2013 Legislative Committee Assignments

T.A. Barnhart

Senate President Peter Courtney and incoming House Speaker Tina Kotek released committee assignments for the upcoming 2013-14 session. The House, of course, has a lot more changes because of the Democrats regaining the majority (buh-bye, Co-Chairs galore). The House added one new committee (Land Use) and the Senate one (Rural Communities and Economic Development).

Because the Senate remained basically unchanged, all committee Chairs remain in place. New Senator Arne Roblan was given the Chair of the new Rural Communities committee, an honor befitting a former House Speaker. Several House members gained their first Chairs: Witt (Agriculture), Doherty (Business & Labor). Read is now the only Chair of Transportation, and Garrett moves from Chair of Business to Rules, replacing the new Speaker. Otherwise, all House committee Chairs remain in place.

Then there’s the “joint” committees, those with members from both chambers. Ways and Means is the most critical, of course, and, Rep Buckley and Sen Devlin remain Chairs. There are a bunch of W&M sub-committees, giving a number of legislators a co-chair (Unger, Komp, Williamson, Olson, Greg Smith in the House and Girod, Monroe, Steiner Hayward, Bates, Edwards, Winters, and Johnson in the Senate).

No 2-2 Senate Finance and Revenue this time around; Chair Burdick will have a 3-2 majority to work with. No special Courtney-directed effort at fixing the kicker to fruitlessly chase in 2013.

Lots to look forward to, both as we approach the session and then when the fun kicks off in February. The assignment of bills will reveal much about Kotek’s and Courtney’s plans for their chambers. The working relationships between members who take up new committee assignments (Sprenger, for example, joins the House Education Committee as the Republican’s Vice-Chair). How will all the rookies perform? Will the two parties work together productively?

What kind of leadership will GOP second-termers McLane and Parrish provide? How will Kotek wield her power? How much will Hanna sulk?

And that’s not even addressing the actual content of the legislation. You know, the stuff that matters.

After the jump, the full list of committee chairs and pdfs of all committee assignments.

House Committees

Agriculture: Witt replaces Clem; his first Chair
Business & Labor: Doherty replaces Garrett
Consumer Protection and Government Efficiency: was General Government and Consumer Protection; Holvey Chair
Education: Gelser Chair; Sprenger now joins as GOP Vice Chair; Reardon is Dems Vice Chair Energy & Environment: “Water” dropped from committee title; Bailey Chair
Health Care: Greenlick still Chair
Higher Education and Workforce Development: the second part added (probably because of emphasis on community colleges for workforce development); Dembrow Chair
Human Services and Housing: “Housing” elevated to a full committee concern; Tomei Chair
Judiciary: Barker Chair
Land Use: new committee; Clem is Chair
Revenue: Barnhart Chair
Rules: Garrett replaces Kotek as Chair
Transportation and Economic Development: Read moves up from Vice-chair to Chair, replacing retired Hunt
Veterans and Emergency Preparedness: was previously just Veterans Affairs; Matthews still Chair
Joint Ways & Means: Buckley Co-Chair

Senate Committees

Business and Transportation: Economic Development removed from this committee; Beyer Chair
Education and Workforce Development: Hass Chair
Environment and Natural Resources: Dingfelder Chair
Finance and Revenue: Burdick Chair
General Government, Consumer And Small Business Protection: Shields Chair
Health Care and Human Services: Monnes Anderson Chair
Judiciary: Prozanski Chair
Rules: “and Executive Appointments” dropped from title; Rosenbaum Chair
Veterans and Emergency Preparedness: renamed to match House committee (and “Military Affairs” dropped); Boquist Chair (only Republican chairing any regular committee)
Rural Communities and Economic Development: new committee; Roblan Chair
Joint Ways & Means: Devlin Co-Chair

You can download the complete listing of each chamber's committee chairs and members. House Committees
Senate Committees

And if you want to compare them to the 2011-12 session (at the end of the session), you can review those at the Legislature's website.

By T.A. Barnhart Dec. 21, 2012