Scalise defends diversity of House GOP

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) defended the diversity of House Republican leadership on Wednesday, after no women were selected for new committee chairmanships.

{mosads}”Well, as part of the leadership, we have a lot of women in our leadership team. I was just with Cathy McMorris Rodgers [R-Wash.], our conference chairman last night, and obviously we have a number of other women that are very talented as part of our conference leadership, as well as chairmen and other leaders of the committees,” Scalise said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “But if you look at this new class especially, such a great new diverse group of members, with really great backgrounds too, and they’re going to come give us a really strong boost in the new Congress.”

The House will have one female head of a committee, House Administration Chairwoman Candice Miller (R-Mich.), who is continuing in that post. 

Scalise also said Republicans are trying to work with President Obama to keep the government open. 

“We’ve been working on making sure that we can work with the president to get things done and keep the government funded at the proper levels, which means under the spending caps that we have right now,” Scalise said. “What the president’s doing is trying to create a very divisive atmosphere, not just within Washington but within the country.”

He said that instead of moving forward with immigration executive action, Obama should work with congressional Republicans on the economy. 

As for solutions to keep the government open amid a contentious immigration move by Obama, Scalise did not give details but said, “They’re a lot of things that we’re looking at. We’ve got a lot of creative ideas.”