Source: PRESS RELEASE, 1/16/22


U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield has been reappointed to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the congressman’s office announced Tuesday.

Butterfield, D-Wilson, will serve as the third-most senior Democrat on the panel’s influential health subcommittee. His focus will be “protecting and expanding the Affordable Care Act, improving access to affordable health care treatments and medications, reducing health disparities and advocating for subpopulations in need of better health care options including rare disease and pediatric patients,” according to a news release.

“The 2018 midterm elections showed how important access to affordable health care is to my constituents and voters across the country,” Butterfield said in a statement. “Millions of Americans and North Carolinians sent Democrats to assume control of the 116th Congress with a resounding message: protect the Affordable Care Act from President Trump and Republican efforts to undermine it, strengthen and expand Medicaid and Medicare, and search for opportunities to reduce health care costs for American families. The American people expect us to deliver.”

The Committee on Energy and Commerce is the House’s oldest standing committee and has the broadest jurisdiction of any congressional authorizing committee. It oversees the Departments 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.

Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., D-New Jersey, said Butterfield “will play a crucial role in the fight to ensure all Americans have access to affordable and quality health care, safe drinking water, high-speed internet and a cleaner environment.”

“As a longtime health care champion, Rep. Butterfield will continue to be a powerful advocate for improving our nation’s health care system and lowering costs for consumers,” Pallone said in a statement. “I look forward to working with him in the new House Democratic majority.”