By Ben Husch

The Natural Resources and Infrastructure Committee (NRI)—covering everything from energy and environment to transportation and agriculture issues—is one of eight standing committees within NCSL. The group just wrapped up an extremely packed and informative 2014 Legislative Summit.

There were two tours on Monday, three task force meetings Tuesday and two full days of sessions and issue forums on Wednesday and Thursday. Committee members became quite familiar with the layout of the Minneapolis Convention Center.   

Legislative Summit is a chance for legislators and legislative staff to come together to learn about important policy issues and get to know their counterparts from across the country. But it also provides an opportunity to highlight the great work done by our members throughout the year.

Two staff officers of the NRI Committee, Jennifer Jones of Texas and John Snyder of Kentucky, were honored with the Standing Committees Legislative Staff Achievement Award. The awards were presented by the co-chairs of the standing committees, Nancy Cyr of Nebraska and Susan Fox of Montana. Jones and Snyder were recognized for their outstanding work for the Texas Legislature and Kentucky General Assembly, respectively, as well as their dedicated and distinguished service to NCSL.

Jones, who recently completed her term as staff co-chair of NCSL’s Natural Resources and Infrastructure Committee, is the deputy director of the Texas Sunset Commission where she has spent more than 25 years working for the Legislature. During her time at the Sunset Commission, she has reviewed dozens of state agencies, evaluating their performance and recommending changes to improve their operations. During her tenure, Jones has led the reviews of several billion-dollar state agencies including the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Texas Education Agency.

Snyder just completed his latest term as staff vice-chair of NCSL’s NRI committee and previously served as staff chair and vice-chair for NCSL's transportation committee. He has worked for the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission for 25 years, the past 17 with the transportation committee.

Since 2004, he has served as the Transportation Committee staff administrator. John was previously awarded the 2005 John Bragg Award for Legislative Staff Service from the Southern Legislative Conference and is a 2013 Alumnus of NCSL’s Legislative Staff Management Institute.

Both Jones and Snyder have been contributed their significant expertise to the NRI Committee. They provide a great example of how NCSL brings together some of the best legislative staff in the country to look and policy issues affecting states across the country.

Ben Husch is the committee director for NCSL's Natural Resources and Infrastructure committee.

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