The Hill News

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) backed a top fiscal conservative's bid to join the House Appropriations Committee in the next Congress.

Boehner said on Monday that he would support Rep. Jeff Flake's (R-Ariz.) effort to join the appropriations panel, which typically serves as the genesis of government spending, and the earmarked products the GOP has disavowed.

"I support Congressman Jeff Flake in his effort to be appointed to serve on the Appropriations Committee, and I join with incoming Majority Leader Cantor in expressing hope that other reform-minded Members of Congress will follow Jeff’s example in seeking appointment to the committee," Boehner said Monday in a statement.

Boehner's endorsement of Flake is a bow to fiscal conservatives who had sought to aggressively cut spending in the next Congress and end practices like earmarks, on which the House and Senate GOP have adopted a voluntary moratorium.

The mo! ve could also quell concerns amongst new members of Congress, many of whom are allied with the activist Tea Party movement, that the new GOP majority's approach to spending might not actually change that much when push comes to shove.

"The Appropriations Committee will be the scene of much action in the next Congress as we work to implement the Pledge to America, which calls for cutting spending to pre-‘stimulus’ levels, repealing the job-killing health care law, prohibiting all taxpayer funding of abortion, and bringing greater scrutiny to the broken spending process in Washington," Boehner explained. "These priorities are among the priorities of the American people, and the Republicans currently serving on the Appropriations Committee are going to need all the additional help they can get in working to ensure the priorities of the people are met.”

Flake's long been a critic of the practices of the appropriations committee and has clashed occas! ionally with top members of the committee, such as Rep. Jerry ! Lewis (R -Calif.), the top Republican on the spending panel. Lewis has said he backs Flake's effort to back the committee, making it seem almost certain that Flake will join the panel.