Pelosi Wins House Minority Whip Position
House Democrats yesterday voted 118-95 to elect Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as minority whip, the second-highest leadership position in the chamber, making the staunch supporter of HIV/AIDS funding, abortion rights and health programs the highest ranking woman in the House's history, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Sandalow, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/11). Pelosi defeated the "slightly more moderate" Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to succeed Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) as the party's vote-counter in the lower house (Borenstein, Contra Costa Times, 10/11). Pelosi is the ranking Democrat on the the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the only California representative on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education and also serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations. She also serves as co-chair of the AIDS Task Force of the House Democratic Caucus (Kaiser Daily Reports/California Healthline, 3/16). As the "prominent" Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, she said she was proudest of her efforts there to "increase very dramatically the funding for research, care and prevention for HIV and AIDS, both domestically and internationally" (Clymer, New York Times, 10/11). The Sacramento Bee reports that Pelosi's new position could "boost California's interest in legislation and could help House members form California secure favorable committee assignments" (O'Rourke, Sacramento Bee, 10/11).
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