House Democratic and Republican leadership have nearly finalized the grueling task of doling out committee assignments, capping weeks of acute jockeying by freshman lawmakers hoping to earn influential postings.
An opaque process tightly controlled by party leaders, the committee sweepstakes represents one of the earliest and most significant influences on a new legislator’s career trajectory, as panel membership often drives member legislative priorities and opens important avenues of fundraising opportunities.
House rules generally limit members to serving on no more than two standing committees and four subcommittees, with the four-most prized including Ways and Means, which writes tax laws; Energy and Commerce, which claims the broadest non-tax-oriented jurisdiction of any committee and has principal responsibility for telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health, the supply and delivery of energy, and interstate and foreign commerce; Financial Services (also known as the Banking Committee), which oversees the totality of the financial services sector; and Appropriations, which is responsible for passing spending blueprints for the federal government.
While the final composition of every committee is still being negotiated, Dentons’ bipartisan public policy team has assembled here the most up-to-date index of assignments available.
We’ll update this space as new assignments are announced.
