FedTracker: Landrieu to chair small business committee

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) will be the new chairwoman of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee in the next Congress.

As 2008 winds to a close, Congressional leadership and the Obama cabinet and administration management picks are all coming into focus. The earlier announcement that Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) will chair the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee gave the Obama team another specific name of people they'll work closely with.

“I intend to use my gavel to ensure that [small businesses] play an active role in our nation’s economic recovery and that the federal government is a supportive and efficient partner in their success,” Landrieu said in a statement released Dec. 15.

Landrieu has introduced several bills to help small businesses, especially in the Gulf Coast region after hurricane Katrina devasted her home state and Mississippi, and Hurricane Rita laid waste to parts of Florida in 2005.