U.S. House of Representatives
Committee assignments •
Committee on Armed Services (Chair) • As chair of the full committee, McKeon was entitled to sit as an
ex officio member of all subcommittees. •
Committee on Education and the Workforce •
Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training In 2009, McKeon served as ranking member of the House Committee on Education and Labor. In June, President
Barack Obama nominated Representative
John M. McHugh of
New York, who was the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, as
Secretary of the Army. On June 9, the House Republican leadership appointed McKeon as the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee. Under rules of the
House of Representatives, McKeon was required to step down from his position as ranking member of the Education and Labor Committee, though he continued to serve on the committee. McKeon was named chairman of the Committee on Armed Services in January, following the Republican takeover of the House in the November 2010 elections. As a member of the House, he made education and defense issues two of his main priorities. He was greatly involved in the reform of the Student Loan Aid Program, which reduced interest rates but increased federal control over education policy, such as teacher training. He also supported a strong national defense budget. Along with
Dean Gallo of
New Jersey, McKeon introduced the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act on March 11, 1993. McKeon was a member of the
Republican Study Committee.
Political campaigns In 1992, California gained seven additional seats following the census. A new 25th District was created in the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys in north
Los Angeles County and the communities of
Chatsworth,
Granada Hills,
Northridge, and
Porter Ranch in the northwestern
San Fernando Valley. McKeon was thus the first congressman to represent the new district. In the 2002 reapportionment, the San Fernando Valley and portions of the Antelope Valley were removed from the 25th District. To make up for the loss of population, the district was pushed all the way to the
Nevada border, taking in all of
Inyo and
Mono counties and about half of the land area within
San Bernardino County. The Los Angeles County portion of the district still included the cities of Santa Clarita,
Palmdale, and part of the city of
Lancaster. In 2012, the
California Citizens Redistricting Commission drew new lines for the 25th district, pushing it well to the north and making it somewhat more compact. It retained its share of Los Angeles County, added parts of Porter Ranch and Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley, and expanded into parts of Ventura County, including most of Simi Valley. During the 2006 election cycle, McKeon received 60% of the vote in his district, defeating Democrat Robert Rodriguez and Libertarian David Erickson. The district has been considered to be "safe" for the Republican Party because it included predominantly Republican areas in the Antelope and Santa Clarita Valleys and conservative rural areas of the High Sierra and desert regions of California. McKeon handily won reelection with 58% of the vote in 2008, even though Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama carried the district over his Republican rival John McCain. McKeon's campaigns received the greatest financial support from the defense industry, especially aerospace companies such as
Lockheed Martin,
Northrop Grumman, and
Boeing. Additionally, he is endorsed by the
NRA Political Victory Fund, the
National Federation of Independent Business, and the California Pro-Life Council. Although he has spoken strongly against Obama's budgets and governmental support of the economy and has encouraged reducing spending, McKeon opposed cutting the military budget, stating, "a defense budget in decline portends an America in decline." McKeon voted in favor of American military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Barack Obama's Afghanistan "surge" strategy, and has voted for increasing money and supplies to troops there. He has gone on record saying that withdrawal from Afghanistan should be conditions-based, and done with full consultation with senior military leadership. In a statement from May 2010, McKeon outlined his personal philosophy on the role of the United States and its military, calling for a return to "peace through strength" and Reagan-esque policies, including full financial and material support for the military in its current wars, keeping Guantanamo Bay open, and military posturing. He has also called on Congress to "embrace and build on"
Robert Gates' plan to find $100 billion in savings in the defense budget. In 2011 McKeon organized a fundraiser for the "Lucky 13" Republican freshmen on the House Armed Services Committee to get contributions from defense contractor political action committees. In 2011, McKeon proposed Section 1034, an amendment to the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 that would have inserted the language "Congress affirms that ... the President has the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force during the current armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces pursuant to" the
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF Against Terrorists) (Public Law 107–40) and stated that "the current armed conflict includes nations, organization, and persons who (A) are part of, or are substantially supporting, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners; or (B) have engaged in hostilities or have directly supported hostilities in aid of a nation, organization, or person described in subparagraph (A)." McKeon also offered an NDAA proposal that "contained a provision designed to require military detention of terrorism suspects, even those arrested domestically and even those who are U.S. citizens," but this was later watered down to a proposal stating that the president, under the AUMF Against Terrorists, had "the authority to detain belligerents...until the termination of hostilities. and in a statement the White House issued a
veto threat and said "The Administration strongly objects to section 1034 which, in purporting to affirm the conflict, would effectively recharacterize its scope and would risk creating confusion regarding applicable standards." The expansive language of Section 1034 was criticized in a
New York Times editorial, which called it an unnecessary and dangerous proposal and said that it was "wildly expansive authorization would, in essence, make the war on terror a permanent and limitless aspect of life on earth, along with its huge potential for abuse." President Obama ultimately signed the 2012 NDAA with the contentious provisions, but in February 2012, issued a set of broad waivers that allowed U.S. law enforcement agencies "to retain custody of al-Qaeda terrorism suspects rather than turn them over to the military" as contemplated by the NDAA.
Human Rights Watch said that Obama's waiver was "essentially a 3,450-word line-item veto, rendering the mandatory military detention provision mostly moot." McKeon said if forced to choose between tax increases and cuts to the Pentagon budget, he would choose tax increases. However he would prefer to cut
entitlement spending instead. In 2012, McKeon sought a one-year fix to stave off the defense budget cuts from sequestration, although he had previously voted for the
Budget Control Act of 2011, which included sequestration. McKeon led efforts by some Republicans that contributed to replacement of the sequester cuts for 2014 and 2015 with the
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. In 2014 McKeon said of Obama's plan to raise taxes on banks and millionaires, "I think that would be wonderful but it's not going to happen". He dismissed calls to replace USMC jet fighters destroyed by the Taliban in the
September 2012 Camp Bastion raid. McKeon
opposed abortion. He was endorsed by the California Pro-Life Council. The congressman threatened to derail the 2012 defense authorization bill unless it contained provisions prohibiting military chaplains from officiating at same-sex marriages and restricting access to the civil court system by persons suspected of terrorism. According to the House Armed Services Committee, which oversaw the legislation, the bill "will be the comprehensive legislation to
authorize the budget authority of the
Department of Defense and the national security programs of the
Department of Energy." The total appropriations that are authorized amount to approximately $600 billion for fiscal year 2015.
Countrywide Financial loan In January 2012, it was reported that McKeon received a so-called "VIP" or "Friends of Angelo" loan from troubled mortgage lender
Countrywide Financial, in which loans were granted at lower interest rates than were available to the public. Former Countrywide CEO
Angelo Mozilo created the program to boost the company's standing with politicians, celebrities and well-connected business figures. The congressman received a $315,000 loan from Countrywide at below-market rates in the late 1990s. A congressional probe identified an internal Countrywide email regarding McKeon's loan that stated: "Per Angelo—'take off 1 point, no garbage fees, approve the loan and make it a no doc.'" McKeon and names of other legislators who received similar loans were subsequently referred to the
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as part of an ethics investigation into improper gifts. McKeon denied knowing that he was part of Countrywide Financial's special loan program. In a response to a press inquiry about his knowledge of the loan discounts McKeon stated, "If I had known we had got a good deal then I would have gotten all my loans from Countrywide." ==Personal life==