Fed employee advocate Connolly to lead Democrats on House Oversight Committee

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., an advocate for improving federal employee pay and benefits, will lead Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee as ranking member when the new Congress begins in January. 

The panel has jurisdiction over federal personnel, the U.S. Postal Service and supervises government operations. Therefore, Connolly will likely spearhead opposition to President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to remove civil service job protections for potentially tens of thousands of federal employees under Schedule F, to possibly privatize USPS and to restructure federal agencies. 

“We know what the Republican playbook will be. We have seen it before. They have demonstrated that they are willing to traffic in debunked conspiracy theories and enable the worst abuses of the Trump administration,” Connolly said in a statement on Tuesday. “This will be trench warfare. Now is not the time to be timid.” 

Connolly’s district is anchored by Fairfax and is home to nearly 52,000 federal employees. As such, he has sponsored legislation to effectively bar Schedule F, to expand coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program for assisted reproductive technology like IVF and to give government workers an average 7.4% pay raise in 2025. 

“Federal employees served the American people diligently during an unprecedented global pandemic. Before that, they were subjected to the Trump administration’s cruel personal attacks, unsafe work environment, pay freezes, government shutdowns, sequestration cuts, furloughs and mindless across-the-board hiring freezes,” Connolly said in a statement when he introduced the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act. “Still, they come to work each day to serve with dedication and distinction. Federal employees are our government’s single greatest asset.” 

Currently, Connolly is the ranking member of the Cybersecurity, Information Technology and Government Innovation Subcommittee. He has helped shepherd to enactment federal IT modernization and acquisition legislation, pushed EPA to update its legacy IT systems that store air quality data and backed funding for investments in government technology. 

"The pandemic taught us that the federal government is only as good as its IT — a lesson my Republican colleagues are unwilling to learn," Connolly said in a statement to NextGov/FCW in 2023. 

Democratic House members picked Connolly over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the current House Oversight ranking member, who beat Connolly for the job in 2022, is running to be the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. 

“In the next Congress, Oversight Committee Democrats will be the foremost line of defense to protect the federal services, programs and workers that the American people depend on,” Raskin said in a statement on Tuesday. “I know that incoming Ranking Member Connolly has the great tenacity, zeal and fighting spirit needed to lead Oversight Democrats in challenging oligarchy, kleptocracy and plutocratic assaults on the federal government and our workforce. Gerry Connolly is the fighter we need.”

Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday posted on Bluesky: “Tried my best. Sorry I couldn’t pull it through everyone — we live to fight another day.”  

After Greenbelt, Maryland, was selected as the site of the new FBI headquarters over Springfield, Virginia, in 2023, Connolly, with full committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., requested an inspector general investigation into the decision, insinuating that “political or parochial interests” may have been at play. 

The Center for Effective Lawmaking named Connolly as the most effective Democratic member of the House in the 117th Congress. 

Connolly in November announced that he has esophageal cancer and was undergoing treatment.