IL - Obama gets new committee assignments

While Senator Barack Obama considers whether he should run for the White House in 2008 and possibly become the nation's first black president, he is getting more assignments to keep him busy on Capitol Hill. In the upcoming 110th Congress, where Democrats will control both the House and the Senate, the Chicago Democrat will have his duties spread among four committees, instead of on three, as he has had in the 109th Congress.

He will continue on Foreign Relations and Veterans' Affairs. He will lose his seat on Environment and Public Works. But he will pick up Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, plus Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Obama says keeping the American people safe should always be our top priority. He pledges to work to secure the nation's chemical plants and to implement the 9-11 Commission's recommendations.