Democrats yesterday selected New York Rep. Nita Lowey to be ranking member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee in the 113th Congress.

Lowey was elected by the Democratic Steering Committee over Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who also was seeking the slot, on a 36-10 vote. She will replace retiring Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) atop the panel.

"It is an honor to be selected by my colleagues to serve as Ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee in the 113th Congress," Lowey said in a statement. "It is especially gratifying to be the first woman to lead either party on this powerful committee."

"In the coming weeks," she added, "Congress must extend expiring tax reductions for middle-class families and replace sequestration with budget reductions that jeopardize neither critical services nor investments for the future."

First elected in 1988, Lowey was the fourth-ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. She has long been an ally of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and served as chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2002.

Lowey has served as ranking member of the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee. She has not been among her party's loudest voices on energy issues, although she has been a leading advocate of shutting down the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York (E&E Daily, July 27). She also co-sponsored legislation earlier this year to limit arsenic in rice (E&ENews PM, Sept. 21).

The ranking member slot represents the pinnacle of Lowey's congressional career. She was preparing to run for an open Senate seat in 2000 but deferred when Hillary Rodham Clinton, then the first lady, moved to New York and decided to run.

In other House Democratic committee assignments, most of the ranking members in the 112th Congress will retain their positions in the 113th, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) atop the Energy and Commerce Committee and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on the Natural Resources Committee. The new ranking members will be Rep. Elliot Engel (D-N.Y.) on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael Michaud (D-Maine) on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on the Financial Services Committee.

Reporter Eugene Mulero contributed.