Rep. Kathleen James proposes bipartisan membership requirement for Joint Carbon Emissions Reduction Committee in H.927

Representative Kathleen James introduced an amendment to H.927 on March 17 that would require that not all appointees to the Joint Carbon Emissions Reduction Committee be from the same political party, adding a statutory guarantee of partisan balance to committee membership.

James said her committee had discussed similar language and that the amendment would write into statute a practice many committees already follow: "not all from the same political party." She explained the committee had considered tweaking the number of meetings, representation, and reporting deadlines but had not advanced a standalone bill before crossover; finding similar language in H.927 prompted her to offer the amendment now.

Committee members responded positively. One member said the change "lines up with the way we do other committees," and Representative Coffin said he liked that the provision "actually lines up with the way we do other committees" and that it would make the practice "bigger in statute." James said the amendment was intended to prevent all appointees being from the same party on both house and senate sides, noting that for five house and five senate slots the language ensures at least some cross-party representation.

With no further questions, the moderator called for favorable thumbs on the James amendment and announced a favorable tally reported as "7 0 3." The amendment will be recorded with the bill as the committee advances H.927 to the floor.