BRATTLEBORO-The Legislature is in the middle of a fraught and unusual session, with the midpoint approaching in the form of "crossover day" on Friday, March 14 - the day when bills that start in the House pass to the Senate, and vice versa.
Lawmakers are deep into committee and caucus work, all the while dealing with a newly empowered governor and the unease that comes from not knowing what will be coming down the pike from Washington, D.C.
"We are just trying to do our due diligence and understand the landscape we are in," said Rep. Mollie Burke, D-Brattleboro-8. "These are very difficult and trying times."
On the federal level, with tariffs being imposed on Mexico and Canada - then being removed just as quickly - the state is uncomfortably conscious that it depends on Canada, specifically Hydro-Québec, for much of its energy.
Even more, many Vermonters depend on government services, especially Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and myriad services for veterans.
"The state treasurer, Mike Pieciak, has set up a task force to keep track of federal funding," said Rep. Mike Mrowicki, D-Putney. "To date, there hasn't been much of an effect on state funding, but we're watching carefully."
Mrowicki says he'll "especially keep an eye on Medicaid funding. Vermont's Medicaid, which includes Green Mountain Care, gets two-thirds of its funding from the federal government."
A Feb. 4 press release from the Governor's Office reported that Scott has asked his cabinet "to take a disciplined and measured approach to any major proposals coming from Washington, D.C."
"We cannot be in a constant state of fear, panic and disruption over the next four years," Scott continued. "We need to stay focused on Vermont and remain disciplined as we distinguish between what is fact and what is rhetoric before we react to any change in federal policy or law."
The governor pledged that his administration will "follow through on Vermonters' priorities: housing, education, public safety, and affordability, and do our part to unite Americans by focusing on solutions and results, not the chaos and anger being used to divide us."
Legislators are watching Scott closely to see how he deals with a chaotic Trump administration.
"We are waiting to see how the governor responds to the Trump-Musk regime," Mrowicki said. "Pragmatically, he has to walk a fine line between strong advocacy and dealing with a vindictive president with a hair trigger."
Burke said she believed that Scott will keep a low profile, but that he will also "stand up to unconstitutional overreach."
"I do know that Attorney General Charity Clark will definitely stand up," she added, noting that Clark has engaged with a number of other states' attorneys general "to file a number of lawsuits against the Trump administration and its unconstitutional usurpation of power."
Rep. Zon Eastes, D-Guilford, said "The Legislature is watching closely, with wide-eyed attention."
And Rep. Ian Goodnow, D-Brattleboro-9, said "The issue is impacting every level of government in Vermont."
"There is very real concern that essential services will be reduced, which will potentially harm all Vermonters, especially our most vulnerable," Goodnow said. "We must budget and allocate funding priorities amid that uncertainty."
Tweaking around the edges
Last session, the Democrats and Progressives had a supermajority that could - and did - override many of Republican Gov. Phil Scott's vetoes.
But then, during the next election cycle, the governor mounted a spirited and well-funded campaign designed to break that supermajority - and he succeeded.
With a Democratic Party that can no longer rely on overriding vetoes, "the Legislature is limited in what we can do," Mrowicki said. "Basically, we can tweak around the edges of the budget, but if we go beyond the bottom line the governor has proposed, we're likely to see another in his long list of vetoes."
With a larger minority of Republicans in the House and Senate, there are questions about how lawmakers will all get along. Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun, D-Westminster, says she is "really enjoying the collaborative, cooperative nature" of the Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry, which has "three Republicans, an independent, and four Democrats," Bos-Lun said. "We work together effectively without party affiliation making virtually any impact."
She hopes that as the legislative process becomes more collaborative as bills make their way into the whole House and then between House and Senate, that all lawmakers "work together so well as we face hard issues in the months to come."
Skepticism for Scott's education bill
Apart from their committee work, legislators are dealing with a large education reform bill proposed by the governor which would, among other things, change how the state will pay for education.
Scott's proposal would lump all the state's education administrations into just five groups, deeply cutting into local control.
"The governor just released details to his education plan, in the eighth week of the 18-week session," Mrowicki said. "It's disappointing that it looks like, while something he campaigned strongly on, he really hadn't thought too deeply about how to actually do what he promised in the campaign."
But Mrowicki can't say if he agrees with the governor's plan, "as he has just released details to it, and we're still digging into those details."
The impetus for the education changes was a skyrocketing property tax bill last year.
"While we are clear that we will try and keep any increase in property taxes to a minimum, long-term savings depend on changes to governance and delivery," Mrowicki said.
He described the major education reform as "a heavy lift for all involved, and we project it will take between three and five years to roll out and implement. What the final product will look like is still anyone's guess."
Several committees with jurisdiction - including the House Education and Ways and Means Committees, Eastes said - are examining the governor's bill and putting forth their own proposals.
Eastes said Vermonters can trust the Legislature to come up with a strong plan.
