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Paul Ryan Cleaning House, To Dump Committee Chairs
Thursday, November 12, 2015 08:06 AM
By: Loren Gutentag
Paul Ryan took on the role of Speaker of the House last month promising to rework the House Republican Steering Committee before Thanksgiving and is doing just that taking steps to restructure the panel and dump committee chairs, Politico reports.
In what will be the biggest restructuring of internal GOP policy so far in his tenure, Ryan kick-started the changes by impaneling eight lawmakers. And although plans are not finalized, lawmakers have discussed a two-part plan to in an effort to change the membership of the committee.
Politico states that "during the current Congress, top committee chairmen would be removed from the panel and replaced with members elected by the House Republican Conference" and "in the next Congress, the GOP would add additional regional representatives to the committee."
Lawmakers involved in the talks declined to comment on the confidential plans, but the potential changes would help decentralized power in the house.
According to Politico, under Ryan's new plan, several powerful chairmen would lose their slots. They include Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers of Kentucky, Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan, Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling and Ways and Means’ Brady, both of Texas, and Budget Chairman Tom Price of Georgia.
Those involved in the talks include Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California; Reps. Luke Messer of Indiana and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, who both serve in the party’s leadership; Rep. Bill Flores of Texas, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee; House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia; Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who serves on the Steering Committee; and Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, a member of the House Freedom Caucus.
This plan is just one of the many repurposing plans that Ryan has calculated. According to Politico, he has said he plans a broad overhaul of how the House works by the end of this year.
