Below is a table listing the committee assignments for the freshmen Senators in the 111th Congress (taken from here):
| Senator | Committee Assignments |
|---|---|
| Begich, Mark (D-AK) | Armed Services |
| Commerce, Science, and Transportation | |
| Veterans’ Affairs | |
| Burris, Roland W. (D-IL) | Armed Services |
| Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs | |
| Veterans’ Affairs | |
| Hagan, Kay R. (D-NC) | Armed Services |
| Small Business and Entrepreneurship | |
| Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions | |
| Johanns, Mike (R-NE) | Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs |
| Commerce, Science, and Transportation | |
| Veterans’ Affairs | |
| Indian Affairs | |
| Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry | |
| Kaufman, Edward E. (D-DE) | Foreign Relations |
| Judiciary | |
| Merkley, Jeff (D-OR) | Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs |
| Environment and Public Works | |
| Budget | |
| Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions | |
| Risch, James E. (R-ID) | Energy and Natural Resources |
| Foreign Relations | |
| Ethics | |
| Joint Economic | |
| Intelligence | |
| Shaheen, Jeanne (D-NH) | Small Business and Entrepreneurship |
| Energy and Natural Resources | |
| Foreign Relations | |
| Udall, Mark (D-CO) | Armed Services |
| Aging | |
| Energy and Natural Resources | |
| Udall, Tom (D-NM) | Environment and Public Works |
| Commerce, Science, and Transportation | |
| Rules and Administration | |
| Indian Affairs | |
| Warner, Mark R. (D-VA) | Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs |
| Budget | |
| Commerce, Science, and Transportation | |
| Rules and Administration |
Note: Michael Bennet, Al Franken and Kirsten Gillibrand have not yet received any committee assignments.
While we don’t cover the legislative process here at SSP (for that, I’ll recommend you check out Kagro X’s new blog, Congress Matters), committee assignments can actually have a big impact on the electoral process. The gig you land can have an impact on what sort of legislation you can pass, how much pork you can direct home, what sort of fundraising you have access to, and what kind of influence you wind up accruing in general.
They can, on occasion, also play a direct role on the campaign trail. In 2006, Conrad Burns argued that replacing him would hurt Montana’s juice in the Senate. To help counter this, Harry Reid promised Jon Tester a seat on the powerful appropriations committee “as soon as possible.” I have to admited I snorted a bit at that formulation (who knows when “as soon as possible” is?), though of course Republicans tried to paint Reid as a liar for not giving Tester the Aprops seat right away.
But Harry Reid kept his word and came through with the assignment a few weeks ago. It’s good news for Tester as he starts thinking about his freshman re-election battle looming four years off in the horizon. And it’s also helpful for other Dems, because it shows that these sort of promises actually mean something.
We’ll bring you a House version of this chart soon.
He really needs to be on Appropriations by 2014. That would give him a big boost for re-election.
Is anyone else laughing about this?
All the new Ds have 2-4 committees; both Rs have 5. Normal for the minority party to have more committee seats per member?
Isn’t CO one of the youngest states in the nation?
Looks like Warner and Merkley got the best slots for the Dems, as well as Kaufman, who seemed to have just inherited Joey B’s committee spots.
Considering that for how long and needlessly and stupidly that Reid was dissing Burris, Burris really didn’t do too badly on the assignments that Reid handed him.
into Biden’s vacated spots. Wonder if Beau will get those same jobs in two years, presuming he gets in.
I admit, I’m kind of disappointed that the Udalls don’t share any committees. That would be fun.
I realize that different committees are important to different members for various reasons. By, I was just wandering if there was any sort of generally recognized ranking of the committees by desireability/difficulty of getting a spot on the committee?
My WAG:
1. Appropriations
2. Finance
3. Armed Services
4. Foreign Affairs
5. Rules and Administration
6. Judiciary
7. Commerce
8. Banking, Housing, Urban Affairs
9. Health, Education, Labor
10. Agriculture
11. Homeland Security and Gov’t Affairs
12. Budget
13. Energy
14. Environment
15. Intelligence
16. Veteran Affairs
17. Small Business
18. Indian Affairs
19. Ethics
20. Aging
21. International Narcotics Control
Although they are plum assignments for a freshman, they are all domestic policy-focused. If Warner intended to use the Senate to burnish his foreign policy/national security credentials for a future Presidential run, he would likely have ended up on Armed Services, Foreign Relations or Homeland Security.