The House Freedom Caucus draws considerable attention for its members unstinting fealty to President Trump. The Problem Solvers Caucus tries to bridge the partisan divide by including an equal number of centrist-leaning Democrats and Republicans.
Then there’s the Congressional Cut Flowers Caucus, not exactly a political powerhouse, but notable as one of dozens of caucuses on Capitol Hill. And it has a serious legislative agenda, with members pushing H.R. 3019 to compel the federal government to only buy blooms grown in the United States.
Bigger caucuses — informal organizations formed by members of the House, Senate, or a combination of both, to highlight issues, drive policy, and draft bills — are important engine rooms of lawmaking. Some, such as the House Freedom Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus, have remained power centers despite then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich stripping many of the House groups of public funding after the 1994 “Republican Revolution” to ensure they didn’t compete with then-GOP leadership for influence.
Some of the groups, such as the Cut Flowers Caucus, operate mostly in obscurity. H.R. 3019, sponsored by a Cut Flower Caucus member, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, is advocating for a bill that would require federal agencies to procure just domestic cut flowers and greens. The American Grown Act is aimed at mitigating trade association research that indicates 80% of the industry’s demand is satiated by imports.
Those imports stem from a 1961 U.S. Agency for International Development program encouraging Colombia to develop an internal flower market to move the country away from communism. A similar initiative was rolled out in 1991 when Congress offered tax advantages to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru for products such as blooms as an incentive to divest in the illegal drug trade.
“As a member of the Congressional Cut Flowers Caucus, Congressman Young is a strong supporter of the American cut flower industry,” Young’s spokesman Zack Brown told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “Alaska is home to the iconic peony, which is grown by family-owned farms across the state. He introduced this legislation because he is passionate about supporting small businesses, and believes that when the federal government purchases cut flowers, they should be purchasing from American flower farms like the ones in Alaska.”
In Young’s 46 years in the House, he’s received no contributions from PACs linked to florists or nursery services and only small individual donations in 1994, 2006, and 2011 from people working in the sector, according to OpenSecrets data.
The Cut Flowers Caucus is just one example of Capitol Hill’s more niche collection of lawmakers. Other instances in the 116th Congress focus on areas ranging from political, ideological, regional, ethnic, and economic, including the Candy Caucus, the Civility and Respect Caucus, the Rock Caucus, the Small Brewers Caucus, the Term Limits Caucus, the Wrestling Caucus, and the Zoo and Aquarium Caucus.
“I’d never heard of the Cut Flowers Caucus,” Georgetown University government professor Michele Swers told the Washington Examiner with a laugh.
The organizations serve different purposes, depending on the topic, she explained.
“Caucuses allow members to take various public positions and advertise that an issue is important to them, but their profile obviously depends on what group you’re talking about,” Swers said. “We’ve seen how the House Freedom Caucus has attracted enough members to shift policy to the right, whereas being a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus makes them look bipartisan and provides them with the opportunity to tell their constituents they are interested in ensuring Washington works.”
The organizations additionally reflect broader trends, the professor added, citing the new Servicewomen and Women Veterans Caucus created this year following the election of a host of female lawmakers.
George Mason University political science associate professor Jennifer Victor predicted more groups would form in the future.
“Caucuses are growing; there are more of them every year. The growth is driven in part by outside industries, like flower growers,” Victor said. “Often caucuses don’t take up particular bills and opt not to push for legislation because they value bipartisan relationships and the informational benefits of the group over controversial policy.”
