House-panel revamp adopted

Speaker no longer to be in charge of committee assignments

House Speaker Matthew Shepherd speaks to reporters at his office in the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., in this Jan. 14, 2019, file photo.
House Speaker Matthew Shepherd speaks to reporters at his office in the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., in this Jan. 14, 2019, file photo.

The Arkansas House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a resolution taking the power of future committee assignments out of the speaker's hands and returning it to a former method based on seniority.

House Resolution 1023 by Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, was approved in a 77-6 vote. The six dissenting votes were all Republicans. Five members didn't vote, and 12 members voted present.

"Those who have been here for more than one term know that the idea of changing the selection process, after we made the change two years ago, has been discussed," said Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado. "There's been much talk about that for the better part of the last two years, particularly the outset of the session. I indicated I would allow public proposals to be brought forward, particularly with regard to proposals that might move back toward a process more like what was in place previously. And I believe we've done that."

The House also approved House Resolution 1036 -- with a 67-11 vote -- to prohibit a bill from being placed on a committee agenda until the second calendar day after the initial filing of the bill. The 24-hour waiting period begins when a bill is introduced and read across the desk.

HR1023 reverses a controversial rule change approved at the end of the 2017 regular session. The change, which took effect for this year's 92nd General Assembly, gave the House speaker the responsibility of assigning members to committees.

[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]

The change was spawned when Democrats, the minority party, were about to gain control of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee in the 2017 session. They didn't because the committee chairman switched to the Republican Party, which is the majority party of the Legislature.

"The resolution I have here, although it has my name on it, is the result of several proposals that have kind of taken the best ideas of each and mashed them into one. I just want to thank everybody that has taken the time to offer proposals and ideas and debate this rule of the House," Davis said.

"I also just want to state, to caution, that this is no reflection of the speaker's selections for this 92nd General Assembly. With that authority also comes tremendous responsibility. I think the speaker did a tremendous job with those selections. This resolution before you today really just comes out of more of a desire of the members to their preference to have committee selection back to their own as opposed to being subject of the speaker."

Representatives repeatedly expressed frustration because assignments were not made until the first week of the regular session, which started Jan. 14. In years past, committee assignments were determined soon after the general election in November.

HR1023 will allow members, on the basis of seniority, to seat the committees for the next General Assembly in 2021. The House speaker will make the chairmanship appointments. The new rule also will empower the speaker to balance a committee's membership if the minority party gains a majority of the seats.

"There's no requirement on ratio or limit of how many people of the minority party can be on a committee. There's no requirement," Davis said. "The only thing it addresses in the minority/majority party makeup is it gives the speaker the authority to make adjustments such as to ensure the majority party has the majority of the committee. It's permissive; he doesn't have to do it and he can only make enough adjustments to flip that majority."

The resolution maintains the rule that bars committees from including more than five members from any of the state's four congressional districts.

The committee offerings will first be extended to the most senior member of the House then rotate down until the member with the least seniority makes a selection.

The resolution formalizes the process for trading committee assignments between members and allows trades only by the close of business on the day of the committee selection process. The trade must be solidified in writing and signed by both members, political caucus leaders and the House speaker, then filed in the House Journal.

Under HR1023, final committee memberships must be announced no later than the House orientation held in December before a regular session.

A Section on 04/11/2019

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