Today the steering committee in charge of determining the minority party’s leadership of House committees for the new Congress selected Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) to be the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. As the leading Republican on this committee, Ryan will have the responsibility of spearheading the minority’s efforts to enact a fiscally responsible budget, improve accountability for spending requests, and closely monitor federal spending throughout the entire budget and appropriations process to prevent waste and abuse. Upon being chosen as ranking member, Rep. Paul Ryan made the following statement: “We have a lot of ground to cover next year, and I’m excited to have the privilege of serving as lead budget watchdog,” Ryan said. ”I look forward to working with my dedicated colleagues on the Budget Committee and throughout Congress to fight for a fiscally responsible budget and root out unnecessary spending.” “We owe it to taxpayers to spend prudently on key priorities – not wasteful pork-barrel earmarks, and we owe it to America’s workers to resist job-killing tax hikes. By working together to instill fiscal discipline in federal spending, we can restore Americans’ faith in good government and strengthen our economy for the challenges ahead. I would like to thank the steering committee for this great opportunity,” Ryan said.