Chris Van Hollen

Democrats Rumble With GOP In Defense-Heavy Districts Over Automatic Pentagon Cuts

Brian Beutler | May 14, 2012, 1:44PM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

A months-long fight in Congress over how to avoid automatic, across-the-board cuts to defense programs set to kick in next year is increasingly bleeding in to battleground districts home to significant numbers of military service members and contractors.

With the Jan. 1 deadline nearing, and the parties still at loggerheads over how to order national priorities within the budget, Republicans and Democrats are scrambling to avoid blame for the pending cuts, eager to finger members of the other party.

The GOP approach, which passed the House Thursday, would override the defense cuts with billions of dollars in cuts to food stamps and other social programs for the poor. A Democratic alternative would replace the automatic cuts with a mix of cuts to corporate subsidies and higher taxes on the wealthy, but the GOP denied that bill a vote on the House floor.

In the aftermath, a top Armed Services Committee Republican -- Rep. Randy Forbes -- is prepared to host a series of town hall meetings in defense-heavy Virginia to place the onus for replacing the cuts on Democrats. And a leading Maryland Democrat is hoping to spoil Forbes's effort to win the headline war.

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Taxes

Top Dem Explains Plan To Break GOP Anti-Tax Absolutism

Brian Beutler | May 8, 2012, 10:37AM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

Breaking Republicans' anti-tax absolutism is key to understanding just about everything Democrats have been doing for months now, both in Washington and on the campaign trail. It's the strategic underpinning of the Buffett Rule and the surtax on million-dollar earners; it's the purpose of the so-called "sequester" -- the deep cuts to defense and discretionary spending that will kick in next year if Congress doesn't pass a substantial deficit-reduction plan -- in the debt-limit deal, and it explains Democrats' reluctance to unwind the sequester until Republicans agree to significant new revenues.

So far it hasn't worked, and most elected officials don't expect any movement on the issue until after the election.

Even if President Obama wins re-election, though, what's to stop Republicans on Capitol Hill from linking arms and blocking any tax revenues?

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Budget

Dems Irate As GOP Set To Break Debt Limit Deal

Sahil Kapur | March 8, 2012, 1:18PM

Signs mounted Thursday that House Republican leaders, under pressure from their conservative members, will submit a budget that calls for cutting federal programs beneath the levels they agreed to in the bipartisan August debt limit law. Democrats warned that violating the agreement could spark a government shutdown fight later this year.

Echoing Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD), the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, told TPM that the House GOP must not go down that road.

"Look, an agreement is agreement, and they should stick to the agreement," Van Hollen said in a brief interview. "And not otherwise risk ultimately messing up the entire process, with a worst case scenario of a government shutdown. They should recognize what the risks are in violating an agreement."

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Payroll Tax Cut

Dems Warn GOP: Don't Strangle Recovery By Screwing With Payroll Tax

Brian Beutler | January 6, 2012, 12:24PM

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Top Democrats pulled a little stunt Friday morning, when they tried to upend the House's pro forma session to confer about and debate the payroll tax cut.

But in their remarks to the press afterward, they parlayed today's positive jobs figures into a serious political warning to the GOP: Don't threaten the recovery by playing games with the economy. In essence, today's positive economic news raised the stakes of the payroll tax cut fight -- if Republicans can't get their act together and the tax cut lapses, it will muffle the recovery just as it's finally starting to turn economist's heads.

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Payroll Tax Cut

Dems Redouble Efforts To Break House GOP Will On Payroll Tax Cut

Brian Beutler | December 21, 2011, 1:48PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

With Republicans so perilously on the ropes, Democrats aren't relenting in their push to break House GOP leaders' will, and force them to pass the Senate's payroll tax cut compromise. Not in the White House, not in the House, not in the Senate.

On a conference call with reporters this morning, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) -- joined by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) -- called on John Boehner to wave the white flag.

"This is the end of the road," Schumer said. "The first thing that they have to do to show their good faith is pass the two-month extension.... I feel for Speaker Boehner because I know he didn't choose this path. But they're pretty far down a dead-end path."

