OREGON DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE - A short-lived rural committee in the Oregon House of Representatives has been disbanded.

As political insiders and state capitol reporters dissected legislative committee assignments when they became public in late December, the demise of one committee in particular became a hot button: the rural committee.

Studies by the state’s economists show that the economic recovery evident in Portland has yet to reach many of the state’s rural areas. Last year’s occupation of a national wildlife refuge in far southeastern Oregon put a national spotlight on the character and politics of rural Oregon.

In December, Republicans contended the committee’s end was a symbol of Democratic abandonment of issues and policies important to rural residents. That grumbling continued Monday on the House floor.

Less discussed, though, was the fact that the committee was quite young — and the creation of Democrats, as state Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, pointed out at the close of the House’s meeting.

Established in 2014 as the rural communities committee, it was christened the Rural Communities, Land Use and Water Committee in 2015.

In a statement, Speaker Tina Kotek‘s spokeswoman, Lindsey O’Brien, said the 2017 session’s committees “were designed to allow legislators to fully vet policies on the wide range of issues that will come before them.”

According to the state’s legislative information system, a couple more specific committees have sprung up for the next session — including one focused on early childhood.

The House committee formerly dedicated to transportation and economic development has been split into two: one will focus on economic development and trade, and another will zero in on transportation policy.

Meanwhile, the committee on natural resources and agriculture — both of which are critical to the state’s rural economies — will continue.

O’Brien also said: “Policy discussions that are particular to rural communities will continue to be as important as ever, and will occur in every committee over the course of the session.”

The committee’s short life, in turn, brings up another question, one that Republicans have asked — whether the committee was mere lip service to rural interests in the first place — but Democrats have seemed eager to demonstrate that rural Oregon will get attention from state government.

Last summer, Kotek, D-Portland, did a tour of some of the state’s further-flung rural communities, including Ontario and Madras.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has also invoked rural Oregon in various speeches; and the first debate during her 2016 gubernatorial campaign against Salem Republican Dr. Bud Pierce, held in Bend, was focused on rural issues.