Four members to join Paul Ryan’s Budget Committee

The House Budget Committee will be welcoming at least four new GOP members in 2013, a committee source said Thursday.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), elected in 2002, will be joining the panel, along with current freshmen Reps. Scott Rigell (Va.), Vicky Hartzler (Mo.) and Jim Renacci (Ohio).

The House Budget Committee is a less prestigious “B” level committee in the House, but its profile has risen dramatically under the helm of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who obtained a rare waiver from term limits to continue as chairman next year. Ryan’s blockbuster budgets of the last two years defined the GOP agenda and propelled him to the vice presidential slot on the now-defeated Mitt Romney presidential ticket.

Slots were opened on the committee after House leaders punished rebellious conservative members Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) by kicking them off the committee.

Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) was beaten in the Nov. 6 election by returning Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.), and Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who didn’t run for the House again, lost his Senate race against incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

More slots could also open up on the panel. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) is joining the Financial Services Committee and could leave Budget, while Rep. Todd Young (R-Ind.) is joining the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

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