This week’s guest is Congressman Mike Rogers of Alabama’s 3rd District. That district runs along the eastern border of the state from Cherokee County to the north all the way down past Auburn to Russell County to the South.
He was first elected to Congress back in 2002 to take the place of a guy named Bob Riley, who was leaving Congress to run for Governor. That makes Mr. Rogers Alabama’s second longest serving member in the House.

For as long as I’ve been following him, Rogers has always been engaged on military and agriculture issues. He’s been on both the Agriculture Committee and the House Armed Services Committee pretty much the whole time he’s been in Washington, with a few exceptions that he gets into some in our discussion. That makes sense because his district is home to the Anniston Army Depot, where they produce and repair tanks and other ground combat vehicles. They actually just got a new contract at the Depot that will be a big deal for the 3,600 workers there. The 3rd district is also highly agricultural, which makes the Farm Bill a priority for Rogers. One thing I found interesting about our discussion was how candid he was about the history of Farm Bill negotiations, up to and including this most recent one.
Mr. Rogers is now the Ranking Member on the House Homeland Security Committee. That means he’s the top Republican and would have been Chairman had the Republicans kept the House. That spot puts him in a unique position of negotiating how Congress deals with one of the more sensitive issues of late, the Russian attempts to interfere with our elections. He spoke about that issue at length, and I was a bit surprised at how much bi-partisan cooperation there seemed to be on it.
But the biggest issue for Mr. Rogers is the Space Force. In fact, he might be the most engaged Member of Congress on the issue. When you hear Space Force, you might think of a highly caricatured campaign idea from Donald Trump last election. But the effort to create a military branch or department dedicated to space activity has been around for a while. It’s actually really timely right now because the last several weeks, Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has been testifying to congressional appropriators about the immediate and long term costs of creating a Space Force. It’s fair to say that much of Congress remains skeptical on creating a Space Force within the Air Force. In fact, a House Defense Appropriations draft markup this week included funding to continue “studying” the Space Force, which is Congressionalese for not gonna happen this year.  You may see a lot more news about that line item in the coming days and weeks.
But the Pentagon argues it’s an essential need. The United States used to not have any competition for dominance in space. Now, we have competition in Russia and China. That’s not to say they are winning, but they are trying, and the military wants more tools to defend that frontier. Congressman Rogers does a good job of explaining what the idea really is, why it is necessary, and how politics impacted the whole thing.
I really appreciated the very substantive discussion, and I hope you enjoy it.
Oh, the audio is picking up right as we are talking about the issue of immigration and getting into his work on Homeland Security. I spared you the pleasantries and small talk at the beginning. You’re welcome.

Todd C. Stacy: … his big theme, really, is immigration. That means Homeland Security. You’re now Ranking Member.  I assume that means you would have been Chairman had the Republicans maintained the majority, but it also means you will be Chairman if things work out in 2020.
Congressman Mike Rogers: Right.
TCS: So how’s that going? Have yall started work yet on Homeland?
MR: Yeah. I’m going to be meeting with Chairman Thompson this week about what we’re going to be doing going forward.