The Frankfort LINK: Congressman Thomas Massie talks about his new committee assignments

Welcome back to another episode of the Frankfort LINK. I am Mark Payne, the politics and government reporter for LINK nky. 

This week I am coming to you from Covington, Kentucky, home of LINK nky headquarters. 

When I talked on the first episode of the new Frankfort LINK, I mentioned that some changes were afoot. One of those changes mentioned is that we won’t just talk about Frankfort — we will talk about politics in Northern Kentucky. 

That means sometimes we will be keeping an eye on our U.S. Senators — Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell — and NKY’s Representative Thomas Massie. 

This week we take a look at our nation’s capital and the new Congress, specifically Massie’s new committee roles in the House. 

Known for his “no” votes on legislation, Thomas Massie, who represents the fourth congressional district that includes Northern Kentucky, has recently been named to two powerful committees in the new Republican majority U.S. House. 

After Republicans gained control of the House in the 2022 midterms, they spent the early part of the year negotiating for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the new Speaker of the House.

Rep. McCarthy named Massie to the powerful Rules Committee and the new Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

The Weaponization Committee is a move by Republicans to examine whether government entities and social media companies have led an effort to silence Republicans at all levels of government. 

But, the Rules committee is where Rep. Massie could hold significant sway. Every bill that comes out of  committee goes through the Rules committee before it heads to the House floor for a vote. The committee determines the rules of debate, the timing of the vote, and whether amendments will be allowed and which ones. 

On this episode, Massie talks  about his new roles and his goals while serving on the committees.