Three months after they voted against John Boehner’s third term as speaker, two Republicans have been removed from a key committee in retaliation for their dissent.
The House Rules Committee announced on Tuesday that they have filled two positions temporarily vacated by Reps. Richard Nugent and Daniel Webster, who were taken off the panel after they joined 24 conservative Republicans in voting against Boehner in January.
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Reps. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., will fill the positions, meaning that Webster and Nugent have been permanently ousted. The two lawmakers served on the Rules Committee in the 113th Congress, but were excluded from the roster approved by lawmakers in the hours after they voted against Boehner.
Nugent and Webster appear to be the only lawmakers to lose committee posts after voting against Boehner. Republican leadership aides told the Washington Examiner the Rules panel is considered an arm of the Speaker’s office, and thus has a higher threshold for loyalty that Nugent and Webster did not meet because they voted against Boehner.
House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, praised Byrne for his “commitment to a small, conservative federal government and a strong national defense.”
Sessions called Newhouse, “a tireless advocate for prioritizing nuclear cleanup issues, science, and technological innovation during his time in Congress.”
