Senate eyes new committee schedule
BOISE – A possible shuffle of Senate committees could give Coeur d’Alene Sen. Dick Compton a shot at becoming chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, which oversees one of the biggest and costliest parts of the state government.
“I’m not lusting after it, but if called upon, I would serve,” Compton said this week. “It’s a huge department, it’s a huge expenditure of the state. Some extremely important issues are going to have to be addressed.”
The possibility arises in part because Senate President Pro-tem Robert Geddes, R-Soda Springs, is looking into rearranging the Senate committee schedule. The changes are aimed mostly at allowing senators who serve on the powerful Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee to attend meetings of or serve on the panels that oversee the major areas they write budgets for – education, health and welfare, and law enforcement.
Right now, both the Senate Education Committee and the Health and Welfare Committee meet at the same time as JFAC, so they can’t share members or attend each others’ meetings.
“Over the years, we have been criticized for having too much power and authority vested in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee,” Geddes said.
Plus, he noted, the Senate Education Committee often has lost good members because as soon as they’ve accumulated enough seniority, they move to the more powerful finance committee, which writes state budgets for all agencies including schools.
“Now you could have education committee members who could also serve on finance,” Geddes said.
Among them: Coeur d’Alene Sen. John Goedde, who has been considering joining JFAC but has been reluctant to give up his education committee seat.
Compton’s possible chairmanship would come at something of a price, however. The swapping of committee times would mean that he’d have to choose between the Local Government and Taxation Committee and the Health and Welfare Committee. He now serves on both, but under the new plan, they’d meet at the same time.
“If the pro-tem’s plan were to be passed, I’d have to make a decision to give up one of those, and I really don’t want to do that,” said Compton, a former Kootenai County commissioner.
Committee assignments in the Senate are determined by a complex interplay of seniority, preference, rules, numbers and politics. Chairmanships are determined by the majority party leadership based on similar factors, including an informal rule that committee chairmen can’t also serve on JFAC or in leadership.
Current Health and Welfare Chairman Sen. Skip Brandt, R-Kooskia, is eyeing the chairmanship of the Senate Transportation Committee.
If Brandt leaves the Health and Welfare chairmanship, Sen. Gerry Sweet, R-Meridian, could have a shot at it, but so could Compton.
Right now, the only Panhandle lawmaker to chair a committee is outgoing Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum, who chaired the House Ways and Means Committee. Meyer was defeated in the GOP primary.
From North-Central Idaho, Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, is the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. But there’s long been a dearth of committee chairmen from the state’s five northernmost counties.
“From a North Idaho standpoint, a lot of people would feel very comfortable having Sen. Compton be the chairman of Health and Welfare,” Geddes said.
Geddes has been circulating his committee schedule proposal among senators, and has had mixed response. As things stand now, only a handful of senators would have to leave committees they now serve on as a result of the changes.
“There have been complaints over the committee schedule for as long as I’ve been in the Senate,” Geddes said.
He said when he first arrived in 1995, the system then allowed the most-senior senators to choose three or four committee assignments, and by the time the least-senior members got a shot, little was left. His first year, he had only one committee post, on the Education Committee.
“What really happened was all of the senior people got all of the plums, and the junior members got crumbs if crumbs were left,” Geddes said. “I’ve tried to make that process a little more equitable to all of the members of the Senate.”
As part of that, Geddes instituted a policy allowing each majority party senator, in order by seniority, to pick just two committee assignments. Then, a third committee assignment can be chosen on a second round, after every senator has gotten some choices.
Geddes arranged his schedule proposal with just the State Affairs and Agriculture committees meeting at the same time as JFAC, because those panels are the least likely to share members.
Minority committee assignments are determined by the minority party leadership, and Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett expressed concerns about Geddes’ proposed changes because they create conflicts for some of his members.
Geddes said with new members joining the Senate, now is a good time to make the changes, because they affect relatively few senators. His proposed new schedule also would leave Friday afternoons open, with no regularly scheduled committee meetings. That would allow lawmakers from North Idaho and other far-flung areas to catch planes home for the weekend, he said.
“For all the years I’ve been the pro-tem, I have been beat around the head and shoulders by various committee chairmen saying that JFAC had too much opportunity to set policy as they establish the budgets,” Geddes said. “So they had encouraged me to do anything possible to allow more interaction between their committees.”
The schedule change would do that, he said.
Lawmakers will gather this Thursday and Friday for their organizational session, and that’s when decisions will be made in both the House and Senate on committee assignments, schedules and chairmanships. The regular legislative session will begin on Jan. 10.