Illinois will have some less-than-ideal committee assignments in the U.S. House for its congressional delegation next year.

With the resignation of Rep. Jesse Jackson, D-Chicago, the state could end up without a voice on the House Appropriations Committee for the first time since 1893, when Rep. Joseph Cannon, a downstate Republican, got on the powerful purse-strings panel. He later went on to become its chairman and Speaker of the House for so long they named one of the House office buildings after him.

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Chicago, is still trying to get on Appropriations, according to Capitol Hill sources, but a list of pending committee assignments released last week had every Democratic seat on the committee filled with members from other states. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., remains a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The state will have two newly elected Democrats on the Armed Services Committee: Tammy Duckworth and Bill Enyart. Both are military veterans with a strong interest in veterans' affairs, and Illinois has the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Scott Air Force base and other defense installations. But that committee normally attracts members with much larger defense interests than Illinois.

By contrast, only one newly elected Republican from Illinois, Rodney Davis, has been assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. Not only is Illinois a big farm state, that committee has jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, regulator of the Chicago futures industry whose origins lie in the buying and selling of butter, corn, pork bellies and the like.

Another Illinois Republican, Rep. Randy Hultgren, is leaving the farm panel to serve on the Financial Services Committee, along with Rep.-elect Bill Foster, who returns to the committee he served on when he was previously in Congress. He won a special election in early 2008 and lost in 2010, but won again this year.

“I was proud to help pass the most important financial services reform in over two decades,” Mr. Foster said in a statement. “As our nation's economy continues to recover, it is more important than ever to craft and implement balanced initiatives that will help our small businesses and community banking institutions create good jobs and homes, while protecting our neighbors from fraud and abuse. I look forward to working with both sides of the aisle on the committee.”

Rep.-elect Cheri Bustos, a Democrat from the Quad Cities area, will serve on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Rep. Brad Schneider, a Democrat from the North Shore area, will serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee.