U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., will begin serving on the Senate Committee on Appropriations in the new year, his office reported Wednesday. 
U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., of New Mexico’s Third District was named to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday by the Democratic Policy and Steering Committee.
Luján, who will be entering his third term in the House of Representatives, will begin serving on the committee at the start of the 113th Congress in January.
“I am honored to have this opportunity to represent the interests of New Mexico as a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee,” he said. “This opportunity will enable me to build on my work not only over the past few years in Congress on issues from consumer protection to energy, but on my past efforts as a member of the Public Regulation Commission. New Mexico is poised to be leader in a clean energy economy, and this assignment will provide New Mexico with an important voice in the discussion of how we move forward toward this critical goal.”
The Energy and Commerce Committee jurisdiction includes telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health research, environmental quality, energy policy, and interstate and foreign commerce.
It overseas multiple cabinet-level Departments and independent agencies, including the Department of Energy, Health and Human Services, Commerce, and Transportation, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission.
