Baby steps at the Capitol: ‘Climate’ dropped from committee roster

Democrats and Republicans are still working out the details of power-sharing in the rare 67-67 tie the parties are facing next year in the State House of Representatives. Axios Twin Cities reports on the current status:

State of play: House leaders Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) said talks are ongoing to figure out what a power-sharing agreement will look like under a 67-67 tie in the House.

Demuth reiterated her view that the chamber should be managed “50/50” given the split.

The parties were able to come to an agreement on a list of committees and a schedule of meeting times for the upcoming session. Of course, no memberships or committee leaderships have been announced yet.

Understandably, in an effort to reduce the number of moving parts, the list of committees formed for 2025-26 has been cut by four.

Subjects no longer included as separate committees are Economic Development, Sustainable Infrastructure, and Workforce Development.

Human Services finance and policy have been combined into a single committee.

For our purposes, the biggest change was in dropping the words “climate and” from the official name of the Energy Policy and Finance Committee. The word “climate” was first added to the subject when Democrats re-took control of the House back in 2019.

Perhaps just a cosmetic change, but it augurs well for a back-to-basics era.