Minnesota House Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party leaders have announced their committee structure and chairs for the 2019-20 biennium.

The House will now have 34 committees, subcommittees or divisions. That’s an increase from 29 currently in place. Committee membership is expected to be named sometime this month.

House Speaker-designate Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) said in a news release the committee structure would allow more efficiency in some areas, while providing more focus on others.

“We’ve streamlined the committee structure by creating fewer stops for bills in the areas of agriculture, transportation and civil law,” Hortman said. "We’re also creating committees to give attention to issues that affect Minnesotans’ lives but which have not received enough consideration previously, adding finance committees in the areas of energy and climate; housing; greater Minnesota jobs; and economic development and criminal justice reform.”

Hortman also noted that the Legislature will look at reforming the way it conducts business.

Rep. Gene Pelowski (DFL-Winona) will lead efforts to implement legislative process reforms.

“I am hopeful the Minnesota Senate will partner with us to make the Legislature more efficient, effective, and transparent,” Hortman said.

Committees and chairs are:

• Agriculture and Food Finance and Policy Division, Poppe
• Capital Investment Division, Murphy
• Commerce, Halverson
• Education Finance Division, Davnie
• Subcommittee on Early Childhood Finance and Policy, Pinto (subcommittee of two divisions)
• Education Policy, Youakim
• Environment and Natural Resources Finance Division, Hansen
• Subcommittee on Water, Fischer
• Energy and Climate Finance and Policy Division, Wagenius
• Environment and Natural Resources Policy, Persell
• Ethics, Murphy
• Government Operations, Freiberg
• Subcommittee on Elections, Dehn
• Subcommittee on Local Government, Masin
• Greater Minnesota Jobs and Economic Development Finance Division, Pelowski
• Health and Human Services Finance Division, Liebling
• Subcommittee on Long-Term Care, Schultz
• Subcommittee on Early Childhood Finance and Policy, Pinto (subcommittee of two divisions)
• Health and Human Services Policy, Moran
• Higher Education Finance and Policy Division, Bernardy
• Housing Finance and Policy Division, Hausman
• Jobs and Economic Development Finance Division, Mahoney
• Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Division, Lesch
• Labor, Sundin
• Legacy Finance Division, Lillie
• Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Division, Mariani
• Subcommittee on Corrections, Considine
• Rules and Legislative Administration, Winkler
• Subcommittee on Legislative Process Reform, Pelowski
• State Government Finance Division, Nelson
• Taxes, Marquart
• Property and Local Tax Division, Loeffler
• Transportation Finance and Policy Division, Hornstein
• Veterans and Military Affairs Finance and Policy Division, Ecklund
• Ways and Means, L. Carlson

House floor sessions will begin at 3:30 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays.

The weekly committee schedule will remain largely the same, with blocks of two morning meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; two afternoon meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday; and one afternoon meeting Thursday. Meetings will begin at 8 a.m. on those days and are scheduled to last 90 minutes.

There will also be one block of meetings scheduled for Monday afternoon, beginning at 12:45 p.m. There are no regularly scheduled meetings on Friday.

The legislative session convenes Jan. 8.