A longtime South Carolina politician who made a name for himself as the owner of a marketing firm specializing in statewide real estate auctions has just become the newest member of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee—the overseer of all FCC activities in the lower body of Congress.
In an announcement made late Monday, House E&C Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) revealed that the House Steering Committee selected Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) to serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Elected in 2010 to the 112th Congress, the one-time community banking executive served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 2002 until his move to Washington, D.C.
Duncan currently sits on two House committees, including the Homeland Security Committee, and the Foreign Affairs Committee. He also serves as the Subcommittee Chairman of Foreign Affairs’ Western Hemisphere Subcommittee.
“I’m looking forward to Jeff joining our exemplary team here at the Energy and Commerce Committee,” Walden said. “Jeff’s long career in public service, from his work serving as a state legislator back in South Carolina to his time spent here in Congress, and time as a small business owner allow him to hit the ground running and make an immediate impact on the committee with some of the broadest jurisdiction in Congress.”
During his tenure in the South Carolina House of Representatives, Jeff was known as one of the most conservative House Members, earning recognition as a “Taxpayer’s Hero” from then-Gov. (and now House Member) Mark Sanford for his work “combating wasteful government spending and fighting against tax increases,” Duncan’s biography reads.
Duncan’s appointment to the House E&C Committee will likely rattle environmentalists.
“Congressman Duncan is passionate about American Energy Independence,” his biography reads. In South Carolina’s state house, he served on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Outer Continental Shelf five-year Planning Sub-Committee, which was charged with making recommendations for oil and natural gas leases on offshore areas.
In addition, he served on the state’s Natural Gas Offshore Drilling Study Committee and was appointed to represent the state of South Carolina on the Southern States Energy Board. He is an integral part of the GOP’s House Energy Action Team (HEAT), which supports expedited permitting of energy projects and the use of currently undeveloped areas for energy production in the United States, including areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other Federal land.
Duncan also takes a particular interest in the promotion of nuclear energy, a topic especially important to South Carolina, home of the Savannah River Site nuclear complex. He also supports the use of the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada as a long-term storage site for nuclear waste.
Duncan is also in fully support of a fortified border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and supports stronger enforcement of immigration laws; he opposes amnesty for undocumented immigrants already in the country.
Duncan represents the third Congressional district of South Carolina, which includes a largely rural area immediately to the south and west of the Greenville-Spartanburg area. Cities include Anderson, Clinton, Laurens, Greenwood, and the town of Murphy Village, now considered a suburb to Augusta, Ga.
