Promotions for midstate lawmakers

One of the first items of business in the state Legislature is choosing who will serve on each committee and who will chair them. It takes days of closed-door meetings.

Some committees, like, say, Rules, are rather more sought-after than others. The rules committees decide which bills to send to the House and Senate floors. Appropriations committees will hold hearings on a state budget that will total about $25 billion this year.

And the chairs of other committees are pretty important gatekeepers, too: they decide if a bill assigned to their committee gets a hearing at all.

Two midstate lawmakers are going to take on committee chairmanships this year. State Rep. Bubber Epps, R-Dry Branch, a retired paving contractor, will chair the House Motor Vehicles Committee. State Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, who founded an insurance brokerage, will chair the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee.

Rep. Robert Dickey, a Musella Republican, will chair the Education subcommittee of Appropriations.

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 2:05 PM with the headline "Promotions for midstate lawmakers."