Freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., campaigned under pledges to reel in federal spending.
He’s going to get his chance after being named to the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which decides how to spend federal money.
The 60-member committee, seen as one of the most powerful on Capitol Hill, has in the past distributed more than $1 trillion in nonentitlement dollars annually.
In the current Congress, the committee includes 37 Democrats and 23 Republicans.
Graves is a Gordon County resident who was elected to replace Nathan Deal in Georgia’s 9th District, which includes Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray and part of Gordon counties.
In a statement Friday, Graves cited “a clear mandate to end the reckless fiscal ways of Washington” and said his new position would allow him to put “a plug in the wellspring of federal spending.”
“I join the committee with plans to embody America’s call for fiscal responsibility,” he said in the statement. “Where others sought to spend taxpayers’ money, I will save it.”