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Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi Games Out The Long Fight Over Medicare And The Rest Of The Safety Net

Brian Beutler | December 7, 2011, 4:45AM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Eight months is a long time in politics, but it will be eight months ago next week that House Republicans voted overwhelmingly for a budget that envisioned a massively scaled-down social safety net -- a smaller, privatized health care system for old people, to replace traditional Medicare; Medicaid financially constrained, and handed over to state governments; cuts to various other support programs that benefit the poor, the young, and the elderly.

That didn't sit well with voters. And in the months that followed, Republicans tried to contain the fallout by making federal deficits a central political issue while forcing Democrats to agree to real cuts to these programs -- all while refusing themselves to raise taxes, even on the very wealthiest Americans.

This too didn't go according to plan. The GOP upheld its vow not to raise taxes; Democrats insisted new tax revenue was a criterion for cutting benefits; and Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security avoided the scalpel.

At least for now.

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Chris Van Hollen

Dems Get A Boost For Super Committee Tax Bump

Brian Beutler | October 26, 2011, 3:00PM

With less than a month before their November 23 deadline, Democrats on the deficit Super Committee are facing serious pushback from their Republican counterparts for proposing a broad deal that would reduce deficits by nearly $3 trillion -- including cuts to popular programs like Medicare -- because it also includes more than $1 trillion in new tax revenues, according to aides briefed on private negotiations.

Sources remain mum on the specifics of the cuts and taxes Dems have put forward. And they caution that most, but not all, of the Democrats on the panel support the push -- an effort to achieve multiple Republican votes for a plan modeled on the "grand bargain" President Obama tried to strike with John Boehner.

But they got some unexpected help from Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf who testified before the panel Wednesday. He cited analysis his office did about a year ago, which found that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire would carry greater reward than risk -- that the hole they punch in the budget overwhelms the positive impact they have on productivity.

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Super Committee

Hoyer To Super Committee: Go Big, Or We'll Come Back For Round Two

Brian Beutler | October 25, 2011, 2:16PM

The 12 members of the deficit Super Committee have been so tight lipped about their negotiations, that most of the clues about their progress come from Congressional colleagues -- most of whom are also in the dark about specifics.

At his weekly Capitol briefing Tuesday, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) had a hard time pegging the panel's chances for reaching an agreement to achieve trillions of dollars in deficit reduction. But he insisted that if the panel failed to achieve significant savings, Congress will have to keep chipping away.

"People ask me, 'Are you optimistic?' I say, 'Look, I'm not optimistic -- I'm hopeful,'" Hoyer said. "I hope, because I think it's absolutely essential that we do so, that we succeed. Producing a product that is a big deal, not a small deal -- if we do a small deal, we'll have to revisit that."

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Super Committee

Super Committee Democrats Want More Deficit Reduction

Brian Beutler | September 6, 2011, 4:06PM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

The key dilemma facing President Obama and Congressional Democrats is that Republicans are wholly unwilling to support any new job-creating spending projects -- even projects with bipartisan support -- unless they're offset with spending cuts or savings elsewhere in the budget.

Thus, Democrats on the new joint deficit Super Committee will seek more than the $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction they've been tasked with finding, in order to help offset some of those costs.

"All of us would like to set as a target for ourselves even more than $1.5 trillion," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who's also the top House Democrat on the Budget Committee, told reporters at a Tuesday Capitol press conference.

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Russ Feingold

Feingold To Press Dems To Abandon Any Unbalanced Super Committee Deal

Brian Beutler | August 23, 2011, 12:36PM

Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), June 12, 2011.

Former Sen. Russ Feingold and his new group Progressives United are petitioning the six House and Senate Democrats serving on the joint deficit Super Committee to walk away if Republicans don't budge on tax increases, and insist on cutting entitlement benefits.

"If we don't get our policy priorities, Democrats need to be ready to walk away from the deal," Feingold emailed his supporters. "You can guarantee extremists on the other side will continue to push relentlessly to give even more to corporations and put even more of the burden on the middle class. We have to fight harder than they will."

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Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi Names Clyburn, Van Hollen, Becerra To Deficit Super Committee

Brian Beutler | August 11, 2011, 1:04PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

The roster's now complete. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has named her picks to the deficit Super Committee, and they're a familiar bunch: Reps Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

Each of the three has served at her behest on different fiscal working groups in the recent past. All are loyal members, current or former, of her leadership team, all with fairly liberal voting records.

