By Farm Week Now
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville) has been tabbed by House Speaker Paul Ryan to serve on a task force that aims to reform the powerful House Republican Steering Committee.
“There’s been a lot of discussion in the past that legislative in Washington wasn’t as open without our own party as it should be have been,” Davis said.
Davis said Ryan is trying to foster more government transparency and decentralize power from the GOP leadership and committee chairmen to rank-and-file lawmakers.
“That’s what I went to Washington to do – to legislate – and to me Paul is showing us what can be done,” Davis said. “(Lawmakers) are going to have to work a lot harder, they are going to have to be on the House floor a lot later, and to me that’s ok.”
Davis said he is well qualified to serve on the committee based on his years as a staffer in Washington.
The group is expected to come forward within a week with suggestions for changing how heads of various committees are chosen.
Other members of the committee include House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Republicans Richard Hudson and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Bob Goodlatte and Morgan Griffith of Virginia, Bill Flores of Texas, and Luke Messer of Indiana.