Colorado state House committee chairs announced

Colorado state Speaker of the House-designee Rep. KC Becker of Boulder has made her choices for who will chair 11 House committees in the 2019 and 2020 sessions.

Becker also reorganized a few committees, eliminating the Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee in favor of a "Rural Affairs Committee." She also combined Transportation with Local Government.

In a Sunday statement Becker said the Rural Affairs Committee "will oversee issues of particular importance to rural Colorado such as agriculture, water, rural broadband and rural economic development."

The Health Insurance and Environment Committee has been renamed the Health and Insurance Committee. The Transportation and Energy Committee will be condensed and merged with the Local Government Committee to form the Transportation and Local Government Committee.

And there's one new committee: Energy and Environment.

Appropriations will be chaired by Joint Budget Committee member Rep. Chris Hansen of Denver; vice-chair is Rep. Daneya Esgar of Pueblo, who is JBC vice-chair.

Business Affairs and Labor will be chaired by Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp of Arvada with vice-chair Rep. James Coleman of Denver.

The next Education chair will be Rep. Barbara McLachlan of Durango with vice-chair Rep.-elect Bri Buentello of Pueblo.

Finance will be chaired by Rep. Leslie Herod of Denver with vice-chair Rep.-elect Kerry Tipper of Lakewood.

Rep. Mike Weissman of Aurora will be the chair of the House Judiciary Committee; the vice-chair will be Rep. Leslie Herod of Denver.

The infamous "kill" committee, State, Veterans and Military Affairs, will be chaired by Rep. Chris Kennedy of Lakewood, joined by vice-chair Rep.-elect Sonya Jaquez Lewis of Longmont.

Rep. Jonathan Singer of Longmont will chair the Public Health Care and Human Services Committee; vice-chair is Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet of Commerce City.

The reorganized committees: 

Rural Affairs (formerly Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources) will be chaired by Rep. Dylan Roberts of Avon and vice-chair Rep. Donald Valdez of La Jara.

Energy and Environment will be chaired by Rep. Dominique Jackson of Aurora; vice-chair will be Rep. Edie Hooton of Boulder.

The Health and Insurance Committee chair is Rep. Susan Lontine of Denver with vice-chair Rep.-elect Yadira Caraveo of Thornton.

Finally, the Transportation and Local Government Committee chair is Rep. Matt Gray of Broomfield. Rep. Tony Exum of Colorado Springs will serve as vice-chair.

With results now certified by county clerks, the House has 41 Democrats and 24 Republicans; 33 women, 32 men; 17 minorities (10 Latino/a in the Democratic caucus, one in the Republican caucus and six African-Americans in the Democratic caucus).

The Energy and Environment committee, and the Finance committee, are chaired by African Americans; five of the 11 committees are chaired by women.