Kevin McCarthy's district includes the Mojave spaceport with Virgin Galactic etc. His biggest impact is therefore likely to be on the suborbital tourism market. He recently introduced legislation to simplify the regulation of that industry:http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/03/10/mccarthy-virgin-galactic-hope-commercial-space-measure-soars/ .
Since the Speaker is always from the majority party (s)he is the one with the actual power. In the minority party, the leader is #1, and the whip #2. In the majority party, the speaker is #1, the leader #2, and the whip #3. With Boehner still at the top, I'm not sure how much difference a new leader could enable, even if (s)he wanted to.
Quote from: TomH on 06/16/2014 07:11 amSince the Speaker is always from the majority party (s)he is the one with the actual power. In the minority party, the leader is #1, and the whip #2. In the majority party, the speaker is #1, the leader #2, and the whip #3. With Boehner still at the top, I'm not sure how much difference a new leader could enable, even if (s)he wanted to.I dunno, it doesn't sound like at toothless position, among other things he seems to have the ability to prevent bills from coming up for a vote and can control the makeup of committees.http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-house-gop-leadership-primer-what-do-the-speaker-majority-leader-and-whip-actually-do/2014/06/16/3abdcb80-f57c-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_leaders_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representativeshttp://congressionalresearch.com/RL30665/document.php?study=The+Role+of+the+House+Majority+Leader+An+OverviewIt seems like a lot depends on the interpersonal dynamics with the speaker and how strong the speaker is. Boehner isn't exactly in the strongest position these last few years and there are rumors he might retire in the next year or two.What I am wondering is whether he might be able to act as a somewhat of a counterbalance to some of the more egregious actions which sometimes come out of committees. A good example of which is presently being illustrated over in the Senate: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/06/15/space-frontier-calls-opposition-senate-commercial-crew-provisions/
McCarthy brings delegations of colleagues to tour tech companies. He lured Musk onto Capitol Hill for a private chat with GOP leaders and then persuaded the innovator to headline a lecture series in Bakersfield. When Musk's SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket, McCarthy swept aside grumbling from colleagues about all the tax money the company spends to declare the event a "pivotal moment for the future of spaceflight."
A new mention of McCarthy's leanings:QuoteMcCarthy brings delegations of colleagues to tour tech companies. He lured Musk onto Capitol Hill for a private chat with GOP leaders and then persuaded the innovator to headline a lecture series in Bakersfield. When Musk's SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket, McCarthy swept aside grumbling from colleagues about all the tax money the company spends to declare the event a "pivotal moment for the future of spaceflight."http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-gop-silicon-valley-20140908-story.html#page=1