Congressman Tom McClintock Appointed to House Budget and Natural Resources Committees

Press Release

Congressman Tom McClintock, CA-04, has been appointed to serve on the House Budget Committee and the Natural Resources Committee for the upcoming 112th Congress.

McClintock will begin his second term on the Natural Resources Committee where he served as ranking member of the Water and Power sub-committee during the 111th Congress. "The Natural Resources Committee is absolutely vital to the economy of the 4th Congressional District, and I am delighted to have been re-appointed," McClintock said. During the last session, McClintock was an outspoken advocate of restoring abundance of water and power as a central objective of federal policy and vowed to continue that work in the upcoming session.

In addition, McClintock will leave the House Education and Labor Committee to take on new responsibilities on the Budget Committee, which will play a prominent role under Chairman Paul Ryan in bringing federal spending under control. McClintock was a prominent voice for many years in the California legislature warning that the state was on an unsustainable fiscal path. During those years he introduced hundreds of specific budget reforms, including tax, spending and borrowing limitations; contracting out of state services; pension, welfare and education reform and bureaucratic streamlining.

"I am deeply gratified by this appointment," McClintock said. "The nation's fiscal crisis is one of the most serious threats our government has ever faced, and the opportunity to assist in setting things right is truly the most exciting assignment I have ever had."

About the House Budget Committee

As the first panel to examine the President's annual budget message, the Budget Committee's chief responsibility is to draft a concurrent resolution that reconciles spending details with the overall comprehensive budget package. The committee is required to draft a budget resolution, agreed to by April 15 of each year, which establishes total targets in five budget areas: authority; outlays; revenues; surplus or deficit; and public debt. The resolution also sets budget authority and outlay targets for each of the 21 spending categories. Finally, the committee prepares guidelines in the annual budget resolution for cutting programs to meet spending targets.

About the House Natural Resources Committee

The House Natural Resources Committee considers legislation about American energy production, mineral lands and mining, fisheries and wildlife, public lands, Native Americans, irrigation and reclamation, and oceanography.

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