House committee backs bill shifting power on key legislative committees

House committee backs bill shifting power on key legislative committees

(KSL-TV/File)


3 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that would give majority Republicans control of a pair of key legislative committees made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats since 1975 won committee approval Wednesday.

HB220, sponsored by Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, would add two majority members to both the Legislative Management Committee and the Legislative Audit Subcommittee.

'Course correction'

"This is a course correction," Christensen told members of the House Government Operations Committee, needed because the even split "dilutes and denies the natural effect and outcome of the voice of the people."

With 63 of the 75 seats in the House, and 24 of the 29 in the Senate, Republicans hold a supermajority in the Legislature. Christensen said his bill is based on principles, not personalities.

The two Democrats on the committee, House Minority Whip Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, and House Minority Caucus Manager Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, both questioned the impact of the change on the Legislature's nonpartisan staff.

Arent, who has served as a legislative attorney, said the workplace environment would be "dramatically" changed with the shift in power because the Legislative Management Committee selects their bosses.

"Everyone in the office who works there knows that," Arent said. She said they choose to work in the legal, fiscal or audit offices because "they care about integrity and professional independence."

But Arent said if the legislative staffers "know their boss is hired by one party, it changes, it dramatically changes their working environment" and could lead to costly partisan staffing.

The Democrats distributed information showing that the committee was created when Democrats held control of both the House and Senate, as well as letters from past Republican House speakers supporting an even split between the parties.

Committee structure: 'practice worked well'

Former House Speaker Nolan Karras wrote that despite an "overwhelming" GOP majority, he maintained the committee structure "as a signal to the nonpartisan staff that they were not to act in the interest of one party versus the other party."

He said the "practice worked well over my 10 years of service" and noted because Republicans could outvote the minority party on any issue before the Legislature, the equal representation on the committee "was not a major issue."

Christensen said he was "extremely disappointed" that his bill would be portrayed as a partisan effort. But he also suggested the Democrats "go make your case to the voters" and ask themselves why the balance of power has shifted.

He and other Republicans said there have been concerns about how the audit subcommittee chooses which legislative audits should be performed, but did not provide specifics.

The bill was passed out of committee 6-3, with Rep. Fred Cox, R-West Valley City, voting with the Democrats. Cox said while he also had concerns about audit selection, he was concerned about the impact on the nonpartisan staff.

The bill now goes to the House.

House support

House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, said he supports the bill. Hughes said he decided against pushing a similar proposal in the 2015 Legislature during his first year as speaker because he was "new to the gig. I didn't want to make trouble."

The speaker said this year's proposal came from Christensen, not House leadership and had nothing to do with his relationship with House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, who has been critical of Hughes' treatment of Democrats.

"I would argue to you that was less on structure and more personal last year and more on structure this year. So if there was ever a time where there was something personal, it was me not wanting to maybe ruffle feathers," Hughes said.

Issue 'worthy of debate'

Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said the issue is worthy of debate.

"I'm not sure it will have much of an effect one way or the other, other than maybe some optics," he said. "We're not here to muzzle or shut out the voices of the Democrats that are in Senate."

Niederhauser said there's merit to both changing the makeup of the committees and leaving them how they are.

The change would be reflective of the number of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, he said. But, he said, there's also an argument for balance.

Contributing: Dennis Romboy

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahPolitics
Lisa Riley Roche

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast