News from the Vermont State House - An analysis from DRM's Government & Public Affairs Team - January 2017

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House and Senate Leaders Make Committee Assignments

House and Senate Leaders Make Committee Assignments 

Newly-elected lawmakers in both houses got the news about where they will spend most of their days this session when committee assignments were handed out. Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, gave House members the word on Wednesday. The Committee on Committees named Senate assignments on Friday.

In the House, most leadership positions fell to those who held them in the past session, but there were a few noteworthy changes and a reshuffling of responsibilities between the House Agriculture, Commerce, Natural Resources and Energy, and Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources committees.

Rep. Kitty Toll, D-Danville, will succeed Johnson as chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. The appointment sets up an interesting dynamic for future negotiations with the Senate, where its appropriations committee is chaired by Toll’s sister, Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia. Rep. Maida Townsend, D-So. Burlington, will chair the Government Operations Committee, and Rep. Stephen Carr, D-Brandon, will chair the newly-created Energy and Technology Committee.

In making the assignments, Johnson chose to merge the Natural Resources and Energy and Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources Committees under veteran Chair David Deen, D-Putney, and to create the new Energy and Technology panel. Utility, telecommunications and information technology matters were moved out of the Commerce Committee, the Agriculture Committee took state parks and state lands from Natural Resources, and the Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife Committee absorbed a number of new responsibilities, including climate change. Johnson also added new members to the General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee to deal with housing issues and moved jurisdiction over mental health issues from the Human Services Committee to the Health Care Committee.

In the Senate, the coveted chair of the Finance Committee, which was previously held by new President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P Chittenden, went to Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington. Sen. Philip Baruth, D-Chittenden, was named chair of the Senate Education Committee. The others remained the same.

The full list of House committee assignments can be found here, and the full list of Senate committee assignments can be found here.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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