With the 2020 general election out of the way, leaders of House and Senate Democrats Thursday turned their attention to changing up committee assignments, including replacing departed lawmakers.

SENATE ASSIGNMENTS

The Senate has 10 committees, and three lost their committee chairs after the 2020 election.

Senate Business Affairs & Labor Chair Sen. Angela Williams of Denver did not run for re-election. Senate Education Chair Nancy Todd of Aurora was term-limited, and Senate State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee Chair Sen. Mike Foote of Lafayette also did not seek election to his seat. Foote was chosen by a vacancy committee in 2019 to replace Sen. Matt Jones, who was elected to the Boulder County Commission.

Williams was also vice-chair of the Senate Local Government Committee. 

Senate Democrats also had to make a change for the Senate Appropriations Committee; in 2020, Sen. Rachel Zenzinger of Arvada was the committee’s chair and would have been its vice chair in 2021, but she lost re-election for her JBC seat to Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver.

Committee leadership changes announced Thursday:

Hansen will chair the appropriations committee with Sen. Dominick Moreno of Commerce City as its vice chair. Moreno will also serve as chair of JBC in 2021. 

Succeeding Williams in the business committee, Sen. Robert Rodriguez of Denver, with Sen. Jessie Danielson of Wheat Ridge remaining as vice chair. 

Zenzinger will chair the education committee with Sen. Tammy Story of Littleton as vice chair. 

Sen. Julie Gonzales of Denver will move from chairing Senate Finance to leading the State Affairs committee, with Sen.-elect James Coleman of Denver as vice chair. 

Replacing Gonzales on Senate Finance: Sen. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood, with Sen. Jeff Bridges of Greenwood Village as vice chair. Pettersen also will serve as vice chair of Senate Transportation, replacing Sen. Kerry Donovan of Vail. Donovan will continue to chair the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

Story will also become vice-chair of Local Government, replacing Williams. Sen. Joann Ginal of Fort Collins will remain chair of that committee. Ginal is also taking on vice chair role for the Health and Human Services Committee.

HOUSE ASSIGNMENTS

House Democrats had a much bigger round of musical chairs to play for 2021. Not only did Speaker-elect Alec Garnett of Denver announce new committee assignments, but several committees got title changes. Seven of the House’s 11 committees also got new committee leadership.  

The biggest announcement, however, was in his choice for Speaker Pro tem: Rep. Adrienne Benavidez of Commerce City. In making the appointment, Garnett said Benavidez, now in her third term, “is a dedicated public servant and a proven leader who will make an excellent Speaker Pro Tempore. As our caucus Co-Whip and a prominent member of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Benavidez has again and again demonstrated her commitment to our caucus and the Colorado values we fight for at the Capitol. I’m proud and excited to have Adrienne on our already stellar leadership team as we work to build back a stronger Colorado.”

Benavidez scored a major victory in 2020 with a law to eliminate Columbus Day and replace it with the first Monday in October, now known as Frances Xavier Cabrini Day, in honor of the Catholic nun who started several charitable organizations in Colorado in the late 19th and early 20th century. Benavidez had championed the elimination of Columbus Day for several years prior to its final adoption in 2020. 

Committee changes announced Thursday:

In 2019, the House Agriculture Committee was renamed Rural Affairs, but that caused consternation for rural lawmakers, so it became Rural Affairs & Agriculture.

That committee will take on a new title in 2021, to be known as the House Agriculture, Livestock and Water Committee. The committee will once again be led by Rep. Jeni Arndt of Fort Collins, who chaired the committee in the 2017-18 sessions. Joining her as vice chair, Rep. Dr. Karen McCormick, a Longmont veterinarian.

The House Business Affairs & Labor Committee lost both its chair, Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp of Arvada, who is term-limited, and its vice chair, Coleman, who was elected to the Senate. Replacing them: Rep. Dylan Roberts of Avon with Rep. Tom Sullivan of Centennial as vice chair.

Rep. Alex Valdez of Denver will chair the House Energy and Environment Committee; Rep. Edie Hooton of Boulder will continue as vice chair.

The House Finance Committee also gains a new chair, Rep. Shannon Bird of Westminster, who previously served as vice chair. She replaces Rep. Leslie Herod of Denver, who’s joined the Joint Budget Committee. Rep. Marc Snyder of Colorado Springs will serve as vice chair.

The House Public Health Care and Human Services Committee, which previously had the longest title, is getting a new one that’s just as long: Public and Behavioral Health and Human Services. Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet of Commerce City moves from vice chair to chair, replacing term-limited Rep. Jonathan Singer of Longmont. Rep. Emily Sirota of Denver will become vice chair.

Reps. Matt Gray of Broomfield and Tony Exum, Sr. of Colorado Springs will swap seats on the House Transportation & Local Government Committee; Exum will replace Gray as chair; Gray will replace Exum as vice chair.

Herod will chair the House Appropriations Committee with Rep. Julie McCluskie of Dillon as vice chair. McCluskie will also serve as vice chair of the JBC.

The announcement from House leadership noted that all seven Democrats on the appropriations committee in 2021 will be women. Of the 41 members of the Democratic caucus in 2021, 29 are women, up from 26 in the 2020 session.

Once the musical chairs stopped, one lawmaker chose to forego her leadership role. Rep. Dominque Jackson of Aurora, who has battled health issues, stepped away from chairing House Energy & Environment.

“It has been an honor to chair the Energy and Environment committee,” Jackson said in a statement Thursday. “I am so proud of what we accomplished – we passed landmark legislation to address climate change, crack down on toxic pollution, and protect our air and water. When I ran for office, I wanted to uplift my community and listen to my neighbors to find out how we could make their lives more livable. Chairing a committee is an enormous responsibility, and to do it well takes almost all of your time. I want to shift my focus back to the big, chunky policy issues that take a lot of heavy lifting. We have a lot of hard work ahead to advance environmental justice, address climate change, and grow our clean energy workforce – issues that I care deeply about. I’m honestly excited to be able to devote more of my time and energy to moving these ambitious ideas forward.”