Committee Rosters for 115th Congress Fill Out – UPDATE

Update, February 15:  At press time this morning, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee’s website listed Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) as the ranking member of its space subcommittee.  However, later this morning committee Democrats issued a press release with an updated list of its members showing that Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is the ranking member of that subcommittee.  Our table has been updated accordingly.  Peters remains as a member of the subcommittee.

Original Story, February 15, 2017.  House Democrats have announced their full committee and subcommittee members of the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee, filling out the rosters for the congressional committees that oversee the nation’s space programs for the 115th Congress.   Memberships on the other space-related committees were announced earlier.

Oversight and funding of the U.S. space program involves a number of committees.  The list below is only of those with the most direct responsibilities and is not meant to be comprehensive.  The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee have jurisdiction over all government agency operations, for example, but they rarely deal with space issues.   Similarly, the committees that oversee the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in the Department of the Interior (which operates the Landsat satellites) or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the Department of Commerce that assign spectrum to commercial and government users respectively do not often focus on space issues.

The following table, therefore, is limited to the authorization and appropriations committees for NASA, NOAA, DOD, the Intelligence Community (IC), and the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is part of the Department of Transportation.  It shows the top Republicans and Democrats (“ranking members”) at the full committee and subcommittee level.   Complete rosters of committee and subcommittee members are on each committee’s website.

 

House			Senate
Authorization
Cmte/Sbcmte	Republicans	Democrats	Cmte/Sbcmte	Republicans	Democrats
Science, Space &Technology			Commerce, Science, &Transportation
Full Committee	Lamar Smith (TX)	Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX)	Full Committee	John Thune (SD)	Bill Nelson (FL)
Space Sbcmte (NASA, FAA/AST)	Brian Babin (TX)	Ami Bera (CA)	Space, Science & Competitiveness Sbcmte (NASA, FAA/AST)	Ted Cruz (TX)	Ed Markey (MA)
Environment Sbcmte (NOAA)	Andy Biggs (AZ)	Suzanne Bonamici (OR)	Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries & Coast Guard	Dan Sullivan (Alaska)	Cory Booker (NJ)
Armed Services			Armed Services
Full Committee	Mac Thornberry (TX)	Adam Smith (WA)	Full Committee	John McCain (AZ)	Jack Reed (RI)
Strategic Forces Sbcmte	Mike Rogers (AL)	Jim Cooper (TN)	Strategic Forces Sbcmte	Deb Fischer (Nebraska)	Joe Donnelly (IN)
Intelligence			Intelligence
Full Committee	Devin Nunes (CA)	Adam Schiff (CA)	Full Committee	Richard Burr (NC)	Mark Warner (VA)
Appropriations
Full Committee	Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ)	Nita Lowey (NY)	Full Committee	Thad Cochran (MS)	Patrick Leahy (VT)
Commerce-Justice-Science Sbcmte (NASA, NOAA)	John Culberson (TX)	José Serrano (NY)	Commerce-Justice-Science Sbcmte (NASA, NOAA)	Richard Shelby (AL)	Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
Defense Subcmte (DOD, IC)	Kay Granger (TX)	Peter Visclosky (IN)	Defense Subcmte (DOD, IC)	Thad Cochran (MS)	Dick Durbin (IL)
Transportation-HUD Subcmte (FAA/AST)	Mario Diaz-Balart (FL)	David Price (NC)	Transportation-HUD Subcmte (FAA/AST)	Susan Collins (Maine)	Jack Reed (RI)

State Abbreviations:  AL (Alabama), AZ (Arizona), CA (California),  FL (Florida), IL (Illinois), IN (Indiana), MA (Massachusetts), MS (Mississippi),  NC (North Carolina), NH (New Hampshire), NJ (New Jersey),  NY (New York), OR (Oregon), RI (Rhode Island), SD (South Dakota), TN (Tennessee), TX (Texas), VA (Virginia), VT (Vermont), WA (Washington)