Veteran NC Congresswoman Virginia Foxx to lead House Rules Committee

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC-05) will chair the House Rules Committee for the 119th Congress, the House GOP conference confirmed on Tuesday.

She was appointed by Speaker Mike Johnson and ratified by the full Republican conference, according to reports from Punchbowl News and Bloomberg Government.

Foxx will succeed retired Rep. Michael Burgess, a Republican from Texas, in the role.

It’s one of the most powerful panels in Congress. Members influence the introduction and process of legislation through the lower chamber.

With the slim GOP majority, the chair position becomes even more vital to shepherding Johnson’s agenda.

Foxx, the dean of North Carolina’s congressional delegation, has represented the state’s fifth congressional district since 2005. She previously served in the North Carolina Senate from 1995 to 2005.

The 81-year-old Republican made news earlier this month when she slipped and fell down the stairs outside the House chamber.  The injury did not sideline Foxx, who posted on social media “I’m a mountain woman, and we’re tougher than a $2 steak.”

Few women in leadership roles in the new Congress

Johnson’s pick follows an ABC News report from December that no women or people of color would lead a House committee for the first time in two decades.

The House Republican Steering Committee selected leaders for the chamber’s 17 standing committee last month. The list did not include the Rules panel.

Foxx has experience in leadership roles on House panels. She spent time as both the chair and the ranking member of the House Education Committee between 2017 and 2025, as the parties swapped majority of the chamber over the years.

Before that, Foxx served as the House Republican Conference’s secretary between 2013 and 2017.

Foxx has praised recent efforts by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to seek out ways to shrink the federal government through the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).