But here are a few caveats...

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Debt

Top Dems Provide Fresh Detail On High-Income Tax Proposal That Led GOP To Abandon Debt Talks

Brian Beutler | June 24, 2011, 12:58PM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

Updated at 1:55 p.m.

Two of the top Democrats in Congress are calling out their Republican counterparts for abandoning high-stakes debt talks, and have provided new details about the tax proposals that sent the GOP packing.

"To paraphrase speaker Boehner, this was not an adult moment," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a conference call with reporters. "There needs to be revenues in any deal."

Schumer was not a member of the bipartisan debt discussion group led by Vice President Joe Biden. But Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) was, and on the call he explained the tax proposals Democrats tried to put on the table that the GOP rejected.

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Citizens United

Republicans Push Back On Obama Plan To Force Disclosure Of Political Contributions

Susan Crabtree | May 6, 2011, 1:56AM

GOP Leaders

Republicans are predictably pushing back against President Obama's proposed executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their political donations to third-party groups.

House GOP leaders and 19 other Republicans sent a letter to Obama Friday urging him not to issue the executive order, arguing it would introduce politics into the federal-government contracting practice and stifle political speech.

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Priorities USA

Watchdogs Target New Democratic Super PACs

Susan Crabtree | April 29, 2011, 4:33PM

President Barack Obama

That didn't take long.

Just hours after the launch Friday of two new Democratic Super Pacs designed to keep President Obama in the White House and counter deep-pocketed GOP groups who helped Republicans win control of the House in 2010, a prominent watchdog group announced plans to file a complaint against them with the IRS.

The two new groups, Priorities USA and Priorities USA Action, were formed by former Obama White House aides Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney to take advantage of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling last year and will collect unlimited funds -- with the goal of $100 million -- from corporations and unions. Only one of the two groups will disclose their donors to the Federal Election Commission.

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John Podesta

Podesta: Not Raising Debt Limit Is Suicide ... For Republicans

Brian Beutler | April 12, 2011, 1:01PM

John Podesta, former transition Chief of Staff for President Obama

One of the most influential Democratic operatives in Washington says the GOP plan to extract enormous conservative concessions from President Obama in exchange for raising the debt ceiling will backfire. If Republicans push ahead with this tactic, they'll be forced to backpedal quickly.

"That that's like playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun. I think that gun's actually pointed at the Republican leadership's head, not so much at the White House," John Podesta told me after a presentation at his think tank, the Center for American Progress. "I think they will find soon enough that if they try the same tactics they used in the 2011 [spending] battle with respect to the debt limit, you're going to see markets react to that in a very, very negative way and there's going to be a lot of pressure on them to get realistic, and at least with respect to the debt limit, to move forward in a more cooperative way."

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Barack Obama

Obama, Van Hollen Back Bowles-Simpson As Counterpoint To Right-Wing GOP Budget

Brian Beutler | April 12, 2011, 11:50AM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

The Republican opening bid in the fiscal war of 2011 is to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid, and to lower tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.

The Democrats, by contrast, will enter the sweepstakes with ... the Simpson-Bowles recommendations?

For the uninitiated, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles co-chaired the White House's fiscal commission, and personally recommended a series of conservative leaning policy proposals for reducing deficits and debt over the long-term. They floated their proposals after the commission itself was unable to reach a consensus. Among their proposals were reducing top tax rates and simplifying the system by eliminating loopholes and giveaways in the code.

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Budget

Van Hollen On House GOP: 'Speaker Boehner Is Not In Control'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | April 7, 2011, 4:32PM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

The ranking member on the House Budget Committee said Thursday that the tea party has taken over in the House of Representatives, and turned Speaker John Boehner into little more than a rubber stamp for their social agenda as the government careens toward its first shutdown since 1995.

"Speaker Boehner is not in control," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said on a conference call with reporters when asked by TPM about the prospects of a shutdown. "The tea party caucus has their hands on the steering wheel and they are prepared to drive right into a government shut down if they don't get 100% of their demands met."

