Rodney Frelinghuysen

Family and early life

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 1953-75, representing much of the same area Rodney does today. He is the great-great-grandson of Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, who was a U.S. Senator for New Jersey and U.S. Secretary of State in the administration of President Chester A. Arthur. His great-great-great-uncle, the adoptive father of Frederick Theodore, Theodore Frelinghuysen was a U.S. Senator for New Jersey, served as president of both New York University and Rutgers College, and was the vice-presidential running mate of Henry Clay on the Whig ticket in the presidential election of 1844. Frelinghuysen's great-great-great-great-grandfather Frederick Frelinghuysen was one of the framers of the first Constitution of New Jersey, a U.S. Senator for New Jersey, and a soldier in the American Revolutionary War.

Aside from the Frelinghuysen name, he is a great-great-great-grandson of Peter Ballantine, founder of Ballantine Brewery in Newark. On his mother's side, he is a great-great-grandson of William Procter, co-founder of Procter & Gamble.

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 BA 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.

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 is one of the most Republican districts in the Northeast, and Frelinghuysen had effectively clinched a seat in congress by winning the Republican nomination. He has been 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%.

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."

Campaign financing

Frelinghuysen's campaigns have been heavily supported by contributions from the aerospace and defense industrial sector; seven of his 2012 campaign's top ten donors came from this sector, and he received more defense funding in the 2012 electoral cycle than any other representative from New Jersey. His campaigns have been heavily supported by contributions from pharmaceutical and health care industries. Eight of the 14 bills sponsored by Frelinghuysen in the 112th congressional session were attempts to suspend duties on chemicals used by these industries.

Committee assignments

Coalitions and caucuses

Legislative record

Since the start of his congressional tenure in 1995, Frelinghuysen has been the chief sponsor of 123 bills. Of these, four have become law:

He has 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 March 2, 2017, Frelinghuysen has voted with his party in 98.4% of votes so far in the current session of Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 100% 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 moderate. He is 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 is 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 is a member of Republican Majority For Choice and Republicans for Choice. In 2003 he received a 50% from the anti-abortion NRLC and a 30% from the pro-abortion NARAL.

From 2010-12, his NARAL rating averaged just 7%, indicating an anti-abortion stance. He and fellow New Jersey Republican Leonard Lance were singled out by NARAL President Nancy Keenan over their support of H.R. 3 "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act". Frelinghuysen voted in 2015 to strip all federal funding from Planned Parenthood, despite having opposed similar measures in 2011, 2009 and 2007. He cited the Planned Parenthood 2015 undercover videos controversy for his change in position.

Earmarking

Frelinghuysen is a supporter of earmarking, calling the practice a "constitutional responsibility." He consistently ranks in the top 5% in terms of dollars procured. In fiscal year 2008 he ranked 21st, sponsoring or co-sponsoring 44 earmarks totaling $88 million; in fiscal year 2009 he ranked 12th, with 45 earmarks totaling $119 million; and in fiscal year 2010 he ranked 21st with 39 earmarks totaling $76 million. During the same period, Frelinghuysen was the top earmarker among New Jersey lawmakers. The majority of his earmarks were for defense-related expenses.

Environment and energy

He opposes federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. In February 2017, he voted to repeal a rule that required coal companies to restore streams and mined areas to their pre-development conditions. In February 2017, he voted in favor of repealing a rule that required energy companies to disclose payments to foreign governments. The Sunlight Foundation pointed out that among the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Frelinghuysen has the third-highest amount of investment in oil stocks.

Frelinghuysen's scores from the League of Conservation Voters dropped sharply after 2008, from the 42–67% range during 1999–2008 to 21–23% during 2009–12. During the 2011–12 Congress, his League of Conservation Voters rating was 11th out of thirteen members of the House from New Jersey, and 4th among the six Republicans from the state.

Health care

He favors repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and voted in support of the budget resolution to repeal Obamacare in January 2017. In March 2017, when the Republican leadership was seeking support for the "repeal-and-replace" bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), he announced that he would oppose it on the grounds that it "would place significant new costs and barriers to care on my constituents in New Jersey" and would result in a "loss of Medicaid coverage for so many people in my Medicaid-dependent state."

On May 4, 2017, however, he voted for a revised version of the AHCA, although the provisions he had previously cited as objectionable were unchanged. He said that he "voted for an improved health care act".

Frelinghuysen stressed the need to "protect those with pre-existing conditions", but according to NJ.com, the bill "would allow for exemptions from rules preventing those with pre-existing conditions from being charged more for their insurance. It also would allow states to request waivers from federal requirements that all insurers cover specific benefits such as hospitalization, mental health treatment and maternity care." Asked why he voted for the bill without waiting for an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on its impact, Frelinghuysen said, "I think there was a feeling that we needed to act and get the bill to the Senate so we can get them to act on it."

Immigration

Frelinghuysen opposes sanctuary cities.

Other issues

Criticism

Since the 2016 election, a Democratic activist group called NJ 11th for Change has organized protests over Frelinghuysen for purportedly failing to hold any in-person town hall meetings since 2013.

In 2017, Frelinghuysen wrote a fundraising letter in March to a board member of a local bank speaking against "Washington-controlled liberal special interests". While Frelinghuysen did not name NJ 11th for Change, a progressive lobbying group, he included a handwritten postscript warning "One of the ringleaders works in your bank!" with an attached news article about one of NJ 11th for Change's members. This was in reference to Saily Avelenda, who subsequently resigned from her position as assistant general counsel and senior vice president at that bank.

According to a lawyer and former staffer for the Office of Congressional Ethics, to be unlawful such a letter would need to threaten action or be written on Congressional stationery, not campaign letterhead, and/or the bank would have to have business pending before a Frelinghuysen committee.

The progressive lobbying group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) opined that "whether or not [Frelinghuysen's letter] breaks a criminal statute is one issue, but the very clear issue is that it appears that a member of Congress might be using his power to threaten someone's employment because of their political activities."

Donald Trump

Frelinghuysen endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Awards and honors

In June 2013, Frelinghuysen was awarded the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the Navy's highest civilian honor, for the "long and selfless service" he had provided to the force, ensuring it had necessary resources and supporting its members' quality of life.

Frelinghuysen was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal for his service during the Vietnam War.

Personal life

At the start of the 112th Congress, Frelinghuysen was ranked the ninth wealthiest member of congress, with an estimated personal wealth between $20 million and $65 million.

A CQ Roll Call report on Frelinghuysen's wealth in 2010 indicated that about a third stemmed from personal and family trust investments in Procter & Gamble stock. He owns multiple properties, including nearly 18 acres of undeveloped land in Frelinghuysen Township, New Jersey.

On May 24, 2007, Frelinghuysen chased down a pickpocket who had stolen his wallet near his home in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Two Washington police officers saw the chase and arrested the 18-year-old suspect who had been caught by the 61-year-old congressman.