Key House Panels Revamped

Because of the creation of the Homeland Security Department, the House Appropriations Committee has realigned its subcommittees in a way that affects the panel handling spending on federal benefits programs and other workplace spending in general. The committee is creating a new subcommittee on DHS, to be headed by Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky. What formerly had been the Treasury-Postal subcommittee will take on the agencies under the Transportation subcommittee not moving to DHS and that panel will be renamed the Transportation and Treasury subcommittee. Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., who has headed the Treasury-Postal subcommittee, will remain as chair. Meanwhile, the Government Reform committee has revamped its subcommittee handling civil service matters. It will be called the subcommittee on the civil service and agency reorganization, a reminder that agency reorganization is a priority goal of the full committee’s new chairman, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. The subcommittee, which will be headed by Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., further will no longer have jurisdiction over the census.