Becker-Finn named Judiciary chair

By jettisoning a few, folding several together and creating some new ones, the DFL-led House will end up with a net four fewer legislative committees in 2021 than were convened last biennium.

The House will field 31 legislative committees in 2021, down from 35. That’s just two more committees than the Minnesota Senate will field, even though that body is half the size of the House.

Numerous House committee gavels are being redistributed, as well, partly as a result of retirements and election defeats.

Of particular interest to this audience, Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, will helm House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law in 2021.

Becker-Finn, an assistant Hennepin County Attorney and assistant House majority leader, also is a descendant of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, according to the Legislative Reference Library. She enters her third term next year and has not served on Judiciary before.

However, during her first term she did serve on Public Safety, a committee that takes on some of the same issues. She takes over at Judiciary from current chair, Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, who was defeated in the August primary by Rep.-elect Athena Hollins, DFL-St. Paul.

Becker-Finn did not reply to a request for comment about her appointment.

Six committees from last term will no longer exist in 2021. The subcommittees on Corrections and Elections are off the list. So are State Government Operations, Jobs and Economic Development and the Water and Long-Term Care divisions.

Most of those panels’ concerns will be subsumed by other committees. For instance, the role of State Government Operations, a policy committee, will fold into the newly christened State Government Finance & Policy Committee, which last year was strictly a finance division. Rep. Mike Nelson, DFL-Brooklyn Park, will chair that committee.

Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL-Golden Valley, who has chaired State Government Operations, will take over a brand new committee, the Preventative Health Policy Division.

Other newly formed committees include:

• Health Finance and Policy, to be chaired by Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester. Last year she led Health and Human Services Finance.
• Behavioral Health Policy Division, to be led by Rep. Peter Fischer, DFL-Maplewood. Fischer last year chaired the Water Division, which goes away in 2021.
• Preventing Homelessness Division, led by Rep. Rep. Aisha Gomez, who enters her second term in 2021. She has not previously held a committee gavel.
• Workforce and Business Development Finance & Policy Committee, to be led by Rep. Mohamud Noor, DFL-Minneapolis, who enters his second term in 2021. Last year, he was vice chair of Jobs and Economic Development Finance, a committee led by retired Rep. Tim Mahoney, DFL-St. Paul. Mahoney’s committee is being disbanded.
• Redistricting Committee, a new committee to be helmed by Rep. Mary Murphy, DFL-Hermantown. Murphy was last year chaired both the Ethics and Capital Investment committees.

Capital Investment, the powerful committee that sorts out bonding projects, will be led by Rep. Fue Lee, DFL–Minneapolis, who enters his third term in 2021. Last year, he was vice chair of that committee.

The Ethics Committee, which Murphy has chaired over four two-year legislative sessions and on which she has sat over 10 two-year terms, has not yet been assigned a chair.

Rep. Rena Moran, DFL-St. Paul, co-founder of the influential People of Color and Indigenous Caucus, takes over as chair of the pivotal Ways and Means Committee, through which all spending and tax packages must pass.

Moran takes over there for the retiring Rep. Lyndon Carlson, DFL-Crystal, a two-time chair who has served on Ways and Means every year since 1987. Carlson is the longest-serving legislator in Minnesota history.

In other key moves, Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, assumes the gavel at House Commerce. Stephenson, a Hennepin County prosecutor, takes over for Rep. Laurie Halverson, DFL-Eagan, who did not run for reelection.

Education Policy will be run by another lawyer-legislator, Rep. Ruth Richardson, DFL-Mendota Heights. That committee was chaired last session by Rep. Cheryl Youakim, DFL-Hopkins, who slides over to helm the Property Tax Division.

The 2019-20 Property Taxes chair, Rep. Andrew Carlson, DFL-Bloomington, is the only sitting committee chair to be reelected in 2020 and not receive a gavel next session. The caucus offered no explanation for that move.

Rep. Jennifer Schultz, DFL-Duluth, takes over as head of the newly combined Human Services Finance and Policy Division. Human Services last year existed as separate finance and policy committees. The finance panel was led by Liebling; the policy group by Moran.

Rep. Rob Ecklund, DFL-International Falls, will lead the newly christened Labor, Industry, Veterans and Military Affairs Finance and Policy Committee, a product of committee consolidation. Ecklund last session chaired the Veterans and Military Affairs committee. Rep. Mike Sundin, DFL-Esko, helmed last session’s Labor Committee.

Sundin instead takes over in 2021 as head of the Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee, replacing Rep. Jeanne Poppe, DFL-Austin. She lost her 2020 reelection bid.

Rep. Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, another attorney, will lead the Climate and Energy Finance and Policy Committee. The committee’s current chair, Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, is retiring after three decades in office.

Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, will lead the newly combined Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy committee. In 2019-20, that group was split into two committees. Hanson led the finance committee. The policy division was led by Rep. John Persell, DFL-Bemidji, who lost his 2020 election.

Other committee chairs remain unchanged. Examples of those retaining gavels include Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul (Public Safety); Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis (Transportation); Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley (Rules) and Rep. Paul Marquart, DFL-Dilworth (Taxes).