As General Counsel to the Speaker of the House, she won't just be a witness but a powerful behind-the-scenes actor...
Independent Women’s Forum is delighted to announce that Machalagh Carr, General Counsel to the Speaker of the House, is the latest entry in our popular series of Champion Women profiles.
As Speaker McCarthy ascended to the position held by several giants of American history (Henry Clay and Sam Rayburn, for example, spring readily to mind—am I missing anybody truly great? Thought not.), Machalagh (pronounced Ma-kay-la) Carr transitioned from General Counsel to the Republican Leader of the House of Representatives to General Counsel to the Speaker of the House.
If anyone knows the complicated ins and outs of how the U.S. House of Representatives operates, it is Machalagh Carr. Before joining Leader McCarthy’s staff, Carr served as General Counsel & Parliamentarian for the House’s powerful Ways and Means Committee. Before that she was the Committee’s Oversight Staff Director, and the Director of Oversight and Investigations for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
She is married to Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Committee.
Throughout her professional life, Carr has operated on a piece of advice handed down from Michael Powell, former Chairman of the FCC, who told Brendan, then an FCC intern, “Opportunity often knocks for many people, but many don’t have their bags packed.” Machalagh Carr has made it a point to be ready when opportunity beckons. When she joined the law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, she had never been out of the United States. She nevertheless immediately obtained a U.S. passport. She figured people who worked for fancy law firms might need a passport. She was right. Having that passport at the ready shaped the course of her high-powered career.
Not only has Carr enjoyed the proverbial front row seat on history, but so has her youngest child. Carr was Minority Leader McCarthy’s general counsel when the impeachment of former President Donald Trump appeared imminent. She was also on maternity leave. But Carr could not stay home while history was being made. She persuaded McCarthy that she needed to come back to work—and bring the baby.
You mean there was a baby in the Republican leader’s office during the impeachment proceedings? “Well, yes,” Carr replies nonchalantly. “Unless the baby was in the impeachment room, which happened a lot. When the impeachment proceedings went public at the Committee on Judiciary, there was often a baby in the back room, or in the Ways and Means Committee room, in the library, in a chair, sleeping or snuggling or whatever. He was really good for the office. Babies are like that, they get serotonin levels up, make you happy, calm people down.”
When opportunity knocks, you can count on Machalagh to have her bags packed—even if sometimes the bags are packed with nappies. And we can expect that through hard work and an uncanny ability to always be ready for the next challenge, Machalagh Carr will be not just a witness but a powerful behind-the-scenes actor in what could turn out to be a consequential Speakership.
