Oregon's Congressional delegation, completely unchanged since 1999, has finally parlayed its increasing seniority into prime committee assignments in the 109th Congress. In March, GOP Representative Greg Walden was named Chairman of the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. In December, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden was selected to join Republican Gordon Smith on the powerful Finance Committee, making Oregon the only state with two members on the committee. Today, Ellyn Ferguson reports in The Salem Statesman Journal that another of Oregon's members of Congress has been selected for a key post.

Rep. Peter DeFazio is taking on traffic-cop duty during this Congressional session to free billions of dollars for mass transit and highways that have been tied up in budget gridlock since 2003.

The money is part of a highway bill that would dole out funding to states during the next six years. The bill ultimately is about generating employment through transportation construction jobs and aiding economic development by moving goods and people, said DeFazio, D-Springfield.

To be closer to the action, he has traded his seat as the senior Democrat on the aviation subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for the top Democrat seat on the panel's highways, transit and pipelines subcommittee.

The switch makes him one of the committee's "Big Four" members responsible for trying to get a final version of the bill passed.

DeFazio worked hard to get this post, becoming the first Oregonian with a significant role in steering money to the state since Mark Hatfield retired as Senate Appropriations Chairman in 1997, and his district and the state as a whole will benefit greatly from his selection.