Rodney Procter Frelinghuysen ( ;As pronounced in "Repeal and Replace ACA". born April 29, 1946) is an American former politician and lobbyist who served as the U.S. representative for from 1995 to 2019. The district includes most of Morris County, an affluent suburban county west of New York City. A member of the Republican Party, Frelinghuysen served as chair of the House Appropriations Committee from 2017 to 2019. Frelinghuysen announced on January 29, 2018, that he would not seek re-election that year.
He has at times supported abortion rights and at times voted to limit access to abortion.Ed Kilgore, October 3, 2017, New York Magazine, House Passes 20-Week Abortion Ban on Near-Perfect Party-Line Vote, Retrieved January 11, 2017 He opposed federal funding of Planned Parenthood,Lisa Marie Segarra, March 7, 2017, North Jersey, Planned Parenthood brings rally to Frelinghuysen's office, Retrieved January 11, 2017, "...the congressman voted to fund Planned Parenthood in 2007, 2009 and 2011, but voted against it from 2015 through 2017...." and opposed sanctuary cities,Jonathan D. Salant, June 29, 2017, NJ.com, How Republicans want to punish sanctuary cities (including those in N.J.), Retrieved January 11, 2017, "..House Republicans, including four from New Jersey, voted Thursday to take away federal funds from municipalities that do not respond to federal requests to detain unauthorized immigrants.... and Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) all voted in favor of cutting off the federal funding..." gun control, gay marriage, and federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. He endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. He voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and replace it with the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Frelinghuysen was criticized for using a fundraising letter to "[out] a member of an activist group opposing him to her employer" which resulted in a complaint by the Campaign for Accountability made with the Office of Congressional Ethics.WN.com, Frelinghuysen hires lawyers after ethics complaint about 'ringleader' letter, Retrieved January 12, 2017, "...Frelinghuysen paid lawyers in New Jersey and Washington nearly $32,000 this spring after an ethics complaint was filed over a fund-raising letter he sent to a bank official ..."
Early life and education Frelinghuysen was born in New York City to Peter Frelinghuysen Jr., a New Jersey politician and Beatrice Sterling Procter, an heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune.
Frelinghuysen is a member of a family long prominent in New Jersey politics, one which was ranked the seventh greatest American political dynasty by Stephen H. Hess, senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution, and author of "America's Political Dynasties".
His father, Peter Frelinghuysen Jr., served as the U.S. representative from New Jersey's 5th congressional district from 1953 to 1975, representing much of the same area Rodney did during his time in Congress. On his father's side, he is a great-grandson of American Sugar Refining Company founder Henry Osborne Havemeyer and great-great-great-grandson of Ballantine Brewery founder Peter Ballantine. On his mother's side, he is a great-great-grandson of William Procter, co-founder of Procter & Gamble and grandson of William Cooper Procter, the president of Procter & Gamble from 1907 to 1930.
He attended St. Mark's School, an exclusive Episcopal preparatory school in Southborough, Massachusetts. Rejected by Princeton, the alma mater of his father and grandfather, Frelinghuysen instead matriculated at Hobart College in New York. There, he served as president of the Kappa Alpha Society and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American history in 1969.
Frelinghuysen next enrolled in a graduate program at Trinity College but was soon drafted into the United States Army. Following basic training at Fort Dix, he was assigned as a clerk to the commanding officer of the 93rd Engineer Battalion, which was primarily responsible for building roads and water supply systems in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.
Local and state political career After his military service, Frelinghuysen was hired by then-Morris County Freeholder Director Dean A. Gallo to be the county's state and federal aid coordinator and administrative assistant. He held this position until 1974, when he was elected as a Morris County Freeholder in his own right. He served three terms on the board, the last as its director.
In 1983, Frelinghuysen was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly, representing the 25th legislative district. Frelinghuysen served in the Assembly until 1994. He was Chairman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee during the 1988–89 legislative session. In 1990 he ran in the Republican primary for New Jersey's 12th congressional district against Dick Zimmer and Phil McConkey.
During the race, the Frelinghuysen campaign "broke ground in high-tech politicking" when it sent voters a seven-minute video cassette of Frelinghuysen. The video, which contained photographs of Frelinghuysen in Vietnam and praise from former Gov. Tom Kean, served as a preemptive tactic against opponents' attempts to characterize Frelinghuysen as "an irrelevant debutante". Frelinghuysen finished in third place.
U.S. House of Representatives Elections In late August 1994, U.S. Congressman Dean Gallo, the six-term Republican incumbent of New Jersey's Eleventh Congressional District, announced his intention to withdraw from the upcoming election for medical reasons (he had recently been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and died two days before the election). As Gallo had already defeated three opponents in a hard-fought primary the previous June, his withdrawal triggered a convention of Republican committee members from the district's municipalities. Frelinghuysen, who had been Gallo's former employee and fellow Morris County freeholder and state assemblyman, sought the committee's nomination at Gallo's request, and was chosen to be the Republican nominee for the district.
