U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has appointed Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) to the House Committee on the Budget. 

The committee plans the annual budget of the federal government and will take up President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget in the coming months. The committee functions as an institutional check on federal spending by providing independent analyses of expenditures through the Congressional Budget Office and by negotiating with the executive branch and the Senate.

The Democrat from St. Paul will continue to serve on the Appropriations Committee.