"It’s clear that the Malheur occupiers illegally seized and destroyed federal land, not as a peaceful protest, but as a willful and premeditated act of domestic terrorism, Rep. DeFazio said.
flickr/Quagphotos
House Democrats selected Oregon's Peter DeFazio Wednesday as the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.
With 26 years on the committee, DeFazio was second in line behind Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey, who was just sworn in to the US Senate. In a statement, DeFazio said he would use his role to push policies that promote conservation, address climate change and emphasize sustainable forestry practices.
Even though Republicans control the House, DeFazio's position gives Oregon a seat at the table when it comes to federal management of natural resources, said Jim Moore, a political scientist at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore.
"When you're the ranking member, you're basically in the leadership of the committee itself. So you work with the majority leader, the chair of the committee on what comes before the committee, on who gets heard before the committee," Moore said. "So he's able to help the committee spend its resources and begin to focus where the committee really looks."
Moore says should Democrats retake the House, DeFazio would likely become the first House member from Oregon to hold a chairmanship in the House since 1999, when then-Rep. Bob Smith, R-Ore., chaired the House Agriculture Committee.
(This was first reported for OPB News.)