116th Congress Committee Leadership Positions

Current Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is expected to become Speaker of the House after fending off an attempt by progressive Democrats to keep her from taking the position. However, the full House will vote to elect the new Speaker of the House during the first week in January. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was recently elected by Republicans to be House Minority Leader.

As for House committee leadership of particular importance to petroleum marketers, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will likely be chaired by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will likely be chaired by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and the House Ways and Means Committee will likely be chaired by Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA). PMAA and the state associations have good relations with most of these members.

In the Senate, Republicans re-elected Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Majority Leader. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who had to step aside as Majority Whip because of party-imposed term limits on leadership positions, was replaced by John Thune (R-SD), who moved up from the position of Republican Conference Chair. As for Senate Democrats, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) retained the top two Democratic positions.