House Speaker Matthew Shepherd announced on Monday the leadership of 10 House standing committees, after a close-to-the-vest process that the Republican from El Dorado said took months and more than 50 hours of meetings.
The committee selection process for the House of Representatives was changed in 2017 to grant future speakers the autonomy to choose the membership of the various standing committees through which bills are passed on their way to the House floor.
Before the rule change, members selected their own committee assignments based on seniority. Shepherd's predecessor, former House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, pushed for a rule change after Democrats were briefly able to gain control of the influential House Revenue and Taxation Committee two years ago, despite being the minority party.
After assuming the speaker's chair last year, Shepherd began interviewing members about what committees they wished to serve on and deciding who would go where.
The Senate, which continues to decide committee membership based on seniority, filled out its committee rosters in November, after the general election.
While making his decisions, Shepherd revealed little of his intentions and said he was being similarly tight-lipped with candidates for committee chairmanships and vice chairmanships.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Shepherd said most of the committee leadership learned of their assignments only during a speech he gave on the House floor Monday afternoon.
"There were a couple that I had informed in advance that I was going to move them or that they wouldn't be going back at that particular chairmanship," Shepherd said. "I think if you look at the membership as a whole, the chairmanships and vice chairmanships and a number of those things are spread out pretty broadly among the membership."
Shepherd's selections include five new chairmen, as well as seven new vice chairmen. He also appointed state Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, as speaker pro tempore.
Rep. Carol Dalby, R-Texarkana, a former district judge in Miller County, was tapped to replace Shepherd as head of the House Judiciary Committee. Shepherd will continue to serve on the committee as a rank-and-file member.
While a recent Senate rule change moved authority over most gun legislation from that chamber's Judiciary Committee to the Committee on City, County and Local Affairs, Shepherd said he did not expect the House to follow suit.
Dalby said she was grateful to the speaker for her appointment, and she noted the significance of having a female vice chairman-Rep. Rebecca Petty, R-Rogers. Dalby said she thought this would be the first session that both of the House Judiciary's leaders were women.
The Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs also will have two women at the helm. The chairman is Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, who served in the same position in the 91st General Assembly, and the vice chairman is Rep. Sonia Eubanks Barker, R-Smackover.
Fite also noted the significance of having multiple women leading House standing committees: "It's always exciting to see women in prominent positions."
Overall, the 32 women serving in both chambers of the 92nd General Assembly-out of 135 total lawmakers-ties a previous high set in 2009.
Shepherd reappointed Rep. Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs, to lead the House Education Committee. Both Cozart and Fite said they were unsure whether they'd again be tapped to lead the committees they chaired during the last session. Shepherd reappointed five chairmen.
"I guess we did a good enough job last time to be chairs again," Cozart joked after the House recessed.
SHEPHERD'S SPEECH
Shepherd-after being sworn in by his father, U.S. Circuit Judge Bobby Shepherd-exhorted his fellow members to remember whom they were elected to serve. The speaker urged them to remember that the hardships of public office pale in comparison to those of many constituents.
"Too often, I believe we've allowed the supposed significance of our positions to go to our heads," Shepherd said. "That we've confused political challenges with real-world challenges. That we've expected everything to go our way around here, but truthfully, we're not entitled to anything. We come here from the four corners of the state to do the people's business. And as long as we remember who we work for-the people of Arkansas-and that this institution, the people's house, is not here for us, I believe we will come a lot closer to meeting the expectations for which Arkansans 145 years ago thanked God for the privilege of choosing."
Arkansas voters approved the state's current constitution in 1874.
The speaker recalled his first time in the House chamber some 22 years ago as an intern for then-Gov. Mike Huckabee, and he pledged to do his best to uphold the "tradition and stature of the House."
Shepherd, speaking to a chamber that in recent years has seen several members plead guilty or be convicted of public corruption charges, encouraged members to not look for the "easy way out."
Each member's 30,000 constituents, Shepherd said, don't care about committee assignments or the trappings of public office. Instead, he said, they care about being able to live, work and enjoy the freedoms that Arkansans have enjoyed for generations.
"So whether you're from the mountains of the Ozarks or the Ouachitas, or the fields and levees of the Delta, the suburbs and cities of central Arkansas, or as myself from the pinewoods and river bottoms of southern Arkansas, it's time for us to go to work for those who matter most-the people of Arkansas," Shepherd said.