capitol, as fellow lawmakers swiftly moved by him.
Everyone saw it. Lawmakers whispered. Staffers whispered. House floor aides whispered — though no one wanted to say anything on the record.
But the events took a toll. Even the Congressional Black Caucus refused to use its muscle to save Scott, who didn’t show up to most of the candidate forums held on Capitol Hill in recent weeks.
First elected in 2002, Scott isn’t going anywhere, as he easily won another term in the House in November, and will return for the 119th Congress next year. But his loss of power sends a clear message to possible challengers back home.
“Age happens,” Scott acknowledged in 2023.
He is right. Age does happen. Father Time remains undefeated, even in Congress.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C., since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at jamiedupree.substack.com
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