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Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | February 18, 2011, 5:57PM

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI)

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

• CBS, Face The Nation: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

• CNN, State Of The Union: Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

• Fox News Sunday: Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

Debt Ceiling

'Pay China First' -- Republicans' Wild Plan To Avoid U.S. Debt Default

Brian Beutler | January 31, 2011, 9:30AM

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA)

New Republican legislation in the House and Senate would force the U.S. government to reroute huge amounts of money to China and other creditors in the event that Congress fails to raise its debt ceiling.

"I intend to introduce legislation that would require the Treasury to make interest payments on our debt its first priority in the event that the debt ceiling is not raised," Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) wrote in a Friday Wall Street Journal op-ed.

If passed, Toomey's plan would require the government to cut large checks to foreign countries, and major financial institutions, before paying off its obligations to Social Security beneficiaries and other citizens owed money by the Treasury -- that is, if the U.S. hits its debt ceiling. Republican leaders insist they will raise the country's debt limit before this happens. But first, they're going to try to force Democrats to accept large spending cuts, using their control over the debt limit as leverage. That means gridlock, and the threat that they'll come up short.

That's where Toomey's idea supposedly comes in. And yet, according to the Treasury Department, his plan wouldn't actually avoid a default, or its catastrophic consequences.

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Chris Van Hollen

Van Hollen: No One Is Telling Wary Dems To Vote Against HCR Repeal

Evan McMorris-Santoro | January 4, 2011, 12:57PM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

When House Republicans use their first days in the majority to push for a repeal of the landmark health care reform law signed back in March, they're likely to have a few Democrats stand with them. Around a dozen Democrats who voted against the law the first time survived the bloodbath election back in November, giving House Republicans a small Democratic caucus to work with when trying to cast the repeal effort as at least nominally bipartisan.

House Democrats are gearing up to fight the repeal battle hard, as Greg Sargent reported yesterday. Progressive leaders in the soon-to-be Democratic minority are hoping to cast the repeal vote as an attack on the more popular elements of reform, including the banning of preexisting condition discrimination and the closure of the so-called Medicare "donut hole." Democrats plan to push Republicans to take a stand on those elements, Sargent reports, by pressuring them to cast unpopular votes against them.

The same pressure will not be applied to fellow Democrats, however. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), former chair of the DCCC and incoming ranking member on the Budget Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill today that there's not a concerted effort to push reform-opposing Democrats to stick with their caucus when it comes to the Republican repeal vote.

"No one is pressuring anybody to do anything," Van Hollen said.

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Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | December 10, 2010, 5:29PM

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Israeli Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni.

• CBS, Face The Nation: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, former DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).

• CNN, State Of The Union: Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA).

• Fox News Sunday: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

• NBC, Meet The Press: New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I).

Bush Tax Cuts

House Dems Identify Key Objection To Obama Tax Compromise

Brian Beutler | December 7, 2010, 10:45PM

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer with other House Democrats

Angry House Democrats identified their key objection to President Obama's tax cut compromise Tuesday night, after they were briefed on the deal in a private meeting by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders.

Several members are withholding their support for the legislation unless the details of an estate tax agreement between the White House and Senate Republicans become more progressives.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Tax Cut Negotiators Meeting This Morning

Eric Kleefeld | December 1, 2010, 10:19AM

Treasury Sec. Timothy Geithner

The bipartisan group set to negotiate the issues surrounding the expiration of the Bush tax cuts is set to meet at 10:15 a.m. ET, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The roster:

• Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner

• Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jacob Lew

• Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee

• Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

• Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), the incoming ranking member of the House Budget Committee

• Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), the likely next Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Bush Tax Cuts

Dems Torn Over Schumer Plan To Raise Taxes On Millionaires Only

Brian Beutler | November 30, 2010, 8:07PM

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

At an undisclosed White House meeting yesterday with Senate Democratic leaders, President Obama pushed back on a controversial, but politically potent tax cut plan that has knocked Republicans off message in recent days.

Pushing hardest for the new approach was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the third ranking Democrat in the Senate and the Dems' new point man for combining message and policy. He proposes to create a new tax bracket above the $1 million income threshold, and let Republicans decide whether to fight to the death to give those people a tax cut. It's the one compromise that polls well and wrongfoots the GOP at the same time.

