Deb Fischer Named To U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Stays On Armed Services

From Nebraska Examiner:

By Aaron Sanderford

February 1, 2023

LINCOLN — U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., is now serving on the Senate Appropriations Committee, she announced Wednesday. She is taking on the role in addition to her seat on the Armed Services Committee.

Typically, senators are allowed to join one top-level committee, such as Appropriations or Armed Services. Fischer will serve on two.

The Nebraska delegation has been without a member of Appropriations in either the Senate or the House since the resignation of U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry last spring. He is currently appealing his conviction on three federal felony charges.

Fischer, whose family owns a Cherry County ranch, also remains on the Agriculture and Commerce Committees headed into a year when Congress will be drafting a new five-year farm bill year, a step that pleased local agricultural interests.

She said her committee assignments have helped Nebraskans secure critical resources. Joining the Appropriations Committee, she said, would “make Nebraska even more of a powerhouse in the Senate.”

Fischer, an ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, is gaining seniority on Armed Services, which matters in a state where Offutt Air Force Base is a top national security asset and one of the region’s top economic drivers.

Freshly appointed Sen. Pete Ricketts, who served two terms as Nebraska’s governor, has been named to the Foreign Relations Committee, as well as the Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Special Committee on Aging.

“Nebraska’s farmers, ranchers and small business owners are desperate for relief after two years of Democrat overregulation, and I’m eager to advocate aggressively on their behalf at the Committee on the Environment and Public Works,” Ricketts said, also expressing enthusiasm for his other committee assignments.

The Senate, as of Tuesday, hadn’t yet sorted out its subcommittee assignments.

U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., who joined the House after a special election last summer to replace Fortenberry, is assigned to the Financial Services Committee, which oversees banking, insurance, finance and housing.

Flood, who represents 1st District in eastern Nebraska, will serve on a pair of Financial Services subcommittees, one on housing and insurance and one focused on digital Assets, financial technology and inclusion.

Second District Rep. Don Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, serves on the House Armed Services and Agriculture Committees.

Bacon, in a press release Tuesday, said he has been asked to lead a group for the Armed Services Committee focused on improving the quality of life of members of the military.

Rep. Adrian Smith, a senior member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, will chair its subcommittee on trade, which matters to ag producers in the sprawling rural 3rd District.

Smith will serve on the health and work subcommittee and the welfare subcommittees on Ways and Means.

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