Rep. Ed Royce, Pro-Israel Republican Who Sought Bipartisanship, Is Retiring
(L-R) House Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and ranking member Rep. Eliot Engle (D-NY) attend a hearing about Cuba policy, February 4, 2015. Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
By Ron Kampeas January 8, 2018
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the top House foreign affairs lawmaker known for his support of Israel and for being the rare lawmaker who championed bipartisanship, is leaving Congress.
“This final year of my Foreign Affairs Committee chairmanship, I want to focus fully on the urgent threats facing our nation, including: the brutal, corrupt and dangerous regimes in Pyongyang and Tehran, Vladimir Putin’s continued efforts to weaponize information to fracture western democracies, and growing terrorist threats in Africa and Central Asia,” Royce, the Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement released late Monday. “With this in mind, and with the support of my wife Marie, I have decided not to seek re-election in November.”
Royce stood out for his pro-Israel steadfastness, which he said was rooted in hearing his father recount the horrors he witnessed as a GI who helped liberate Dachau.
Royce and his Democratic counterpart, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., also were what has become a rarity: A bipartisan pair who consulted closely before advancing legislation, with the aim of garnering as much support as possible in Congress. In 2017 alone, Royce and Engel successfully advanced legislation that added sanctions targetting Iran’s missile development, that made aid to the Palestinians conditional on not rewarding families of Palestinians who killed Israelis, that enhanced reporting on European anti-Semitism and that slammed the Obama administration for allowing through a U.N. Security Council resolution attacking Israel’s settlement policies.
Royce is the latest moderate Republican to announce he won’t run again. His Orange County district went for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, and with Democrats galvanized to retake Congress this year, Republicans in swing districts are seen as facing an uphill battle.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
