COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
This 118th Congress, I am grateful to be the Chairman of the powerful Rules Committee. The Committee on Rules is amongst the oldest standing committees in the House, having been first formally constituted on April 2, 1789. The Committee is commonly known as "The Speaker's Committee" because it is the mechanism that the Speaker uses to maintain control of the House Floor, and was chaired by the Speaker until 1910. Because of the vast power wielded by the Rules Committee, its ratio has traditionally been weighted in favor of the majority party, and has been in its "2 to 1" (9 majority and 4 minority members) configuration since the late 1970s. The Committee has the authority to do virtually anything during the course of consideration of a measure, including deeming it passed. The Committee can also include a self- executed amendment which could rewrite just parts of a bill, or the entire measure. In essence, so long as a majority of the House is willing to vote for a special rule, there is little that the Rules Committee cannot do.
I am also a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the oldest legislative standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, and considered to be one of the most powerful committees as well. This committee has a wide-range of jurisdiction, presiding over all matters relating to telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health, air quality and environmental health, the supply and delivery of energy, and interstate and foreign commerce in general. This jurisdiction extends over 5 Cabinet-level departments - U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency - and many independent agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, Federal Communications Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
I am the Republican Leader's Designee to the Budget Committee. In addition, I am a member of the Republican Study Committee.
