Ways and Means shifts subcommittee chiefs

The House Ways and Means Committee will be shifting around its subcommittee chairmanships next year under its incoming chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

{mosads}Only two of the six subcommittees will have the same chairman when Congress comes back in January: the Social Security panel, to be helmed by Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas); and the health subcommittee, which will be led by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas).

Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) will head the select revenue measures subcommittee, where he’ll help oversee the committee’s work on taxes. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) gets the slot at the oversight subcommittee, which has played a big role in the investigation into the IRS’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups.

Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) will lead the trade subcommittee at a time when congressional Republicans and President Obama have some common ground on trade issues. And Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.) will be the new chairman of the human resources subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over some of the anti-poverty measures that Ryan has said are priorities.

Term limits caused the round of musical chairs at the subcommittees, with only Roskam, who lost a battle for House majority whip, becoming a new chairman next year.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who led the trade subcommittee, will be the Intelligence chairman next year. Boustany led the Oversight panel, Tiberi the tax subcommittee and Reichert the human resources panel in the current Congress.