House Republicans have tapped Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., to become ranking minority member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Camp was chosen over the more senior-ranking Wally Herger, R-Calif., and will replace Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., who is retiring at the end of the session. McCrery plans to join the lobbying firm of Capitol Counsel as a partner in January, the firm announced yesterday.
First elected to Congress in 1990, Camp represents the fourth district of Michigan, which includes Midland and Traverse City. Over the years, he has paid particular attention to welfare reform as well as health and education issues.
At the same time, five Democrats were named to become new members of the House Ways and Means Committee. They are Danny Davis from Illinois; Bob Etheridge from North Carolina; Raul Grijalva from Arizona; Brian Higgins from New York; and John Yarmuth from Kentucky.
Two Democrats were named to the Appropriations Committee - Lincoln Davis of Tennessee and John Salazar of Colorado.
Also in the House, Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., was able to retain his seat as ranking minority member of the House Financial Services Committee after angering fellow Republicans for showing early support in September year for the $700 billion bailout bill.
Bachus was involved in negotiations over that bill and created confusion for indicating Republicans would agree with an early draft of the bill, when a large group of them were opposed to it.
Meanwhile, House Democrats tapped Edolphus Towns from New York to chair the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has held a series of hearings on the financial crisis. Towns replaces Henry Waxman from California, who successfully challenged long-time House member John Dingell for chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
House Republicans chose Darrell Issa from California to become ranking minority member of the committee, replacing the retiring Tom Davis from Virginia.
