Committee Assignments

Committee on Energy and Commerce

U.S. Rep. DeGette was appointed Vice Chair of the powerful Committee on Energy and Commerce in January 2007, an exclusive congressional committee with vast jurisdiction over health care, trade, business, technology and consumer protection.  A member of the Committee since her first term in Congress, U.S. Rep. DeGette has used her position to improve health care, expand medical research, reform corporate business and accounting practices, and ensure that our homeland is adequately protected. In addition, U.S. Rep. DeGette also serves on the following subcommittees:

Committee Action

Jurisdiction
Please see below for full committee and subcommittee jurisdiction

Full Committee
(1) Biomedical research and development.
(2) Consumer affairs and consumer protection.
(3) Health and health facilities (except health care supported by payroll deductions).
(4) Interstate energy compacts.
(5) Interstate and foreign commerce generally.
(6) Exploration, production, storage, supply, marketing, pricing, and regulation of energy resources, including all fossil fuels, solar energy, and other unconventional or renewable energy resources.
(7) Conservation of energy resources.
(8) Energy information generally.
(9) The generation and marketing of power (except by federally chartered or Federal regional power marketing authorities); reliability and interstate transmission of, and ratemaking for, all power; and siting of generation facilities (except the installation of interconnections between Government waterpower projects).
(10) General management of the Department of Energy and management and all functions of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
(11) National energy policy generally.
(12) Public health and quarantine.
(13) Regulation of the domestic nuclear energy industry, including regulation of research and development reactors and nuclear regulatory research.
(14) Regulation of interstate and foreign communications.
(15) Travel and tourism.
(16) Homeland security-related aspects of the foregoing, including cyber security.

The committee shall have the same jurisdiction with respect to regulation of nuclear facilities and of use of nuclear energy as it has with respect to regulation of nonnuclear facilities and of use of nonnuclear energy.

Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection
(1) Interstate and foreign commerce, including all trade matters within the jurisdiction of the full committee;
(2) Regulation of commercial practices (the FTC), including sports-related matters;
(3) Consumer affairs and consumer protection, including privacy matters generally; consumer product safety (the CPSC); and product liability; and motor vehicle safety;
(4) Regulation of travel, tourism, and time; and,
(5) Homeland security-related aspects of the foregoing, including cyber security.

Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
(1) Interstate and foreign telecommunications including, but not limited to all telecommunication and information transmission by broadcast, radio, wire, microwave, satellite, or other mode. 

Subcommittee on Health
(1) Public health and quarantine; hospital construction; mental health and research; biomedical programs and health protection in general, including Medicaid and national health insurance;
(2) Food and drugs;
(3) Drug abuse; and,
(4) Homeland security-related aspects of the foregoing.

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
(1) Responsibility for oversight of agencies, departments, and programs within the jurisdiction of the full committee, and for conducting investigations within such jurisdiction.

Committee on Natural Resources

In January 2009, U.S. Rep. DeGette was appointed to the House Committee on Natural Resources because of her work on public lands issues. She will use her position on this important Committee to preserve wilderness and reverse the Bush Administration’s misguided public lands policies. She serves on the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, and the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife.

Committee Action

Full Committee Jurisdiction
Rule X of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, 111th Congress

  • Fisheries and wildlife, including research, restoration, refuges, and conservation.
  • Forest reserves and national parks created from the public domain.
  • Forfeiture of land grants and alien ownership, including alien ownership of mineral lands.
  • Geological Survey.
  • International fishing agreements.
  • Interstate compacts relating to apportionment of waters for irrigation purposes.
  • Irrigation and reclamation, including water supply for reclamation projects and easements of public lands for irrigation projects; and acquisition of private lands when necessary to complete irrigation projects.
  • Native Americans generally, including the care and allotment of Native American lands and general and special measures relating to claims that are paid out of Native American funds.
  • Insular possessions of the United States generally (except those affecting the revenue and appropriations).
  • Military parks and battlefields, national cemeteries administered by the Secretary of the Interior, parks within the District of Columbia, and the erection of monuments to the memory of individuals.
  • Mineral land laws and claims and entries thereunder.
  • Mineral resources of public lands.
  • Mining interests generally.
  • Mining schools and experimental stations.
  • Marine affairs, including coastal zone management (except for measures relating to oil and other pollution of navigable waters).
  • Oceanography.
  • Petroleum conservation on public lands and conservation of the radium supply in the United States.
  • Preservation of prehistoric ruins and objects of interest on the public domain.
  • Public lands generally, including entry, easements, and grazing thereon.
  • Relations of the United States with Native Americans and Native American tribes.
  • Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline (except ratemaking).

SUBCOMMITTEE JURISDICTION

National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands
  • Bureau of Land Management
  • U.S. Forest Service
  • National Park Service

Subcommittee Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife

  • Oversight of the insular areas of the United States
  • Five Principal U.S. Territories
    • American Samoa
    • Guam
    • The Northern Mariana Islands
    • Puerto Rico
    • U.S. Virgin Islands
  • Three Freely Associated States
    • The Marshall Islands
    • Republic of Palau
    • Federated States of Micronesia
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • National Wildlife Refuges