In March 2012, Huelskamp was one of two Republicans who voted against Paul Ryan's budget plan in the House Budget Committee. Huelskamp and Justin Amash both said they felt the plan did not cut the budget fast enough. In December 2012, it was reported that both representatives would not serve on the House Budget Committee in the 113th Congress. Huelskamp also lost his seat on the Agriculture Committee. Republican Reps. Walter B. Jones (N.C.) and David Schweikert (Ariz.) completed the quartet of lawmakers to lose prominent committee seats (both were let go from the Financial Services Committee) during the Republican Steering Commission's December purge of what they called "obstinate" team members. The decision to terminate the four members' committee assignments, spearheaded by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), resonated powerfully with the increasingly divergent party ranked and the political media. Huelskamp called it a "purge" and a "typical Backroom deal." According to Roll Call and Politico, many party insiders disputed the claims presented by Huelskamp and his spurned cohort that ideological differences played any role in their dismissal from the committees. Instead, the decision was the result of bad behavior on the part of three of the four, according to Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.), whose spokeswoman referred to a "the obstinate factor."