House committee reintroduces H.67 to create joint oversight panel; subpoena power deferred for later review

The House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee on Thursday, Feb. 6 introduced H.67, a bill to create a Joint Government Oversight and Accountability Committee to review whether state programs, departments and initiatives are operating as intended, supporters said during a committee meeting.

Sponsors said H.67 adapts recommendations from a summer 2023 Government Accountability committee report and would direct a standing joint committee of representatives and senators to select review targets using defined criteria rather than ad-hoc selections. The bill would require representation from each chamber and rotate the committee chairmanship each biennium to avoid single-party dominance.

Representative Boyden, who described the work of the summer accountability committee, said the earlier panel produced 11 recommendations. "The summer government accountability committee met the summer of 2023 and then issued a report that had 11…