Nearly a month after his contentious election as the new Speaker of the Texas House, Dustin Burrows finally announced committee assignments for the 89th legislative session on Thursday. Burrows installed Republican members as chairs of every standing committee, a historic move that ended the chamber’s longstanding bipartisan tradition of appointing members of the minority party to helm some committees.
The appointments formalize a remodeling of the House power structure that was instituted through new rules that members passed last month requiring that members of the majority party lead all of the now-30 standing committees while members of the minority serve as vice chairs. As part of the rules package, Burrows also eliminated six committees and created two new ones—Intergovernmental Affairs and the Delivery of Government Efficiency—and created 12 new subcommittees.
In Burrow’s new House, Republicans, who hold an 88-seat majority, now constitute a majority of every one of those committees and subcommittees.
The Lubbock Republican, who has served in the House since 2015, was elected speaker with a coalition of 36 Republicans and 49 Democrats, prevailing over Representative David Cook and a conservative bloc intent on a more radical remaking of the lower chamber.
Burrows said he aimed to assign committee positions based on lawmaker expertise and experience. “This process is much more than filling seats; it’s about structuring the House in a way that allows each member to contribute their expertise where it truly makes a difference,” Burrows said in a press release. “Taking the time to get this right was not just necessary—it is what Texans deserve of their government.”
In the wake of the fractious previous session under then-Speaker Dade Phelan, a loud faction of conservative activists and right-wing House representatives pushed to ban Democratic chairs, saying the conservative majority should control the levers of power. Last session, Democrats chaired eight of the 34 committees.
While Democrats can no longer run any committees, the new rules do give vice-chairs—which now must be held by Democrats—slightly more authority than before, allowing them to invite witnesses and request bills to be heard.
Burrows also tapped Democrats to head half of the 12 new subcommittees. The creation of those new subcommittees, along with the new vice chair powers, was seen as a way to appease the Democrats who made him speaker while also fulfilling his own party’s demands to “ban Democrat chairs.”
Houston Representative Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus chair, voiced his support for Burrows’ assignments in a press release. “Today’s committee assignments by Speaker Burrows demonstrate a commitment to bipartisanship and upholding the institutional norms of the Texas House of Representatives,” said Wu.
Some right-wing Republicans, meanwhile, are still angry about Burrows’ victory and say the new rules are just window dressing. Just over two dozen Republican state reps—including many first-termers who ousted incumbents in last year’s primaries—voted against the House rules last month, which has been dubbed by some as the “Democrat Empowerment Act.”
Representative Brian Harrison, a leader of that insurgent faction, responded to the Burrows committee assignments (which includes his own plum appointment to the appropriations committee) with a post on X declaring, “DEMOCRATS CONTROL THE TEXAS HOUSE.”
Many Burrows loyalists were rewarded with chairmanships or other key committee positions. Of the 30 chairs, 26 voted for him in the speaker race against David Cook.
The newly constituted Delivery of Government Efficiency Committee—a nod to the wrecking ball-style “reform” that Elon Musk is currently carrying out in Washington—will be headed by Southlake Representative Giovanni Capriglione.
Representative Brad Buckley, a Republican from Salado, remains as chair of the Public Education Committee, which will be one of the most powerful positions this year. Last session, Buckley carried the House public education funding bill that the House killed after four special sessions because of its school voucher provision. Buckley is likely to carry that legislation again. Governor Greg Abbott targeted anti-voucher Republicans in GOP primaries, and now claims he has the votes to pass vouchers in the House. All nine of the Republicans on the new 15-member Public Education Committee voted for vouchers last session or won primaries as voucher proponents. Burrows recently responded to a post from President Donald Trump calling on him to pass vouchers this session: “We will.”
Representative Greg Bonnen will continue chairing the Appropriations Committee, which controls the budget pursestrings. Representative Todd Hunter moved from chairing the powerful State Affairs Committee to the Calendar Committee, which determines if and when bills get heard before the full House. Representative Ken King, who hails from the Panhandle, will take over State Affairs, which generally has domain over some of the most important legislation each session.
Dade Phelan, now just a representative from Beaumont, will chair the humble Licensing and Administrative Committee. But he won’t be the only deposed speaker still in the chamber.
Midland Representative Tom Craddick was ousted from his speakership back in 2009. Before that, he made history in 1975 as the first Republican in a century to get a committee chairmanship in the Texas House (at the time, the GOP had only 19 members). Thus began the unique practice of bipartisan power-sharing that continued as Democrats’ dominance diminished and as Republicans first took over and then came to dominate the chamber themselves. That era ended Thursday.
