The House Loses a Major Foreign Policy Hawk

Soon, the House of Representatives will lose one of its fiercest foreign policy and homeland security hawks when Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas retires. 

“It’s been an honor to serve for over two decades in the Congress. I’m looking now for a new challenge,” McCaul said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” as he discussed his intention not to seek reelection. “I’m looking for a new challenge in the same space—that would be national security, foreign policy, but just in a different realm.”

McCaul, 63, took office in 2005 and has since championed legislation to take a strong-armed approach against threats to America’s security.

A former chair of the House Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees, he has helped shape Congress’ responses to national security issues since the presidency of George W. Bush.

He explained on the ABC broadcast that the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States essentially kick-started his career in politics and his focus on threats from abroad.

“It changed my life and many others’, but I became a counterterrorism federal prosecutor within the Justice Department. I entered Congress, I chaired the Homeland Security Committee, I saw the rise of ISIS and the caliphate,” he said. “As chairman of Foreign Affairs [Committee], I saw Afghanistan fall and [Vladimir] Putin invade Ukraine and the Middle East on fire, and then the threat from Chairman Xi [Jinping] in China and the Indo-Pacific.”

McCaul has been a consistent advocate of military aid to Ukraine, has compared Xi of China and Putin of Russia to Adolf Hitler, and has crafted bipartisan legislation to require the Department of Homeland Security to focus more intently on cybersecurity.

Besides representing the loss of a major homeland security hawk, McCaul’s departure is part of a major reshuffling of Texas’ congressional representation. 

Recent redistricting could lead to five Democrat districts being flipped to Republicans, and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is running to become attorney general of the Lone Star State.