Chairman-elect Walden Names Senior Staff for House Commerce Committee

House Commerce Committee Chairman-elect Greg Walden (R-OR) announced that Mike Bloomquist, Karen Christian, Peter Kielty, and Paul Edattel will continue to serve the committee. All are longtime veterans of Capitol Hill.

Bloomquist will serve as Deputy Staff Director for the Committee. He has served in this position since August 2015. In addition, he previously served as the Committee General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel, as well as General Counsel to the 2011 Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Further, Mike has spent time in private practice, at the Committee on Science, and in the Office of the US Department of the Interior. Christian will continue as Committee General Counsel, a position she has held since October 2014. Previously, she served as Chief Counsel for the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee from 2012-2014, and was a member of the O&I staff since 2006. Karen spearheaded the Committee’s oversight of the Healthcare.gov failure and the federal loan guarantee to Solyndra. Her previous experience includes serving as counsel to the Committee on House Administration, a clerkship with a US District judge and time spent in private practice. Kielty will serve as Deputy General Counsel of the Committee. Kielty is a 15-year veteran of the Committee, and has served as Deputy General Counsel since 2012. Peter has advised on the parliamentary and jurisdictional matters before the Committee. Edattel will continue to serve as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on Health. Paul started with the Committee in 2011 and has served as Chief Health Counsel since 2016, after serving Speaker John Boehner as his health policy advisor. Paul also served as a Legislative Director in the House of Representatives before joining the Committee.