126th Legislature Committee Assignments Released (Under The Dome: Inside The Maine State House 12.21.12)

On December 20, 2012, Senate President Justin Alfond and Speaker of the House Mark Eves announced the committee appointments for the 126th Legislature. The list of appointments can be found at:

http://www.maine.gov/legis/house/commlist.doc

The Maine Legislature has sixteen joint standing committees of thirteen members each. Maine's committee system is unusual in that its committees are joint committees made up of both Senators and Representatives. Most other states rely on a system where the state Senate and the state House each operate parallel committees.

Most legislative business is conducted in the Legislature's committees as they rewrite and sometimes kill bills. Committee composition is always important to understand, as those thirteen...