Illinois Republican leaders have chosen a November ballot replacement for longtime Republican Rep. Timothy V. Johnson after he abruptly announced his retirement last month.
A House energy panel said Thursday it is investigating the Obama administration's decision to halt plans to bury the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada, saying the catastrophic Japanese earthquake proves the dangers of storing spent nuclear fuel at power plants.
Three years after he led the charge to require consumers to ditch their comfortable old incandescent lights in favor of those twisty CFL bulbs, Rep. Fred Upton now wants to be the man to help undo that law as the next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Conservative lobbies are pressing House Republicans to keep centrists from controlling key congressional panels, as House GOP leaders gather this week to pick committee leaders for the 112th Congress.
The chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is emerging as one of the top prizes of the new Congress, and a collection of powerful House GOP members already are angling for the post.
While House Republicans are jockeying behind the scenes for coveted committee chairmanships should Democrats be ousted from leadership after the midterm elections, many political insiders don't expect a drastic reshuffling of leadership within the GOP.
