Committee Assignments

The House of Representatives has 20 committees that consider bills and issues and recommend measures for consideration by the full House. Committees also have oversight responsibilities to monitor agencies, programs, and activities within their jurisdictions. I serve on three committees which have jurisdiction over issues that directly affect West Texans: Financial Services, Agriculture, and Science, Space, & Technology.

House Committee on Financial Services

The Financial Services Committee considers policies on the economy, our banking system, housing, insurance, and securities and exchanges. At a time when our economy continues to struggle, the Committee remains focused on issues that jumpstart economic growth, stabilize our financial sector, ensure credit availability, and protect consumer financial product choice.  As a team, we’re working to reduce the government’s footprint in the economy by strengthening the free enterprise system that makes America great, cutting regulatory burdens that make capital more expensive and less available to consumers, and shifting risk away from the American taxpayer and into the private sector – a place that understands how to price risk far better than the government.

Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
Recent government intervention and inefficient and misguided regulations from Washington have left consumers in West Texas and the Big Country with fewer financial products and options available to reach the American Dream. While we need clear and tailored regulations in place, a major focus of my Subcommittee will be to provide regulatory relief that gets government out of the way and allows individuals, families, and businesses to prosper. Second, we have seen a tremendous number of new regulations, which sound like consumer protections that actually will decrease consumer choice, increase the cost of credit, and make it harder for many Americans to ever obtain credit. We will examine this closely. Third, we must understand and take a look at future threats to the financial sector. Cybersecurity and consumer payment security are substantial threats to the operation and integrity of our financial industry. Unfortunately, no one is immune from cyber-attacks and cyber-attacks will continue to happen. We must take a comprehensive view to understand the threat, current protections, how information is shared between private sector and the government, and what the impact on the consumer might be. The Subcommittee is responsible for banks and the banking industry, credit unions, depository institutions and federal deposit insurance, financial regulators including the FDIC and the Federal Reserve, and consumer credit issues.

Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises
Responsible for securities, exchanges, and finance; capital markets activities, including business capital formation and venture capital; activities involving futures, forwards, options, and other types of derivative instruments; the Securities and Exchange Commission; secondary market organizations for home mortgages, including the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation; the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight; the Federal Home Loan Banks; the Federal Housing Finance Board; terrorism risk insurance; and insurance generally.

House Committee on Agriculture

The Agriculture Committee works on behalf of farmers, ranchers and rural Americans. It is responsible for the Farm Bill, agricultural trade, and other policies that affect our ability to grow and sell food and fiber.

Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
Jurisdiction: Policies, statutes, and markets relating to commodities including barley, cotton, cottonseed, corn, grain sorghum, honey, mohair, oats, other oilseeds, peanuts, pulse crops, rice, soybeans, sugar, wheat, and wool; the Commodity Credit Corporation; risk management policies and statutes, including Federal Crop Insurance; producer data and privacy issues.

Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit
Jurisdiction: Policies, statutes, and markets relating to commodity exchanges; agricultural credit; rural development; energy; rural electrification.

Subcommittee on Nutrition
Jurisdiction: Policies and statutes relating to nutrition, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and domestic commodity distribution and consumer initiatives.

House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

The Science Committee is responsible for overseeing a range of programs at NASA, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The Committee promotes legislation that encourages scientific discoveries, space exploration and new technologies.