San Jose's veteran Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren fills key House role as 'mayor of Capitol Hill'
Tal Kopan March 18, 2019 Updated: March 18, 2019 5:22 a.m.
San Jose's veteran Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren fills...
1of3Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., has served in Congress in 1994. Now she guides California's seven new Democratic representatives in her role as chair of the House Administration Committee.Photo: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call Inc. 2015
2of3Rep. Zoe Lofgren has obscure but key position chairing the House Administration Committee.Photo: Elizabeth D. Herman / New York Times
3of3House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco (left), and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, confer during a February news conference by House Democrats.Photo: Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call Inc.
WASHINGTON — She got the nod from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to quarterback Democrats' symbolic first major legislation as the majority. She's also the congresswoman you see about turning up the heat in the winter.
Longtime San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren is settling into her new role as the "mayor of Capitol Hill," chairing the often-under-the-radar House Administration Committee. The panel's jurisdiction largely consists of operating the House itself, but it also oversees federal elections.
That's how Lofgren ended up as the manager of Democrats' signature bill, given the symbolic number HR1. The legislation seeks to expand voting access and beef up ethics in government and elections, and it was the first bill announced by Pelosi and her caucus once they took over the majority.
Lofgren contributed to the bill but is not listed as the sponsor. Rather, in her role as chair of the committee that handled the bill, it fell to her to guide the legislation through the hoops necessary to get it to passage. The House approved it this month, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has declared it dead on arrival in the Republican upper chamber.
It's a responsibility that fell to Lofgren after Pelosi selected her to run House Administration, one of the few committees whose head is nominated by the party's top lawmaker. (She unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., for the top spot on Judiciary last Congress, falling short in an in-caucus vote.)
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Lofgren is no stranger to multifaceted leadership roles on the Hill. The 13-term congresswoman is chair of California's 46-member Democratic delegation, which alone is bigger than any other state's entire delegation. She also chairs the House Judiciary's immigration subcommittee, as a former immigration attorney and immigration law professor.
As the Democrats take control of the House, Lofgren finds herself juggling the demands of those roles, which includes balancing the needs of longtime veterans of Congress, like herself, and those new to the process.
That includes navigating her party through procedural steps like Republicans' "motion to recommit" on HR1. That quirk of House rules allows the minority party to offer a last-minute amendment to any legislation about to be voted on, typically a messaging exercise designed to be a tough vote for the other party. It has tripped up Democrats thus far this year.
"Because many of our new members have never served in a legislative body before, they're not familiar with the procedures here yet," Lofgren said in an interview for The Chronicle's "It's All Political" podcast. "They're not serious efforts to legislate; they're just 30-second ambushes primarily to set up a vote for a political ad. And they should be treated in that manner."
Only six Democrats defected on the Republicans' motion on HR1 under Lofgren's management of the floor proceedings.
District: California 19th: San Jose
First elected to Congress: 1994
Education: Stanford University, B.A. 1970; Santa Clara University School of Law, J.D. 1975
Previous office held: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, 1980-1994
She's also hit the ground running on House operations. Thousands of people work in the House, between congressional, operational and support staff. The Capitol complex functions almost as a small city, complete with restaurants, barbershops and post offices.
Lofgren's committee provided guidance for lawmakers to begin offering paid internships in their offices, with money appropriated last year. There have also been other requests reflecting the historically diverse new membership of the majority.
"I've had people say, 'Can't we get the heat turned up?' It turns out we can," Lofgren said. "We also got menstrual products put in the ladies' room at the request of some of the younger women. We now have a changing table in the ladies' room."
Lofgren also works with freshman members in her capacity as head of the California Democratic delegation, which has lunch together each week to discuss issues of interest to the state. The Democrats include seven freshmen, none of whom has previously held elected office.
"They're bringing new views, and it's been fun to work with them. Several of them have ended up in key positions," Lofgren said, adding that the new members need less help on policy but can require some "arcane" procedural advice, like how to be recognized to speak on the floor.
"We've got people who have been here on the senior level, some in-between and brand-newbies," Lofgren said of the California Democrats. "So how do we help our newbies get the experience they need to take a leadership role sooner rather than later? They're capable, but how do we help them find their sea legs in Congress? So that's something we're actively working on."
Lofgren also plans to work on immigration policy. While she holds out hope for comprehensive immigration reform, which has eluded Congress for decades, she does not want to "spin my wheels on something that can't happen right now" and is trying to see what can be passed.
That includes two proposals important to the Bay Area and California as a whole: her bill to offer a path to citizenship and legal residency for more agricultural workers and another that would remove per-country caps on green cards, which has created a years-long backlog that disproportionately affects high-skilled immigrants from India and China. Her committee could hold hearings on those bills soon.
"I really would like to get some progress made on immigration," Lofgren said. "I know I'm going to be frustrated — we're not going to be able to do everything I want to do — but it really is doing tremendous damage to the country and I hope that we can make some progress."
Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicle's Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
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Tal Kopan is the Washington Correspondent for The San Francisco Chronicle. Previously, she was a political reporter for CNN Politics, where she covered immigration, cybersecurity and other hot-button issues in Washington, including the 2016 presidential election.
Prior to joining the network, Kopan was a reporter for POLITICO in Washington, D.C., where she reported for their breaking news team and policy verticals, including a special focus on the Department of Justice, courts and cybersecurity.
Kopan started her career working in Chicago with local media outlets ABC7 Chicago and Fox Chicago News.
Her work has earned her awards and fellowships from the Atlanta Press Club; National Press Foundation; Loyola Law School, Los Angeles; and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Kopan graduated with honors from the University of Chicago with a bachelor's degree in "law, letters and society."
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