From Special Assistant to Subcommittee Clerk
Seth Ricketts has stepped into the role of Clerk for the House Energy and Commerce Committee's (HECC) Energy Subcommittee, one of the busiest panels in the lower chamber heading into the second half of the 119th Congress, as of January 1, 2026. In 2025, Ricketts served as a Special Assistant on the full House Energy and Commerce Committee. Ricketts graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in history and political science, and interned in the Senate office of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in the fall of 2021 while still a student.
The Subcommittee He Serves
The HECC's Energy Subcommittee has moved a substantial volume of legislation. Among the bills that have advanced furthest is the Energy Choice Act (H.R. 3699), which would prohibit state and local governments from banning or restricting energy infrastructure connections based on the type of fuel involved — a direct response to local natural gas ban ordinances that have proliferated in several states. Also advancing through the panel is the Home Appliance Protection and Affordability Act (H.R. 4626), which has already passed the House and been received in the Senate. The bill would overhaul how the Department of Energy sets energy conservation standards for household appliances, requiring DOE to weigh consumer costs and product availability more heavily in its rulemaking process. On the energy security front, the subcommittee forwarded a cluster of cybersecurity-focused bills to the full committee in February 2026 representing one of the more comprehensive congressional efforts in recent years to harden American energy infrastructure against cyber and physical threats. As Clerk, Ricketts will be at the forefront of new legislation passed by the subcomittee in the coming months.
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