"Republicans are worried about this proposal because it would expose that they are fighting for millionaires instead of the middle class," said Schumer's spokesman Brian Fallon in a statement to me.

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Pay Freeze

Dems Split On Obama Plan To Freeze Federal Pay

Brian Beutler | November 29, 2010, 8:40PM

President Obama, House Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats

Congressional Democrats are divided once again over an olive branch President Obama extended to the GOP. Progressive members are openly questioning his proposal to freeze federal pay through at least 2012, while their conservative counterparts support the plan, aligning themselves with Republican members who are already pressing Obama to move further to the right.

"[I]t would have been far preferable for the White House to have included this as part of a comprehensive proposal, instead of singling out the hard working men and women of the federal workforce," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) in a statement to reporters this evening. "By focusing exclusively on federal employees, the Administration runs the risk of reinforcing the myth, pushed by some for politically convenient but cynical reasons, that America suffers from a federal government comprised of unproductive and overpaid civil servants. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Van Hollen's the incoming ranking member of the Budget Committee, but also represents a large number of federal employees. That said, he's not alone.

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Chris Van Hollen

Current Budget Chair Endorses Van Hollen To Take Top Slot Next Year

Brian Beutler | November 10, 2010, 6:30PM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

The current House Budget Committee Chairman -- Rep. John Spratt (D-SC), who lost his re-election bid last week -- has endorsed Chris Van Hollen to take over as the top Democrat on the panel next year.

"I am writing to state my enthusiastic support for Chris Van Hollen as Ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee in the 112th Congress," Spratt wrote in a letter to colleagues today. "Through his work in the Democratic leadership and on the Ways and Means Committee, Chris has demonstrated his dedication to our values as well as his knowledge of the issues.

Van Hollen appears to have a clear path to becoming the ranking member on the committee. Yesterday, the committee's second highest-ranking Democrat, Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) backed his candidacy, and a source close to him tells me he has thusfar rounded up the support of 17 of the 19, returning Democrats on the panel, and counting.

You can read the entire letter below the fold.

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Chris Van Hollen

Chris Van Hollen Vies For Top Spot On Budget Committee

Brian Beutler | November 9, 2010, 6:33PM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

A source close to outgoing DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen confirms that the Maryland Democrat is angling to be the party's top budget guy in the House when they assume the minority in January. He would replace current chairman John Spratt, who was defeated in last week's midterm elections.

Van Hollen is not currently a member of the Budget Committee, but did deal with these issues when he was a member of the Maryland General Assembly. He was given a leadership title at the beginning of the 111th Congress, but will likely be squeezed out when Democrats lose the Speakership.

If he wins, Van Hollen would leapfrog the Budget Committee's Vice Chair Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) for the top slot. As ranking member he'd spar with incoming Budget Chairman Paul Ryan -- a conservative but, like Van Hollen, not known for his pyrotechnics behind the dais.

James Clyburn

Pelosi Quiet As Hoyer And Clyburn Battle It Out For Minority Whip

Brian Beutler | November 8, 2010, 10:44AM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Top Democrats in Washington wish their big electoral defeat Tuesday hadn't been followed by a divisive leadership fight in the House. But that's what happened Friday when, minutes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she would run to be the Dems' Minority Leader, her vote-counter James Clyburn announced he would run for Minority Whip, touching off a leadership race between himself and Steny Hoyer.

Over the weekend, both men and their allies worked the phones relentlessly to shore up support. But publicly, the two camps picked very different strategies for managing public expectations of the outcome. Team Hoyer has been working the media, rolling out ever-longer lists of members who've publicly committed to backing their guy.

"Hoyer's going to win," one source close to Hoyer told TPM.

Read more »

Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | November 5, 2010, 6:17PM

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-KY), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), former Reagan administration Budget Director David Stockman.

• CBS, Face The Nation: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC).

• CNN, State Of The Union: Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Sen.-elect Pat Toomey (R-PA).

• Fox News Sunday: House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ).

