Rep. Ken Tschumper is pondering whether to sell his herd of Brown Swiss dairy cattle.The idea isn't appealing to the LaCrescent Democrat whose family is so rooted on the land as to live on road bearing the family name.

But Tschumper - who arrived late to the September special session because he could not find a hand to take over milking - has been traveling to the Capitol once or twice a week for committee hearings and has been engrossed in flood-relief.

by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

Rep. Ken Tschumper is pondering whether to sell his herd of Brown Swiss dairy cattle.

The idea isn't appealing to the LaCrescent Democrat whose family is so rooted on the land as to live on road bearing the family name.

"I don't want to do that," said Tschumper of putting the cattle on the block. "I absolutely do not want to do that," he said.

But Tschumper - who arrived late to the September special session because he could not find a hand to take over milking - has been traveling to the Capitol once or twice a week for committee hearings and has been engrossed in flood-relief.

Rep. Ken Tschumper

"I'm not getting tired out. And I'm certainly not complaining about it," said Tschumper. "It just takes a lot of time," he said. "That's all I've been doing since eight o'clock working on flood related issues," said Tschumper, speaking one late morning this week.

Interim committee schedule busy

In addition to its constituency work, the interim committee schedule has been drawing many lawmakers frequently to St. Paul and to sites across the state.

Since the end of the regular legislative session in May, about 100 commission, committee, subcommittee, and working group hearings have taken place.

The pace continues through October - two hearings are scheduled on Halloween.

Through the month of December, the House committee schedule currently has the number of hearings over the interim, held and planned, at more than 130.

But that number will almost certainly climb, perhaps steeply, as more hearings are sprinkled into the months of November and December.

And the 2008 regular legislative session doesn't start until February.

Of course the schedule does not reflect tranquil times.

A one-day flood relief special session took place in September - record flooding in southeast Minnesota sparked hearings - and the collapse of I-35W bridge has set transportation committees to work.

Pace brisker than 2 years ago

But the pace of the schedule is much, much brisker than seen two years ago when Republicans controlled the House.

After the close of the exhausting special session in July of 2005, the House calendar shows just some 30-odd hearings took place through December of that year.

The disparity between the two schedules has not been missed by House Republicans.

Rep. Chris DeLaForest, R-Andover, lead Republican on the House State Government Finance Committee, warned Gov. Tim Pawlenty last spring, he said, that the bills coming through the committee contained many commissions and subcommittees.

Shadow Legislature

"I said,