House announces new committee assignments

The Utah House Ethics Committee — roundly criticized by some Utahns for its actions this fall — will have new Republican members, reworked by new House GOP leaders in their committee assignments for the 75-member 2009 House of Representatives.

And, as expected, one of the House members cleared of his own ethics problems, Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, will not be the new House Rules Committee chairman. That top post goes to Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne.

It was not immediately known how moderate Republicans, some of whom were party to the bitter ethics-complaint issue this election year, fared in the committee assignments, announced Wednesday night. Those assignments were made by GOP House leaders, with the Democratic assignments suggested by the minority leaders.

Leading that GOP effort was soon-to-be House speaker Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, aided by his elected GOP leadership team.

There are two new members of that leadership team, which decided to keep many of the old standing and budget committee chairs in the House.

Asked before the new committee assignments were made public, Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, a known GOP moderate who has previously complained about how House moderates were treated in the ethics-complaint process, said she, and all "Reagan Caucus" members (the moderates) expect the committees "not to be stacked" for political preferences. They also wanted moderates to get a fair share of the chairmanships — and some did.

Previous game-playing through committee memberships should stop, Allen said.

It was clear during the Ethics Committee hearings this summer and fall that committee members didn't like the box the current ethics rules placed them in. And a number of the votes on the committee broke out along partisan lines.

(The Ethics Committee is made up of the same number of Democrats and Republicans, with a GOP chairman. All other standing committees' make-up reflects the two-thirds majorities held by Republicans.)

Including the Democrats placed on the new Ethics Committee, there is only one member returning for 2009 — Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay. The new Ethics chairman is Rep. John Dougall, R-American Fork, a tax expert and hard-line conservative Republican.

The Ethics Committee meets only if there is a formal complaint filed against a representative by three House members, so if no complaints come over the next two years, the committee won't have any duties.

And it is possible that House members could junk the current ethics process as well — although Clark has said that such a restructuring may take a year or two of study.