Frelinghuysen went on to defeat former Democratic State Senator Frank Herbert 71% to 28% in the November 1994 election. However, the 11th had long been one of the most Republican districts in the Northeast, and Frelinghuysen had effectively clinched a seat in Congress by winning the Republican nomination. He was reelected nine times with no substantive opposition, never dropping below 59% of the vote. He has been challenged in the Republican primary three times: in 2008, 2010, and 2014. In 2008, he defeated Kate Erber in the June primary 87% to 13%. In 2010, he defeated Richard Luzzi 76% to 24%. In 2014, he defeated Rick Van Glahn 67% to 33%. This came even as his district was made slightly friendlier to Democrats on paper after the 2010 census, when it absorbed slices of heavily Democratic Montclair, Bloomfield and West Orange. However, Frelinghuysen still had little trouble winning reelection. In addition to his district being located in the New York City market, he was helped by his seat on the Appropriations Committee. He was a chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development from 2011 to 2017 before becoming chairman of the full committee in 2017. Appropriations subcommittee chairmen are nicknamed "Cardinals" for their influence over the budget. It has long been considered very difficult to unseat an Appropriations Committee member at an election, especially if he or she is a "Cardinal."
In 2000, progressive activist filmmaker Michael Moore attempted to have a ficus challenge Frelinghuysen's unopposed re-election to make the point that most Members of Congress "run unopposed in their primaries and 95% are re-elected every time in the general election", adding "we think it's time to point out to the Frelinghuysen family that we live in a democracy, not a dynasty."
The top sectors supporting Frelinghuysen's campaigns have been the aerospace, defense, pharmaceutical and health care industries.VoteSmart, Rodney Frelinghuysen's Campaign Finances, Retrieved January 12, 2017, "...Top contributors: ... Lockheed Martin... Northrop Grumman ... Celgene Corporation ..."
On January 29, 2018 Frelinghuysen announced that he wouldn't run for another term in 2018.
Committee assignments Committee on Appropriations (Chair) As chair of the full committee, Frelinghuysen was entitled to sit as an ex officio member of all subcommittees
Coalitions and caucuses Republican Main Street Partnership Republican Majority For Choice Republicans for Choice Republicans For Environmental Protection
Legislative record Since the start of his congressional tenure in 1995, Frelinghuysen had been the chief sponsor of 123 bills. Of these, four have become law: H.R. 1366 (104th): To authorize the extension of time limitation for the FERC-issued hydroelectric license for the Mount Hope Waterpower Project. H.R. 459 (106th): To extend the deadline under the Federal Power Act for FERC Project No. 9401, the Mount Hope Waterpower Project. H.R. 1964 (108th): Highlands Conservation Act H.R. 4850 (108th): District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2005
He had been the chief sponsor of nine resolutions, none of which passed. He introduced an amendment to the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013, the initial Hurricane Sandy relief legislation, which added $33.7 billion to the $17 billion initially allocated by the act. The amendment passed the House in a 228–192 vote, with the support of 38 Republicans and 190 Democrats. The amended act was not significantly modified by the Senate, and was signed into law.
Political positions As of January 2018, Frelinghuysen had voted with his party in 95.4% of votes during the 115th United States Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 90.2% of the votes. From the start of his tenure in the 104th Congress to the current 113th, Frelinghuysen has voted with his party 90% of the time.
Frelinghuysen's voting record has been described as moderate. He was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership. During the 2012 election season, Frelinghuysen rejected claims from Planned Parenthood leaders and progressive activists that he "toes the line of Republican leadership" and had aligned himself with the Tea Party movement.
As Frelinghuysen had been less conservative than many members of the Republican caucus, he was elevated to the Appropriations Committee chairship only based on his assurance to the conservatives that he would be willing to set aside his personal views to implement party policy. One conservative on the committee, Representative Robert Aderholt, said, "One of the things we had discussed going into this, when he wanted to take the chairmanship, was that at the end of the day he understood that when he was negotiating these bills he'd be negotiating on behalf of his conference, as opposed to his own philosophy."
In a tele-townhall on March 20, 2017, he stated that was "not sold" on attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and had not seen any evidence to support claims that President Trump was wiretapped during the campaign. He believes Trump should release his tax returns, but does not support attempts to compel their release, adding "I need to support the Chair's ruling regardless of what the issue is."
Abortion Frelinghuysen was a member of Republican Majority For Choice and Republicans for Choice. In 2017, he voted against the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would have implemented a national ban on abortions performed after 20 weeks of gestation.