DCCC

Van Hollen Stepping Down From DCCC

Eric Kleefeld | November 5, 2010, 11:59AM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

Rep Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who headed up the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during this past campaign cycle, has announced that he will not be returning for another two years at the helm.

The Hill reports:

"When it comes to the DCCC chairmanship, I believe in term limits," Van Hollen told liberal radio host Bill Press on Friday. "This will be the end."

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Chris Van Hollen

Van Hollen: Dems Can Still Hold House

Brian Beutler | November 2, 2010, 9:24PM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen paid a visit to DNC headquarters to tell reporters that despite early losses, he still thinks Democrats can keep the House.

"Those were the [seats] who were expected to be called," he said of the first returns.

When a reporter from a different outlet told him that her network had already called a GOP takeover of the House, a visibly flustered Van Hollen insisted repeatedly "I think that's a mistake."

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Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | October 22, 2010, 2:13PM

Marco Rubio, Charlie Crist, and Kendrick Meek at a Florida Senate debate

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: DNC Chairman Tim Kaine, Retired Army Gen. Hugh Shelton

• CBS, Face The Nation: Karl Rove, DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

• CNN, State Of The Union: Florida Senate candidates Marco Rubio (R), Kendrick Meek (D), Charlie Crist (I).

• Fox News Sunday: Senate candidate Pat Toomey (R-PA), Senate candidate Joe Manchin (D-WV).

• NBC, Meet The Press: RNC Chairman Michael Steele.

Nancy Pelosi

The Next Gingrich? How Democrats Could Win, And Pelosi Still Lose

Brian Beutler | October 21, 2010, 11:48AM

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

A small but growing number of Democrats have abandoned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- the GOP's second-favorite bogeyman in contested districts. Depending on how you count, about five have even said they oppose her continued Speakership if the Democrats retain the House.

That may sound like no big deal -- who cares if some of the most conservative Democrats in the House won't vote for Pelosi, so long as a majority of her caucus still supports her, right? Wrong.

The Speaker is a unique office-holder on Capitol Hill, elected by a plurality of the full House of Representatives. Even if Democrats can retain the House, their margin will likely be slimmer than it is now. And that could touch off a scenario in which there's a majority of Democrats in Congress, but a minority of members of Congress willing to vote for Pelosi as Speaker.

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Steny Hoyer

Hoyer: Middle Class Tax Cut Vote 'Certainly Under Consideration' Before Election

Brian Beutler | September 28, 2010, 1:00PM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

At his weekly press conference this morning, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was at the center of a fusillade of questions about middle class tax cuts: Why haven't House Democrats held a vote? Is a vote before the midterm elections still possible? Why not put Republicans on the spot?

His response suggests that Democrats are still undecided about whether to force a tax cut vote this week. But though they may still surprise everybody and push ahead tomorrow or Thursday, they're running out of time to decide.

"If we thought we could get it through the Senate absolutely we would act," Hoyer told reporters, "and we may well act anyhow."

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Bush Tax Cuts

Dem Leadership Exposes Rift On Middle Class Tax Cuts

Brian Beutler | September 27, 2010, 12:16PM

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), President Barack Obama, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

We should know as early as today (or possibly tomorrow) whether House Democrats will do as many predict and kick the fight over middle-class tax cuts past the midterm elections in November.

Many signs point to yes -- the Senate already punted, a number of House Democrats want at least a temporary extension of tax cuts for wealthy Americans, and all of that is reflected in a split within Democratic leadership over what the party should do.

That split was reflected this weekend when, within minutes of each other, two members of the Dems' leadership team -- DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer -- gave opposing answers to a simple question: will Democrats hold this vote before the election.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Top Dem: 'I Doubt' House Will Hold Vote This Week On Bush Tax Cuts (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | September 27, 2010, 10:09AM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Rep. Chris Van Hollen may think a vote this week is still possible on extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, but the No. 2 Democrat in the House splashed icy cold water on the idea Sunday.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said on Fox News Sunday that he does not think a vote will happen before members adjourn for the midterm elections, even though Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday it still was possible. Hoyer blamed the Senate for opting to punt the vote to a lame-duck session, telling host Chris Wallace that it would be "a specious act" to hold a vote just for political optics before heading home.

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