Utah Rep. Blake Moore on his new role in the House
Nov 9, 2023, 6:00 AM | Updated: Jan 9, 2024, 11:12 am
FILE: Congressman Blake Moore, who represents Utah’s 1st Congressional District. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
(Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
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SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Blake Moore, R-UT, says he holds an optimistic, conservative approach toward politics and governing, and he thinks it’s that approach that landed him an influential job this week.
He’ll be the vice chair of the House Republican Conference, described by the Congressional Institute as the “organizational vehicle” for GOP members of the House.” Specifically, as reported by Politico, Moore will “oversee members’ one-minute floor speeches.”
“It’s hard work,” he told KSL NewsRadio. “It’s a role that usually is behind the scenes, you’re helping other members leverage whatever tools we have to communicate our message.”
A position on the conference opened up when Rep. Mike Johnson, R-LA, got his new job as Speaker of the House.
No time for a honeymoon
Moore echoes the feelings of fellow Utah congressmen who’ve said time was wasted in the weeks the House was without leadership.
“We lost a month,” Moore told KSL At Night. “And we are now up against another November 17 deadline. That’s the focus right now.” On Nov. 17, a continuing resolution passed by the House in early October, essentially funding the U.S. government, will expire.
How is the work of passing spending bills progressing? Moore said the speaker is doing a good job of rallying the GOP House members.
“Speaker Johnson has done an exceptional job, trying to rally us to coalesce around how we want to go about addressing this looming deadline and finish the appropriations bills,” Moore said.
At publication, there were 9 days before the Nov. 17th deadline and Reuters reported that House GOP members had gone behind closed doors to work on another temporary funding bill.
Youth in leadership, a trend?
A few months ago, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, announced he would not run again for the U.S. Senate, in part because of his age (right now he’s 76 years old.) He said that it was time for a new generation of leadership in Washington.
Now, the new House Speaker, a virtual unknown, is 51 years old. Rep. Moore is 44 years old, and he agrees that Congress is looking more youthful. But he doesn’t think his age played a part in his winning the position.
“I think people gravitated towards my message of — we need an optimistic conservative approach. You know, we firmly believe when you look at core conservative principles, they provide a lot of hope for folks,” he said.
And he said the American people are ready for something different.
“If we continue to just keep going down the same road without trying new approaches on debt, on immigration … we’re gonna keep getting the same results. So we have to be thoughtful and be willing to take risks, and give Americans hope that we’re not just going to keep going down the road that is not in the right direction.”
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