Two Bay Area lawmakers were named Wednesday to the House Appropriations Committee, widely considered to be among the most powerful panels in Congress for its control of the federal purse strings.

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, named representatives Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Mike Honda, D-San Jose, to the influential 65-member committee, on which Bay Area lawmakers previously held no seats.

Lee thanked Pelosi for the post in a statement and said she looks forward to working with incoming committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., "to help set the nation'sspending priorities and ensure our spending truly reflects our nation's values.

"I also look forward to working with my fellow Californians on the committee to ensure that our state is getting the federal resources it deserves," she said, adding that the seat puts her in her best position yet to fight for and serve her district's constituents.

Honda said he's pleased Silicon Valley — as well as Asian/Pacific Islanders — finally will have a voice on the committee after 12 years of Republican control which "left our nation with many unmet needs, with working families struggling to make ends meet." He said he will strive to aim funding at affordable healthcare, worker training, port and border security, law enforcement, veterans' health care, natural disaster recovery and education.

Bruce Cain, who directs the University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies

and UC's Washington Center, said most federal spending is set by formula and isn't easily changed, even by a change of congressional leadership. So, he said, California isn't much more likely to get a significantly bigger slice of the budget pie now than it was before.

"You can't expect to go from 79 cents on the dollar to 99 cents on the dollar because of this. You're probably talking about maybe changing things by a couple of pennies," Cain said.

But those pennies will be the subject of great and powerful lobbying, he said, using his own institution as an example. The university probably will see its congresswoman on the committee as a good conduit to some of the projects and funding for which it may compete.

Lee and Honda are considered solidly liberal. They join the committee that controls federal spending even as Pelosi and other incoming Democratic leaders speak of reforming "pork barrel" spending on lawmakers' pet projects.

"I would be surprised if the Democrats come forward with 'no earmarks,'" Cain said, predicting they'll be more concerned with transparency. "I think they're going to say, 'You've got to put your name next to it so you're accountable for it.'"

Pelosi on Wednesday also named Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, to the Appropriations Committee. Current members Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles, will keep their seats, too.

Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, chaired the committee in the 109th Congress. John Doolittle, R-Granite Bay, and Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Escondido, were majority members, but Cunningham resigned from Congress in late 2005 amid a bribery scandal.

"Five sure beats two, and it's particularly good news for the Bay Area that you've got two members in the immediate vicinity," said Tim Ransdell, executive director of the bipartisan, nonprofit California Institute for Federal Policy Research.

Committee members "touch most federal spending in some form, so unlike many members who will concentrate in a single area or a few areas, there will be some opportunity for these members to engage from soup to nuts, from education to health to transportation and so on," he said.

Contact Josh Richman at jrichman@angnewspapers.com or (510) 208-6428.