Local lawmakers tapped for Missouri House committees

Local representatives have been selected to lead committees on education and labor in the Missouri House of Representatives for the next two years.

Missouri House Speaker John Diehl, R-Town and Country, announced recently the 55 chairmen who will lead their respective committees. He also expressed his faith in the group "to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing our state this year and next."

Diehl also announced a revised committee structure designed to strengthen the bill-drafting

Rep. Kathy Swan

process by providing two layers of oversight. The regular standing committees will be overseen by select standing committees. Each of the 13 select committees will be based on a particular issue, with their relative regular standing committees dealing with similar subjects.

Diehl said the new system will "empower chairmen and committee members to specialize in issue areas where they have experience and expertise."

Rep. Donna Lichtenegger, R-Jackson, was tapped to serve as chairwoman of the Regular Standing Committee on Appropriations for higher education. She's no stranger to the appropriations world, serving on a committee that heard the proposed plans to revamp Cottonwood Residential Treatment Center last summer before the decision to privatize the local facility. In addition to the health, mental health and social services appropriations committee, Lichtenegger has served on committees covering issues such as higher education, health insurance and oral health.

Rep. Holly Rehder

As chairwoman of the Regular Standing Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education, Rep. Kathy Swan also is entering familiar territory. The Cape Girardeau Republican previously served on the House committees for elementary and secondary education, higher education and education appropriations. She also sponsored a number of education bills last year, including an early childhood bill that would provide state funding through the Missouri Foundation Formula to unaccredited school districts offering prekindergarten classes. The measure, designed to better prepare students for higher education and the work force, received bipartisan support and was signed into law by Gov. Jay Nixon last year.

Rep. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, was announced chairwoman of the Select Standing Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations. In the past, she has served on the Issue Development Standing Committee on Workers Freedom, where she was chairwoman. She has been vocal about her hopes to address labor reform in Missouri.

She sponsored a bill known as paycheck protection legislation that would require public employee unions to seek annual written permission from members to continue deducting dues automatically from the workers' paychecks. The same requirements would have to be met before the union could spend the dues on political activities. The measure died in the Senate in the final days of the 2014 session, but Rehder prefiled the bill, meaning it will be considered again this session.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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Cape Girardeau, Mo.

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