Texas gaining clout in U.S. House

Texas will have more clout in the 113th Congress, doubling its committee chairmanships in the House with four powerful GOP chairmen who will oversee the banking and financial industries, U.S. security from the border to al-Qaida threats, the space program and all legislation that reaches the House floor.

House Republicans on Wednesday approved Reps. Jeb Hensarling of Dallas to chair the Financial Services Committee, Pete Sessions of Dallas to run the Rules Committee, Mike McCaul of Austin to chair the Homeland Security Committee and Lamar Smith of San Antonio, who was termlimited as Judiciary Committee chairman, to chair the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Texas has the largest GOP delegation, with 24 members, although the state will no longer have any members in the elected leadership.

The three members who have been in top leadership posts in the current congressional term — Hensarling, chairman of the House Republican Conference; Sessions, the campaign chief; and John Carter of Round Rock — are leaving those offices for new committee posts.

Carter is in line to be a subcommittee chairman on the House Appropriations Committee, also known as a “cardinal,” like Rep. Kay Granger, RFort Worth, who chairs the panel’s subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations.

Sessions will be part of the House GOP leadership team in a less formal sense, since he was appointed to the post by Speaker John Boehner, ROhio, and is considered a member of the inner circle.

Nonetheless, the presence of four Texas committee chairmen, who determine the direction, focus and investigations that come out of their panels, will make a difference. In the soon-to-close term of Congress, Texans chair only the Science and Judiciary committees.