Day Two of the new biennium has come and gone. Today saw an uneventful contingent election for Lieutenant Governor which Republican John Rodgers won handily as well as Governor Scott’s fifth inaugural address. More of interest to true nerds like myself was the conclusion of a game of musical chairs that’s been underway since November 5th; namely, the setting of the composition of the General Assembly’s standing committees.
There are a slew of new committee chairs in both chambers, as well as a new/old committee in the House (more on that in a moment). We’ll run through the new committee makeups of both chambers and I’ll highlight a couple of committees whose makeups make them worth watching.
New(ish) Committee in the House!
The biggest news on the House side is the restoration of the Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee, which previously existed in the 2021-22 biennium as the Energy and Technology Committee. At the start of the 23-24 biennium, the committee was dissolved and its two main portfolios were handed off to the Environment and Government Operations committees, respectively. The committee is back this year under the leadership of Rep. Kathleen James of Manchester, the outgoing Democratic Whip.
Several House committees are getting new chairs. The POWERFUL Appropriations Committee (obligatory references to Approps as being POWERFUL) will be chaired by Rep. Robin Scheu of Middlebury. Scheu replaces Rep. Diane Lanpher of Middlebury, who lost re-election in an upset in November. Scheu will be joined as an Appropriator® by Rep. Tom Stevens of Waterbury, who was the chair of the Housing and General Affairs Committee last biennium.
Rep. Marc Mihaly of Calais will take Stevens’s spot as the chair of Housing and General. His vice chair will be Rep. Ashley Bartley, a Fairfax Republican who was a vocal supporter of Speaker Krowinski during the speakership election.
Rep. Matt Birong of Vergennes is the new chair of the House Government Operations Committee, formerly chaired by Mike McCarthy of St. Albans who was another victim of the Republican wave.
Quick sidebar, take a moment to look at these two pictures. Birong is on the left and McCarthy is on the right. Are we quite sure that this isn’t a Clark Kent/Superman situation? I’ve never seen the two of them in the same place at the same time!
House Healthcare will remain in the hands of the Essex delegation as Rep. Alyssa Black replaces Rep. Lori Houghton, who is the new House Majority Leader. Lastly, House Transportation becomes the second committee with a Republican chair (joined by House Commerce, chaired by Rep. Michael Marcotte of Coventry), under the leadership of Rep. Matt Walker of Swanton. Walker replaces Rep. Sara Coffey of Guilford, who retired.
Senate Shakeups
The Senate was bound for major committee turnover even before the election, with three chairs (Bobby Starr of Agriculture, Jane Kitchel of Appropriations, and Brian Campion of Education) retiring and two more (Mazza of Transportation and Sears of Judiciary) having passed away in the Spring. Then, in November, Senator Chris Bray, the chair of Senate Natural Resources, lost re-election, leaving six gavels in line for new wielders.
The Senate also has a unique method of determining committee assignments. Assignments are made by the mystically named Committee on Committees, which is made up of the lieutenant governor (John Rodgers), the president pro tempore (Phil Baruth), and a Third Member™ elected by the rest of the Senate, usually a senior member of the majority party (Ginny Lyons of Chittenden-Southeast). With the field set, the game of musical chairs was afoot! Let’s see who got a seat and who got left out in the cold.
Agriculture, the Senate’s sleepiest committee by a longshot and the former dominion of conservative Orleans County Democrat Bobby Starr, will now be chaired by Republican Russ Ingalls of Essex County. With a much larger Republican caucus in the Senate, it was inevitable that the GOP would get more chairmanships, but I thought that Ingalls would continue to chair the Institutions Committee and Rutland County Senator Brian Collamore, who was already on the committee, would get the Ag gavel. I guess the Committee on Committees (and perhaps Ingalls himself) were seeking greener pastures (ha ha) for the senator from Essex.
The POWERFUL Senate Appropriations Committee (second obligatory use of POWERFUL to describe Approps) will be chaired by Senator Andrew Perchlik of Washington County. No real surprises here, Perchlik was the number two Democrat during Jane Kitchel’s tenure as chair.
Senate Housing and Economic Development will be chaired by Senator Alison Clarkson of Windsor County. Clarkson, the previous majority leader, and Kesha Ram Hinsdale, the previous chair, have done a little switcheroo here following Ram Hinsdale’s successful bid to oust Clarkson from her post as leader of the caucus.
Senate Education will be helmed by sorta-freshman Senator Seth Bongartz of Bennington County. I say sorta-freshman because Bongartz previously served one term in the Senate way back in 1987. Education will be *very* interesting to watch this session, both because of the looming debate over education funding and school mergers and also because it will be the only committee with an even number of members. The committee will have three Democrats (Bongartz, Ram Hinsdale, and Windham County Senator Nader Hashim) and three Republicans (Senators David Weeks and Terry Williams of Rutland County and Steven Heffernan of Addison County).
Senate Government Operations will now be chaired by Brian Collamore of Rutland County. He replaces Senator Ruth Hardy of Addison County, who is moving back to the Finance Committee as a rank-and-file member after one biennium as chair of Gov Ops.
Senate Institutions, which has jurisdiction over public buildings and lands and the Department of Corrections, will now be chaired by Senator Wendy Harrison, a Windham County Democrat, taking the place of Russ Ingalls. Her district-mate, Senator Nader Hashim, will be chairing Senate Judiciary, replacing the late Dick Sears. Senate Natural Resources and Energy will be chaired by Senator Anne Watson of Washington County, who takes the place of the defeated Chris Bray.
Harrison, Hashim, and Watson are all in their second terms, which is very unusual for a body that places as much emphasis on seniority as the Senate. However, the Senate has had record turnover in the last couple of cycles, allowing junior members to step up to the plate. All three are serious legislators who I’m sure will fulfill their new roles with aplomb.
Lastly, Senate Transportation, the longtime bailiwick of the late Senator Dick Mazza, will now be chaired by Lamoille County Republican Richie Westman. His vice chair will be Senator Becca White of Windsor County, who served on the Transportation Committee in the House.
And that’s about all the news that’s fit to print about committees, at least for now! Republicans picked up three committee gavels across both chambers following their major gains on Election Day, and Democratic leadership effectively shuffled their members around to maintain majorities on every committee except Senate Education, which is now tied. Stay tuned for continuing coverage of the legislature, Town Meeting, and whatever else the new year has in store for Vermont politics right here on Sugaring Off.
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