The two committees are reviewing the work of the Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont, "studying innumerable models, hearing testimony, and testing financial possibilities," Eastes said.
"[They] have met consistently with the governor's team, collaborating to build a strong and affordable education formula for Vermont's students," he said. "Because of Vermont's current education structure, any changes demand massive and careful planning."
Eastes said that he believes "Vermonters can comfortably trust the Legislative committees in the House and Senate to do this work. They are working very hard, understanding the millions of viewpoints and considerations, in order to do what's best for Vermont's future, our treasured young people."
The governor's proposed reforms, so far, are extremely unpopular with school boards, at least in Windham County, lawmakers observed.
"Based on what I heard at a forum on education in our [Windham Southeast School District], people were very wary of the plan for five school districts and were very much in favor of local control," Burke said.
"Many rivers to cross before there is agreement on an education bill," she said. "It is too early to say what will happen."
Patching up last year's budget
Mrowicki is a member of the all-important House Appropriations Committee, which starts the legislative year by working on the mid-year budget adjustment bill. (The state works on a financial year calendar that runs from July 1 to June 30.) His committee saw an increased need for financial help from the health community.
"This year there's a little more excitement to budget adjustment, since there was added revenue at the end of the fiscal year and added fiscal pressures from increased nursing home usage," Mrowicki said. "The [Vermont] Veterans' Home in Bennington also needs help with a significant shortfall. And health care and mental health care workers need extra funding for extra services, among other needs."
Another pressure was extending shelter for homeless Vermonters.
"There are those homeless Vermonters who are being housed in motels and would be turned out at the end of March," Mrowicki said. "Since we had the money - $1.8 million - both the House and Senate agreed to extend the program to June 30."
That funding represents only a small part of a $9 billion budget, Sen. Wendy Harrison (D-Windham County) pointed out.
"There are currently more than 400 children living in the motels and this extension will allow them to finish the school year," she noted.
But Scott disagrees with the House and Senate on this issue, Mrowicki said.
"We are now looking at the prospect of him vetoing the budget adjustment, which includes the needed funds for the aforementioned services," Mrowicki said. "We'll see if the governor matches his words about caring for 'vulnerable Vermonters' with his actions."
Next, the Appropriations Committee will dive into the 2026 budget. Mrowicki anticipates pushback from the governor here, as well.
"What the final product will look like is still anyone's guess," Mrowicki said.
"What we're sure of is change is coming, and the governor has the upper hand, politically. Any plan the Legislature comes up with as an alternative to the governor's plan has to be something he agrees with," he added.
"We will fight to get the best deal we can, but the governor gets the last say in this," Mrowicki said.
Newbies at the Statehouse
This has been an unusual session because Windham County has sent three new representatives to Montpelier. How are they getting on?
"My time in the Legislature is completely compelling, on multiple levels," said Eastes. "There are immense amounts to learn and prepare for, I have amazing work colleagues, the Statehouse is beautiful and well-run, and the machine of Vermont's democracy is deeply inspiring."
Goodnow said he was grateful he was elected to do the work he was doing in Montpelier.
"It has been exciting and energizing to work on these important, thorny issues, and to forge relationships with other legislators who care about Vermont as much as I do," he said.
"This is difficult work but I'm learning so much, and I have the support of the rest of the Windham County delegation which I am so grateful for," Goodnow added.
Eastes is serving on the Human Services Committee, which has completed initial work in preparation for the FY2026 budget and is now focused on a bill, H.91, to create a system to end unsheltered homelessness in Vermont.
"Vermont voters were very clear about four issues," Eastes said. "It is my estimation that these four are the most talked about, most active topics in the minds of legislators: lowering taxes, education reform and sustainability, housing, and health care."
Goodnow, an attorney, is serving on the House Judiciary Committee, working on a number of bills related to public safety and administrative oversight of the judicial system with an eye towards addressing the court backlog.
"This means we've made budget priorities based on testimony which we believe will help Vermont courts efficiently and effectively deliver just results for victims, defendants, and the public at large," he said.
He suggested that Vermonters keep an eye on H.2, a bill preventing the state from raising the age of juveniles from 18 to 19 on April 1 - basically because the system cannot handle the influx of so many new offenders.
"H.2 proposes to delay the next phase of Raise the Age until 2027, and require multiple readiness reports from the administration prior to then," Goodnow said. "I anticipate this bill will be hotly debated."
The voice of experience
Burke is an old hand in the Legislature, having first been elected to the House in 2008. From the beginning, transportation has been her passion and Transportation her committee.
"Each year the administration, in the form of the Agency of Transportation, proposes a multitude of projects and funding for roads, bridges, public transit, rail, bicycle/pedestrian, and motor vehicles," Burke said.
"These projects are listed in a huge book that is accompanied by language detailing various policies and programs," she continued. "A bill that will come out of my committee adopts all the projects and the language modified by input from the members of the Transportation Committee."
