After months of delay, this week House Speaker Mike Johnson advanced his much-awaited

version of the Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan for an aid package.

Standing between that legislation and the House floor, two very powerful committees.

First, the House Appropriations Committee, which controls about a third of federal spending,

and second, the Rules Committee, which controls access to the House

Floor, and which has become a problem for GOP leaders in this Congress.

Johnson needed to pick the lock on both of these committees and there is one

member of Congress who has chaired them both not just in the past year but in the past

month Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole. Cole, who was elected in 2002, is known for being close to every GOP leader since the era of John Boehner.

In press shorthand, he's usually described as an institutionalist and

since the Tea Party era he's also been known for butting heads with his more

rambunctious colleagues on the far right. Cole is also a member of the Chickasaw Nation, a trained

historian, and literally a devotee of Washington's smoke-filled back rooms.

I'm a big believer in open human doors and open bars because they bring people together.

Over a cigar, people talk about their work, even their questions are interesting, their observations are interesting.

Earlier this month, Cole left the powerful chairmanship of the Rules Committee,

where he'd been the Ranking Republican since 2019, and ascended to the even more powerful chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee.

I caught up with him on Thursday afternoon during one of those days on the hill where everything

seems in flux.

Johnson and top Republicans were scrambling to move

the foreign aid package and Cole was at the center of that effort.

That's why I support obviously what we're doing on this foreign policy.

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