Frist Taps Mike Crapo To Chair SenateCommittee on Committees

WASHINGTON, D.C. â?? U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. (R-TN) today tapped Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) to chair the Senate Committee on Committees, the organizing panel that will be responsible for determining the Committee assignments of the 109th Congress. â??Iâ??m grateful for Mike Crapoâ??s continued service to the Senate. He will do an outstanding job in negotiating Committee assignments for the 109th Congress,â?? said Frist. â??We have an aggressive agenda for the next legislative session, and a unique opportunity to make real reform in areas like health care, Social Security, energy, and tax policy. How the Senate committee assignments are structured is key to our continued success, and I look forward to Mikeâ??s counsel and recommendations as we move forward in organizing the 109th Congress.â?? â??It is indeed an honor to be selected for this chairmanship and I look forward to working with Senator Frist and other members of Leadership to ensure that the committee assignment process is part of a smooth transition to a new Congress,â?? Senator Mike Crapo said. â??It is important that we are able to move ahead with priorities set by the President and by Congress in the 109th session.â?? The Committee on Committees negotiates the process of assigning Senators to committees. Although the size of each standing committee is set in Senate rules, changes in these sizes often result from inter-party negotiations before each new Congress. After general elections, Senate party leaders negotiate the party ratios on standing committees. Once committee size and ratios are determined, a panel, or Committee on Committees, for each party nominates colleagues for committee assignments. The chairman of the Committee on Committees is responsible for soliciting preferences for committee assignment from party colleagues, then matching these preferences with vacancies on standing committees. Senate rules, along with party rules and practices, guide the work of the Committee on Committees and the Steering and Coordination Committee. Crapo was elected to the Senate in 1999, after serving three terms in the House of Representatives. -30- 04-259