Proposed LCC governance changes head to governor

Laws governing the work done by the Legislative Coordinating Commission could change as the House voted 128-2 Tuesday to pass HF1520/SF1372*.

The bill, which was passed 63-0 by the Senate on May 2, now heads to the governor.

Sponsored by Rep. Joe Hoppe (R-Chaska) and Senate President Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul), the bill would amend laws governing legislative contracts, the chair of the LCC and ethnic councils.

The LCC is the umbrella organization for legislative commissions, joint agencies and other boards. It works to manage their activities.

“This makes mostly technical changes to the LCC,” Hoppe said.

Among other provisions, the bill would provide that the Senate president and House speaker alternate as LCC chair every two years, instead of annually.

It would also require the House, Senate and LCC to submit their list of professional or technical services contracts to the Legislative Reference Library by Sept. 1 of each year, instead of monthly.

And the bill would provide that appointees to ethnic councils attend orientation training only during their initial terms rather than each term. The ethnic councils covered by the change are: Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs, Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage and the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans.