New Chair Announced for the House & Energy Commerce Committee, Traditional Hotbed for Congressional Investigations
Republican House members confirmed that Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) will chair the often active House & Energy Commerce Committee, which has conducted oversight of the energy, health care, food, drug, and telecommunications industries. In his press release today, announcing the GOP's selection of him as the committee's chair, Rep. Upton said, "the administration's rampant spending and unfettered, two-year assault on the health, energy, and telecommunications is now over." Rep. Upton, however, did not appear to have set forth an investigations agenda for his committee, which has been the locus of a number of congressional investigations and inquiries.
Rep. Upton will be replacing Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who as chair of that committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform, long ago established himself as one of the Hill's most persistent and active congressional investigators.
This change will put a congressman from Michigan in the driver's seat of a committee that has the authority to investigate, and legislate on, matters affecting the state's Big Three auto companies, which have made significant comebacks since the financial collapse of 2008.
Rep. Upton named Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) as chair of the Health Subcommittee, but has not yet named the chairs of the other subcommittees.
