Peña-Melnyk Unveils House Leadership Shake-Up, Expands Standing Committees

By Steve Crane, Maryland Matters

December 30, 2025

New House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) unveiled an overhauled leadership team and committee structure Monday, adding a new standing committee and replacing all but a handful of committee chairs.

The changes, announced Monday evening, will take effect for the 2026 General Assembly session that begins Jan. 14, Peña-Melnyk’s first as speaker.

Some of the changes were required because of departures: Del. Vanessa Atterbeary (D-Howard), the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, and Del. Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s), the House majority whip, announced this month that they were stepping down before the start of the 2026 session. Atterbeary’s vice chair, Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery) was elevated to chair, while Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s) will step in as majority whip.

But Peña-Melnyk said other changes were made to help the House as it grapples with cuts at the federal level, and as it faces “new challenges with infrastructure, energy, and affordability.”

House leadership takes shape

Incoming House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, in one of her first major moves in the office, announced her leadership team and a new committee structure Monday, in advance of the Jan. 14 start of the 2026 General Assembly. The leadership lineup is:

Speaker Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel)
Speaker Pro Tem Del. Luke H. Clippinger (D-Baltimore City)
Majority Leader Del. David H. Moon (D-Montgomery)
Majority Whip Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s)
Parliamentarian Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles)

Appropriations:
Del. Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), chair
Del. Anne R. Kaiser (D-Montgomery), vice chair

Economic Matters:
Del. Kriselda Valderrama (D-Prince George’s), chair
Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery), vice chair

Environment and Transportation:
Del. Marc A. Korman (D-Montgomery), chair
Del. Michele J. Guyton (D-Baltimore County), vice chair

Health:
Del. Heather Bagnall (D-Anne Arundel), chair
Del. Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery), vice chair

Judiciary:
Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel), chair
Del. Debra M. Davis (D-Charles), vice chair

Labor, Elections, Government:
Del. Melissa R. Wells (D-Baltimore City), chair
Del. Kenneth P. Kerr (D-Frederick), vice chair

Rules:
Del. Anne Healey (D-Prince George’s), chair
Del. Marvin E. Holmes (D-Prince George’s), vice chair

Ways and Means:
Del. Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D-Montgomery), chair
Del. Jessica M. Feldmark (D-Howard), vice chair

“The changes I am bringing to the chamber will position us to meet these challenges. The right people have been put in the right places,” she said in a prepared statement released by her office.

“Seniority is not the only basis for leadership assignments. I have provided opportunities to different people, including several first term delegates who are not just talented, but more importantly have a true heart for public service,” her statement said.

The biggest structural change is Peña-Melnyk’s decision to split the House Health and Government Operations Committee, which she used to chair, into a new standalone Health Committee and a separate standing committee on Labor, Elections and Government.

The Labor, Elections and Government Committee will be chaired by Del. Melissa Wells (D-Baltimore City) and Del. Kenneth Kerr (D-Frederick) will serve as vice chair. Del. Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery), the vice chair of the former HGO, will keep that position on the new Health Committee, where Del. Heather Bagnall (D-Anne Arundel) will serve as chair.

Other than the Rules Committee, where Prince George’s County Democratic Dels. Anne Healey and Marvin Holmes Jr. will remain as chair and vice chair respectively; every standing committee but Appropriations and Environment & Transportation saw an overhaul of their leadership.

Del. Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) retains the chairmanship of Appropriations, and Del. Marc Korman (D-Montgomery) stays on as chair of Environment and Transportation. But Appropriations Vice Chair Del. Mark Chang (D-Anne Arundel) will be replaced by Del. Anne Kaiser (D-Montgomery), while former E&T Vice Chair Del. Regina Boyce (D-Baltimore City) is being moved out to make room for Del. Michele Guyton (D-Baltimore County).

While some committees saw vice chairs elevated to become chair, the Economic Matters Committee will be starting with a clean slate. Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) and Del. Brian Crosby (D-St. Mary’s), moderates who served as chair and vice chair, respectively, will be replaced by Del. Kriselda Valderrama (D-Prince George’s) as the new chair and Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery) as vice chair.

Wilson’s future was uncertain after he contemplated a run for speaker, along with Barnes and Wilkins. All three quickly pulled out to clear the field for Peña-Melnyk, and while he lost his committee chairmanship, Wilson landed the role of House parliamentarian on the speaker’s leadership team.

Del. Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City) lost his job as chair of the Judiciary Committee, a position he had held since 2019, but will be the next speaker pro tem, second in line to Peña-Melnyk, replacing Del. Dana Stein (D-Baltimore County). Stein will become chair of the Environment and Transportation Committee’s Environment Subcommittee.

The 20 chairs, vice chairs and floor leaders named Monday by Peña-Melnyk lean toward women — 12, compared to eight men — and toward the Washington suburbs, with 11 delegates besides the speaker from either Montgomery or Prince George’s counties. Two are from Anne Arundel, two from Baltimore City, two from Charles and one each from Baltimore, Frederick and Howard counties.

In her announcement Monday, Peña-Melnyk acknowledged that with so much of the House coming from “the urban and suburban center of our state, I know that Western Maryland, the Eastern Shore, and Southern Maryland are not always at the table.” To address that, she said she and House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R-Allegany) agreed to set up a rural caucus “that my office will have a direct relationship with.”

“This will elevate their voice and ensure that they are heard,” the speaker’s statement said. “We must find more ways to work together constructively. We don’t have to always agree, but we always have to be in conversation.”

She also pledged to work “thoughtfully” with the Senate and to have “a strong relationship with the Governor and the executive agencies.”

“Consistent with my reputation, I will speak the truth but I will also listen with respect to different points of view,” Peña-Melnyk said in the statement. “Ultimately, my role is to bring people together to get things done for the 6.3 million people who live here, and the generations to come that will inherit the decisions that we make.”

Monday’s announcement also included the appointment of chairs, and in some cases vice chairs, of 47 different subcommittees to the various standing committees. The full rosters of committees and joint committees, caucus leadership and party whips “will be announced at a later time,” the statement said.