(The Daily Advertiser) – U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-3rd District, has been named to the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, one of three panels to which the freshman lawmaker has been assigned.

Chaired by Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the committee was formed almost 60 years ago in the wake of advances in the Soviet Union’s space program.

The committee’s purview has grown to include jurisdiction over, among others, the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. The subcommittee on energy has jurisdiction over, among other things, fossil energy research and development. The oil and gas industry is the leading employer along the Gulf Coast.

The science committee has jurisdiction over the DOE’s $10 billion research and development budget.

U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-La., served on the committee in the 114th Congress and will serve with Higgins on the committee in this Congress.

Higgins has also been appointed to the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, two assignments he said he would seek during the 2016 campaign.

Higgins was elected Dec. 10 to Congress to serve the 3rd District, which stretches along the Gulf Coast from St. Mary Parish to the Texas line. Sworn in on Jan. 3, he replaced former U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, who served six terms before making an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate last year.