Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx has reached her final hours as head of the conference on education policy.
For 20 years, Foxx has served on the Home Education and Personnel Committee. While the Republicans were the majority in the House for the last two terms, he has held the coveted position of Speaker and was a member when the Democrats controlled it from 2019 to 2021. In fact, he refused the 81-year-old congress. Heading the 118th congressional committee, because Republicans limit the top committee post to six years.
The Board of Directors of the Republic will elect the next president on Thursday.
Foxx told ABC News that his top priority on the show was to lower college costs by reauthorizing the Higher Education Act.
Rep. Virginia Foxx speaks during a hearing titled “Holding Accountability: Stopping College Chaos” before the House Committee on Education and Workforce on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images
Many of the K-12 issues on the former college professor and community college president’s legislative agenda became winning issues for Republicans. Parental rights, protecting women and girls in sports and school choice policies – issues that have reached a national level in the campaign this year – were strongly supported by Republicans under Foxx’s leadership.
Foxx is known for blasting the Biden administration’s signature higher education policies, including the student loan forgiveness program. The staff has been called a “hero” and a “force of nature” by Chamber President Mike Johnson.
“He’s been a very loyal friend to me and a good role model for all of us,” Johnson recalled in an interview with ABC News. “His work ethic is unbelievable. He’s very passionate about what he does. He’s a force of nature, but he also has a way of balancing it with humility,” Johnson said.
Dedication to education
Foxx’s dedication to education was demonstrated by his committee’s crackdown on alleged anti-Semitism that has engulfed college campuses over the past year. He presided over hearings that led to the collection of more than 400,000 pages of documents, historic subpoenas for documents and internal communications, and the resignation of Ivy League presidents who failed to protect Jewish students at US universities, according to the commission’s extensive disclosure. the report.
“Our goal was and is to make sure that Jewish students are safe on campus,” Foxx told ABC News, adding, “All students should be safe on campus, but it was Jewish students who were being threatened and harassed and, sometimes, attacked.”
Elise Stefanik, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, has worked alongside Foxx on the committee for the past decade. Stefanik credits Foxx with being the impetus behind pushing education to the top of the House agenda when Johnson took on the issue of anti-Semitism earlier this spring.
“The great thing about Virginia is that she’s not going to slow down, and I think she’s going to have other great chapters in Congress, but it’s been great to be on the committee with her, and I’m so proud of her, and she’s someone that a lot of people look up to,” Stefani told ABC to News
Foxx’s work ethic dates back to his humble beginnings in Avery County, North Carolina, Appalachia. She told ABC News that she grew up very poor.
“I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined being in Congress or being portrayed,” Foxx said this fall when asked about the painting of him that now hangs in the Education Committee hearing room on Capitol Hill. “I grew up in a town without any electricity or water.”
A portrait of Republican Virginia Foxx hangs in the Rayburn House Office Building, site of an education and labor committee hearing, on Capitol Hill, September 25, 2024.
ABC News
Foxx now mentors his colleagues, including Stefanik and Utah’s Burgess Owens.
“He’s a bulldog in terms of what he wants to accomplish and that’s really what we need to bring education to the forefront,” Representative Owens told ABC News.
A former NFL player, Owens said he admires Foxx’s ability to build a team and compared the president to legendary coach Al Davis.
“I also see what Dr. Foxx is doing with education,” Owens said. “For the first time I think education is becoming a priority, not just for those of us who have the hobby, but for Americans across the country who have taken it for granted,” he said.
What will be the next chair?
A newcomer to the board, Owens wants to follow in Foxx’s footsteps. He is challenging Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, to be Foxx’s replacement.
Owens told ABC News he’s worried about winning over his colleagues on the committee. Meanwhile, Walberg and Rep. GT Thompson of Pennsylvania are the Republicans behind Foxx on the committee. After 16 years, Walberg said he believes he deserves the top spot.
Foxx said he’s enjoyed chairing the committee, but it’s just one of the highlights of his time on the Hill.
“My greatest accomplishment is when we help another constituent every day, so my life is not just about the committee,” he said.
