Democrats announce House committee assignments

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Democrats in the Arizona House of Representatives announced their caucus’ committee assignments today, finalizing the list of which lawmakers will serve on which committees for the next two years.

Republican Speaker-elect J.D. Mesnard announced committee chairmanships and Republican committee members last week, and allotted House Democratic leaders a certain number of Democrats they could choose per committee.

House Democratic Leader Rebecca Rios chose five members of her caucus to serve on the powerful House Appropriations committee: Reps. Lela Alston, Mark Cardenas, Ken Clark, Charlene Fernandez and Randall Friese.

The committee will have 14 members, nine of whom will be Republican.

Rios also chose a trip of Democrats to serve on the three new House Appropriations subcommittees, which Mesnard created to encourage a lawmaker-driven budget process, as opposed to the recent norm at the Capitol of a top-down approach to crafting the state budget.

Read more at AZ Capitol Times

Corrie O'Connor