Maneuvering for leadership roles on House technology panels continues

Key lawmakers made moves Wednesday to further their campaigns for Committee leadership positions in the ongoing kabuki theatre that's sure to continue until all the panels are officially formed.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., announced Wednesday that he will seek the top Democratic spot on the Resources Committee and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, touted support from former GOP House chairmen to argue his case for assuming the chairmanship on Energy and Commerce Committee.

"The stakes have never been higher for creating new energy jobs, protecting our environment, and increasing our national security by properly managing our own natural resources," said Markey. "Now is not the time to capitulate to an agenda that will allow China and the rest of the world to win the clean energy jobs race, all at the expense of the planet. Following the largest oil spill in our nation's history, it is imperative that we have a cop on the beat policing the oil industry."

Markey's decision to pursue the spot as ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee may put Reps. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., or Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., in line to take the ranking position on the Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee. Markey had been next in line for that panel with the defeat of the subcommittee's current chairman, Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va.

Rush, who is currently chairman of the Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee, said last week that he was interested in retaining a leadership position on Energy and Commerce but had not decided what subcommittee he would seek a ranking spot.

Barton, who has been waging an aggressive campaign to take the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee despite broad consensus that he would need a waiver from GOP leadership to exempt him from term limits, released a letter Thursday morning from former Republican chairmen saying he does not need a waiver.

Barton, who currently serves as the ranking member on Energy and Commerce, has argued that while GOP rules limit House members to three terms as chairman or ranking member on a full committee, Republicans who had served as ranking members when the GOP last won control of the House in 1994 were allowed to serve three full terms as chairmen.

"Joe has served one full two-year term in the chair at the Energy and Commerce Committee and is seeking a second term. He was denied the chairmanship when Democrats won the majority in 2006 and held on to it for four years," Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, a former chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and former Reps. Bill Archer, R-Texas, and Bud Shuster, R-Pa., wrote to the GOP transition team. "We believe he deserves that second term now, and that neither the spirit nor the letter of the rule was ever intended to prevent it."

While in the House, Archer served as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, while Shuster headed the Transportation and Infrastructure panel.