Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) has been named Chair of the House Transportation Finance Committee. Rep. Torkelson has been a tireless supporter of expanding Highway 14 from New Ulm (in his district) to Rochester. As you may remember, he included significant cash funding for Corridors of Commerce in the bonding bill last May. We are very excited to have his leadership in transportation finance.

In other post-election news, House GOP members re-elected Rep. Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) as their leader, who will return as Speaker of the House. The DFL House members selected Melissa Hortman (DFL- Brooklyn Park) to be Minority Leader.

In the Senate, the senators chose Sen. Paul Gazelka (R-Nisswa) as Majority Leader, and the Democrats chose Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook), who formerly served as Majority Leader when the DFL controlled the Senate, as Minority Leader. Sen. Scott Newman (R-Hutchinson) will be the Senate Transportation Finance and Policy chair.