Below is information provided to me by my FNC colleague Chad Pergram:
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Urgent: Huelskamp likens Boehner to Gingrich in committee reshuffle
Per Pergram-Capitol Hill
There is a lot of consternation brewing after House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has removed several key conservatives from their choice committee assignments over the past several days. They include freshman Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) who was yanked from the Budget and Agriculture Committees, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) who was taken off of Financial Services, freshman Rep. Dave Schweikert (R-AZ) who also lost a slot on Financial Services and freshman Justin Amash (R-MI, pronounced uh-MAHSH) who was kicked off of Budget.
A few days ago, Huelskamp immediately denounced him being stripped from that his panels and he likened Boehner to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA).
Huelskamp:
They told us ‘We’re watching all of your votes. It punishes my 700,00 constituents.
Huelskamp:
What’s this game? Do you tell ‘em what (committees) I don’t want?
Huelskamp:
Someone from my district has been on the Agriculture Committee for 151 years. It a gratuitous slap at my district.
Huelskamp:
We saw this under Newt Gingrich and it didn’t work out too well.
Huelskamp Statement on Being Removed from Budget Committee
(WASHINGTON) – Freshman Congressman Tim Huelskamp of Kansas learned on Monday that the House Republican Leadership has removed him from the House Budget Committee in the 113th Congress. Congressman Tim Huelskamp, a principled and outspoken conservative and a Tea Party favorite, was given limited explanation for his removal but clearly his consistent, principled, and conservative votes have riled the GOP Establishment:
“It is little wonder why Congress has a 16 percent approval rating: Americans send principled representatives to change Washington and get punished in return,” Congressman Huelskamp said. “The GOP leadership might think they have silenced conservatives, but removing me and others from key committees only confirms our conservative convictions. This is clearly a vindictive move, and a sure sign that the GOP Establishment cannot handle disagreement.”
“I am not at all ashamed of any of the principled, conservative stances I took in the past two years, including:
- “Efforts to hold Republicans to the “Pledge to America” – a promise Washington Republican leadership made before I was even elected – to cut $100 billion in 2011 and to restore transparency and openness in the legislative process;
- “Voting against and publicly criticizing the 2011 debt limit increase that lacked substantial limits on Washington’s spending and borrowing powers – a bill that failed to avert the nation’s credit rating downgrade – and led to the current “fiscal cliff;”
- “Attempting to curb the explosion in food stamp spending and other entitlements;
- “Ending handouts to big business;
- “Refusing to withdraw key pro-marriage and pro-life amendments when requested by members of the GOP leadership; and
- “Just recently issuing a public challenge to all 238 GOP colleagues, including every member of Leadership, to reaffirm their pledges to oppose tax increases.”
“Kansans who sent me to Washington did so to change the way things are done – not to provide cover for Establishment Republicans who only give lip service to conservative principles. If the rest of America is anything like the 700,000 Kansans I represent, then they know that the fiscal and cultural crises facing our nation require drastic changes to the way things are done in Washington – not just symbolic gestures or more of the same.”
Congressman Tim Huelskamp is a freshman representing the First District of Kansas. He serves on the House Budget,
Agriculture, and Veterans’ Affairs Committees, and he is a member of the House Republican Study Committee.
