Jim Hartman
U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei recently announced his intent to run for a seventh full term in 2024.
Amodei represents Nevada’s expansive 2nd Congressional District that includes Carson City, all of Churchill, Douglas, Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Pershing and Washoe counties, and the majority of Lyon County.
Amodei, 65, is the dean of Nevada’s six member congressional delegation and its sole Republican.
Born in Carson City, Amodei graduated from Carson High (1976) and the University of Nevada (1980). He received his J.D. degree from the University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law (1983).
He served with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps from 1983 to 1987, returning to Carson to become an attorney in private practice from 1987 to 2007.
He was president of the Nevada Mining Association from 2007 to 2008.
Amodei served in the Nevada Assembly from 1997 to 1999 and in the Nevada Senate from 1999 to 2011. He was named the Outstanding Freshman Legislator in 1997 and was selected Nevada Senate president pro tempore from 2003 to 2008.
Amodei chaired the Nevada Republican Party from 2010 until 2011, when he stepped down to run in the September 2011 special election to succeed Dean Heller (who had been appointed to the U.S. Senate) as the U.S. representative for Nevada’s 2nd congressional district.
He won the special election in 2011 and was re-elected to full terms in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020. In each election he won every county in the district.
In 2022, Amodei won renomination in the June primary with 55% of the vote against four GOP challengers, including Douglas County Commissioner Danny Tarkanian. He easily defeated Democrat Elizabeth Krause by 22% in November.
With the GOP holding a 60,000 voter registration advantage in his congressional district, Amodei is a prohibitive favorite for re-election in 2024.
Amodei now has increased responsibility as a lawmaker.
He currently sits on the House Appropriations Committee, a much coveted legislative assignment. In January, he became chairman of its Legislative Branch Subcommittee.
As a House GOP Appropriations subcommittee chair, Amodei joined 11 other subcommittee chairs, known colloquially as “cardinals,” who have major power of the purse for two years.
As Nevada’s first “legislative cardinal” in decades, Amodei held oversight hearings and drafted a bill funding the legislative branch that moved out of his subcommittee in May.
The bill authorizes the FY2024 budget for the House, the Capitol Police, congressional staff and several independent government agencies.
In May, Amodei also reintroduced a Nevada lands bill, the “Northern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act,” that he hopes will be passed by the end of the year.
This legislation will allow for the conveyance of federal lands to Douglas County, Pershing County, Carson City, the City of Fernley, the City of Sparks and the Incline Village General Improvement District for public purposes and economic development.
Additionally, the bill designates nearly 150,000 acres of wilderness in northern Nevada and removes the possibility of oil and gas leasing on 300,000 acres of the Ruby Mountains in Elko County.
The House reconvened on Sept. 12 trying to avert a government shutdown. They’re scheduled to meet for just 11 days before the government’s fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
Amodei is a political ally of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who represents a neighboring Bakersfield, California-based congressional district.
Both favor passage of a short-term funding measure, known as a continuing resolution, to keep government offices running in the absence of a House-passed budget. There’s resistance from some hard-right Republicans who openly embrace a government shutdown.
“I don’t think anyone wins in a shutdown, ” Amodei told a Carson Chamber audience Aug. 31. “I’ll just tell you what changed from the beginning of all these shutdowns to the end… was nothing.”
Buckle up.
E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.