Profile: This California native once worked for Ah-nuld

Position: Director of member services and coalitions, House Homeland Security Committee

Age: 41

Alma mater: Bachelor’s degree in security management from Bellevue University.

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Washington Examiner: How long have you been in Washington, and how did you end up working for Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul?

Simms: I moved [from California] in January of 2006. I had been working in politics in California, and it was toward the end of the Bush administration, and it was sort of the next step in the career. I had been talking about moving to D.C. for years and years.

I was going to go without a job but I got a job sort of last minute that I did for a few months and then I had the opportunity to work in the Bush administration [in the White House drug policy office].

I was in the administration from January ’06 until October of ’08 and started looking for a new job knowing that there was going to be a lot of Republicans looking for new jobs at that time, and I had a security clearance and had the opportunity to go to the Department of Homeland Security for a contractor and I did that for three years.

That contract ended and I moved over to the Coast Guard for about two and a half years. I did a small stint when that contract was over as a lobbyist for a small company based out of California that represented cities, and sort of worked with them to do advocacy on the Hill. I was with them for about a year and a half and then had the opportunity to come here. I have been here now since October of 2015.

Examiner: So what does a director of member services and coalitions do?

Simms: I joke often [that] it’s a lot of herding cats and smoothing feathers. A lot of what I do is work closely with the Republican members who are on the committee and their staff to make sure they are engaged in the committee activity, that they know what’s going on, that they are showing up on time, that they are getting some opportunities that are coming the way of the committee.

The committee is made up of 18 Republican members — it is not just Chairman McCaul, and he is a leader of this team and they are team members. [We’re] looking for opportunities to really engage them with the chairman and to use them as voices to spread the message.

So one of my roles is making sure that they feel engaged, that they know what’s going on, that they have the information and they are active participants in the work we’re doing legislatively.

And then I also handle our coalitions. It’s a lot of strategy and how we engage with them. Capitol Hill is a reactive place and we have to operate sometimes in that manner. But I really think it’s more about being proactive as much as we can to get them involved and get their input so when we are putting forward legislative ideas they feel like they have a vested interest in that.

Examiner: What was your biggest accomplishment at the committee during your time here?

Simms: I would say that one of my biggest accomplishments is growing our outreach to the stakeholders and growing our outreach to the members and helping everyone feel more like a connected team, and helping grow the profile of the committee.

Examiner: How is your job going to change now that Republicans have all levers of power in Washington?

Simms: I think we probably have one of the highest retention rates [on committees]. We’ve had 11 of our 18 members express that they certainly want to return back to the committee, and two retirements.

As far as we’re concerned, there are two spots open right now. What it shows is that we actively engage our committee members, and this is a great place for them to be successful, to get legislation passed and turned into law.

Examiner: What is the mood of the committee right now, because so much of what President-elect Trump wants to do, and some of his most controversial proposals, deal with Homeland Security and immigration, which falls under the same department?

Simms: I think people are excited. Everyone expects it to be a very active year. People expect us to get off to a quick start, to really try to tackle a lot of the issues that the members’ constituencies feel are important to them. And so I think people are feeling excited and renewed and ready to get to work.

Examiner: What was it like to work in the Bush White House office of drug policy?

Simms: I worked on the president’s drug policy agenda. Obviously it dealt with marijuana issues, but the thing I focused on the most was prescription drug abuse and meth cleanup, which is a big issue.

I never expected to get into drug policy. So when they make meth — the horrible ingredients that go into it contaminate the ground, and it’s really difficult to clean up those sites. So we worked with state legislatures and governors trying to implement the president’s drug-policy agenda.

Examiner: Did you work with the California Republican state party before coming to Washington?

Simms: I was a staffer for a state senator first. My first non-campaign job in California [was for Bruce McPherson, who] represented the coastal area of my county. When he first was elected, he had 27 percent Republican registration. It was a part of California that I grew up in so I was working in his district office, talking about what he was doing in Sacramento.

I then had the opportunity to work in the [Arnold] Schwarzenegger campaign. It was one of the times I hit pause on moving to D.C. I thought this is a really historic opportunity, I have to take advantage of this.

I worked on the first campaign, which was the recall campaign [for then-Gov. Gray Davis]. Then I had so much fun and it was a little bit of a crazy time in politics, but once he won, I made a decision to stay there. I moved to Sacramento and worked in his office. But it was interesting. Republicans were back in power, but he hired across the board.

“Decline to State” is one of the political parties you can register as in California, and he appointed a lot of “Declines to States,” but I was actually a registered Republican. I was a legislative analyst in the governor’s office of planning and research.

Examiner: What is one of your funniest or most memorable experiences working for Schwarzenegger?

Simms: One of the stories I tell often is there is a part of the office that’s a courtyard in the middle, and they laid down astro-turf that looked like grass and then put up a tent so that he could smoke and have meetings and all of those things in this tent. And one of the afternoons we were doing a birthday party for the chief of staff at the time, and everybody started singing “Happy Birthday,” and all of the sudden you hear this loud, deep, booming Austria-accented voice, singing, “Hoooopy, birthdaaay to you,” from the tent as he walked his way out.

Examiner: I know that you are going on your honeymoon to Jamaica Sunday with your husband, Rob Simms, the executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee. You got married on Memorial Day but had to wait until after the election to go on your honeymoon. Can you put work aside to really enjoy it?

Simms: Jamaica will be my first [opportunity] of doing something fun. I love to travel and I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a long time. It will be nice to have some time with my husband, who is very involved in his job.

We will both be fairly disconnected — there may be some emails. We’re going to try to limit that. But we’ll see how that goes. Brendan [Shields], my boss, is being very supportive of letting me take this time.