WASHINGTON, D.C. —With the retirement of Ranking Member Greg Walden and the expected transition of power at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW to President-Elect Joe Biden, the committee in the House of Representatives that oversees the FCC has appointed five new Democratic members.
They’ll take their seats with the start of the 117th Congress. And, they are all women.
The House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee has recommended the appointment of Democratic Representatives Angie Craig (Minn.), Lizzie Fletcher (Tex.), Kathleen Rice (N.Y.), Kim Schrier (Wash.), and Lori Trahan (Mass.) to the Energy and Commerce Committee for the 117th Congress:
“I congratulate Representatives Craig, Fletcher, Rice, Schrier, and Trahan on their appointments to the Energy and Commerce Committee,” Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. said. “There is no better committee in Congress, and I look forward to having these five Members join us in the 117th Congress.”
Pallone added, “Our nation faces unprecedented challenges, and I have no doubt these five outstanding Members will provide invaluable contributions to the Committee from day one. In the coming months, we will push an aggressive agenda to ensure the Biden Administration has all the resources it needs to crush this pandemic, make health care and prescription drugs more affordable, rebuild and modernize our nation’s infrastructure, combat climate change, and protect people’s privacy.”
The Energy and Commerce Committee is the oldest continuous standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was established in 1795 to regulate interstate and foreign commerce. Today, the Committee has the broadest jurisdiction of any authorizing committee in Congress. It legislates on health care; health insurance; biomedical research and development; food safety; clean air and climate change; safe drinking water; national energy policy; nuclear facilities; electronic communications and the internet; privacy, cybersecurity and data security; consumer protection and product safety; travel, tourism and sports; interstate and foreign commerce; and other areas.
