Name: Meredith Dolan
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Position: Chief of Staff, Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio
Age: 28
Alma Mater: Ohio University
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Washington Examiner: Where does legislation stand on rolling back the Obama administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule now that Trump is in office? Is the legislation necessary? [The rule expanded federal authority over waterways to include rivers and drainage ditches, making a broader swath of landowners subject to federal enforcement, including homeowners.]
Dolan: No. We’ve gotten a lot of direction from the administration. They obviously want to go through the rulemaking process. And that’s really a consensus among all the stakeholders. We’ve had a lot of conversations with the Water Advocacy Coalition, also known as WAC, comprised of farm bureaus and any group that uses land and uses water. And we’ve really had a tight-knit working group with them since 2015, since the whole rule was rolled out. But their consensus is that we need a rule.
Yes, when the 2015 rule came out, the Obama rule didn’t work. It had so many flaws. I could go into an entire list of all the issues with it.
There’s clearly parts of the rule [regarding] Waters of the United States jurisdiction that needed to be updated. So, I think that [EPA Administrator Scott] Pruitt putting out the notice and allowing the comment period — it just closed yesterday [Sept. 27] — is exactly what my boss’s bill pretty much asked for last Congress in the Regulatory Integrity Protection Act, RIP.
Washington Examiner: Was calling it R-I-P intentional?
Dolan: You know, I don’t know. We didn’t come up with the name. The full [transportation] committee did. But it was our bill that pretty much said, “Stop, this rule is bad.” But there needs to be a rulemaking process where actual input is brought in from the stakeholders and also the different entities at the state and local level.
Washington Examiner: For the time being, there is a federal court stay while Pruitt works on the new rule. But the Supreme Court also has to decide whether an appeals court, or a lower district court, has jurisdiction to rule on the merits of states’ litigation against it, right?
Dolan: It’s going to be in the next couple of weeks. They are going to make that decision on which court will actually take it up. I think that’s Oct. 11 when they [the Supreme Court] will meet to … decide which court will take it up.
Washington Examiner: Do you expect that to be a quick decision?
Dolan: I don’t know. I would say in the list of all the stuff that comes to their desk, this isn’t the sexiest issue. I don’t know how that process really works. I mean, it’s a really sexy issue to me and my boss and all of us that have worked on it.
Washington Examiner: As far as constituents, is this still a big issue for people in Ohio?
Dolan: We had an issue with actual homeowners that is essentially a microcosm of potential risk [from the regulation]. … These homeowners had no idea. Lawyers got involved because the [Army] Corps is trying to slap $20,000 on each of these homeowners when they are being told that they destroyed this wetland when looking at it … The homeowners say, “It is our backyard; we have a swing set.” That was a very real-world example that something like that rule could affect.
Washington Examiner: So, you are from Ohio? What part?
Dolan: I am from Cleveland. I am from the west side of Cleveland. I grew up in Rocky River.
Washington Examiner: When did you start with Rep. Gibbs?
Dolan: I’ve had a non-traditional Hill path. I went to Ohio University for my undergrad. I was going to go to law school in Cleveland. My dad is an attorney in Cleveland. And that was kind of path A. Do my undergrad, go to law school.
I had an aunt and uncle that I saw before I graduated that live here in Alexandria, they said, “What are you doing this summer before you head for law school?” I said, “Well, just working at my pool”; I was pool manager at my local pool. And they were, “You need to come to D.C., you need to have an internship, you can live with us.” And they were both Hill rats. They were on the Hill forever. So, they helped me get an internship with the Foreign Affairs Committee, and it was the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
I was an English major, and I minored in business and Spanish. I didn’t take one poli-sci class, one government class, nothing of that. I said, “Well, yeah. I lived in Mexico for a year in college, sure, Western Hemisphere, that’s great, I speak Spanish.” So, I got here, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I hit the ground running, and I felt like I was in grad school.
I remember telling my dad, “I am not going to law school, and I am going to take an unpaid internship, and I am going to keep living in D.C.”
Washington Examiner: What do you like to do outside of your work on Capitol Hill?
Dolan: I have a one year old daughter. So, that is always a lot of fun. And my husband works at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. We met working on the Hill, actually, in Trey Radel’s office. We dated in secrecy for about a year, and then, when all the bad stuff started to happen with Trey [he was arrested after trying to buy cocaine from an undercover agent], we were like, “We’ve been dating this whole time.” And they were like, “We don’t care,” because so many worse things have happened.
I play soccer on a couple of competitive teams around town, which is a lot of fun.
Washington Examiner: What teams?
Dolan: District Sports. There are a couple of different leagues; it’s called Zog. I played for the same team since I’ve been here. It’s super competitive. It’s co-ed. I played club soccer in college and growing up. So, that’s my release.
We live in the Logan Circle area because we love to walk out and go to Le Dip at any moment. We are right there on 14th and Church. We are always out, always going to a park.
Washington Examiner: What are your favorite haunts or restaurants?
Dolan: We love Le Dip, Le Diplomate. We live catercorner to that. And I love Barcelona, but it’s always so crowded.
We are always going to Stead Park, which is at 16th and P, which is just a park. But for my daughter, it is her favorite park. I am there every single day.
Java House has the best coffee. We always go there for coffee. And that’s at Q and 17th. It’s been there forever, and it’s awesome.
