In his conference call with reporters Wednesday, Rep. Tim Huelskamp complained about his removal from the House Agriculture Committee.

"We have had a seat from western Kansas on the Ag committee for 151 years," he said.

Records suggest the claim is incorrect.

One hundred and fifty-one years ago would have been 1861, the first year of the Civil War. As it happens, that was the year Kansas was admitted to the Union.

But the Congressional Globe -- writing about the 37th Congress, which met in July 1861 -- does not show a Kansas member of the House Agriculture Committee. (Click here to see it.) It appears the Senate had no Agriculture Committee in that Congress.

Kansas had just one member in the 37th House -- Martin F. Conway. He later ended up in a hospital for the insane.

Conway apparently was a member in the 36th Congress for a short time at the beginning of 1861. But there is no evidence he served on Agriculture for those weeks, and in any case he was not an Ag committee member in the House during 37th Congress.

It does not appear that a Kansan sat on the House Ag Committee in the 38th Congress either.

Kansas congressmen were early appointees to the Indian Affairs Committee.

We've contacted the congressman's office to see if our reading of the record is correct.

UPDATED: CSPAN has a website listing all members of the Ag Committee. It seems the first Kansas on House Ag was John Anderson in 1879, 133 years ago.