House Rules Committee approves two panel appointments

The House Rules Committee voted March 31 to approve two nominations to internal panels, appointing representatives to the House Ethics panel and the House Discrimination Prevention Panel.

The committee’s chair opened the meeting saying leadership had proposed two appointments. A committee member moved to appoint “Representative Ashley Bartley of Fairfax to serve on the House of Ethics panel as nominated by the speaker.” The chair then conducted a roll call and announced, “Motion passes 8 0.”

The move to fill the Discrimination Prevention Panel seat followed. The chair said Representative Topper McFawn’s last day on that panel is Friday and recommended a replacement. A committee member moved that “Representative Sandy Cristenof of Dorset” be appointed to that panel. After a roll call the chair announced, “Motion passes 7 0.” The chair said the appointment would be effective at the end of the day on Friday and that the chair would announce the representative at the appropriate time.

The meeting record shows brief procedural remarks and light banter after the first vote and then adjournment. Both nominations were recorded as approved by roll call; however, the transcript includes inconsistent spellings for the nominees’ names (the chair called one nominee “Ashley Bartlett” in SEG 017 while the motion records “Ashley Bartley,” and the second nominee appears as “Sandy Pistonoff” and as “Sandy Cristenof” in different segments). The chair also announced an 8-0 result on the first motion while noting only seven members were seated in the room in subsequent remarks.

The committee took no other substantive action and adjourned.