Of the five Texas House committees considered to be the most powerful, three will have new chairs this session.

State Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond will again head the budget-planning Appropriations Committee, the House announced Wednesday. State Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, will retain his post as chairman of the House Administration Committee.

Two other committees — Ways & Means and State Affairs — were already guaranteed new chairmen due to departures. Speaker Dennis Bonnen, who chaired the tax-writing Ways & Means Committee in 2017, has tapped state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, to fill his shoes. Burrows also chairs the Texas House Republican Caucus. And state Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, will oversee the State Affairs Committee, replacing former state Rep. Byron Cook, a Corsicana Republican who did not seek re-election. Phelan will oversee a committee that will have even more jurisdiction over some of the House’s most high-profile legislation this session, thanks to a new set of rules the lower chamber passed earlier this month.

Reference

• Read the full list of committee assignments. (282.0 KB) DOWNLOAD

Meanwhile, the Calendars Committee will have a new chair this session. State Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, will replace state Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, at Calendars, leading the committee that handles the timeline and order for which bills will — and won’t — reach the entire chamber for consideration.

“I don’t want a single member to feel apart from this House after these committee assignments are made,” Bonnen told House members before assignments were announced on the floor of the lower chamber. “I’m certain there are errors that will be found. … It’s not because we intended them to occur.”

These assignments are among the first major glimpses into who Bonnen considers top allies in the House. And now that assignments have been announced, legislation can begin to move through the lower chamber as bills are referred to committees.

This is a developing story and will be updated.