Hopefully, Burke said, some of this input will come from a different bill, H.426, which she has been working on with several colleagues.
"This bill relates to transportation initiatives to promote equity, improve resiliency, and cut carbon emissions," Burke said. "One part of this bill I am advocating for involves an effort to find money to keep our low-income vehicle incentive program, MileageSmart, alive. It helps very-low-income Vermonters purchase used, fuel-efficient vehicles.
Burke described MileageSmart as "a worthy program that helps to cut costs for low income citizens while also cutting carbon emissions."
She said the committee's alternate bill "also has some policy proposals that will encourage walk-able and bike-able communities."
With legislators returning from their Town Meeting break this week, they will be hammering out the differences between these proposals. Then they will be crafting one transportation bill to send to the floor for passage.
That bill will then have to pass through the Senate, which will make its own proposals. In the final stages of this process, a small committee of House and Senate will work out differences, and the bill will go to the governor for signing. Or a veto.
"This is a difficult year for many reasons," Burke said. "Federal pandemic era funding has dried up, and historic appropriations from the Biden-era bipartisan infrastructure bill (the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) and the Inflation Reduction Act appear to be casualties of the destruction of government being wrought by the Trump administration."
With the federal investments over the past five years, Burke said, "we have been able to make some historic investments in cutting carbon emissions and helping a number of people access low-cost transportation options."
In addition to the MileageSmart program, a variety of incentives have helped low- and moderate-income Vermonters purchase new all-electric or hybrid electric vehicles, have helped companies purchase vehicles for their businesses, have helped people purchase electric bicycles, and have let Vermonters scrap older gas-guzzling vehicles.
"All this in addition to generous federal tax credits," Burke said.
She said the Inflation Reduction Act "put out millions of dollars in carbon-reduction funds that are now being clawed back by an administration that is intent on destroying any program that in any way addresses climate change or even mentions the word."
That money was "earmarked for carbon-reduction programs, like the deployment of EV charging stations on the national highway network."
"Never mind that these programs help low- and moderate-income citizens lower transportation costs and improve air quality, while cutting the carbon emissions that are wreaking such havoc with fire and flood across the country," Burke said. "It is a tragic state of affairs, to complement the tragic state of affairs across the entire federal landscape."
At the same time, Burke said, the governor proposed, in H.289, legislation to roll back the state's historic climate legislation that aligned it with the 2015 Paris Climate Accords.
"He did this just as the Trump administration removed our participation in the [Paris] Accords," Burke said. "The Sergeant-at-Arms Office received over 500 calls recently in opposition to gutting this important legislation."
Apart from her own committee work, Burke has been working on several other bills in different committees.
H.229, in the Agriculture Committee, would establish a Farm and Forestry Operations Security Special Fund "to assist these working lands enterprises in recovering from climate-related disasters," she said.
Another bill, H.432, expands insurance coverage for orthotic and prosthetic devices. "As it turns out, many amputees are athletes who need a variety of devices for different athletic pursuits," Burke said. "Insurance does not cover all the needs."
A third bill, H.284, would require a vision test for driving for Vermonters over age 70. "It would also mandate extra endorsements for driving a medium or large-size RV," Burke said.
"This bill is the result of advocacy from a constituent who sustained a serious accident when he was hit riding his bicycle by an older driver with bad vision driving a large RV," she noted.
Burke believes that H.229 will cross over to the Senate during this session. The other two bills have yet to be considered by their respective committees of jurisdiction.
New committee for Bos-Lun
Last year, Bos-Lun scored a lighthearted success with her successful initiative to make Vermont the sixth state to officially designate a state mushroom - specifically, bear's head tooth, a white, long-toothed fungus indigenous to Vermont.
This year, fittingly enough, she has started to work on a new committee: Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry.
"Looking at ways to support food access and farms in Vermont has been where I have been putting a lot of my attention this session," Bos-Lun reports. "My committee has been taking testimony about important programs that support Vermont farmers and also about programs that provide food to vulnerable Vermonters."
• The committee has "heard testimony about the effectiveness and value of Farm to School programs. We have worked on bills like 'Vermonters feeding Vermonters,' which I am a co-sponsor for - along with six of my seven Agriculture Committee colleagues. This bill benefits both Vermonters who access food through the Vermont Foodbank and local Vermont farms."
• This year, Bos-Lun heard a story from a constituent, a 78-year-old retiree, who was scammed out of a large amount of her retirement savings and then was hit with large tax bills from both the federal and state governments. Her response is H.115, which would provide relief for Vermonters in such a predicament.
"I submitted it this year," Bos-Lun said. "The constituent also did not qualify for a property tax rebate and her Medicare co-pay went up by $400 a month. In 2023, 150 Vermonters, mostly seniors were victims of sophisticated frauds. This bill would both enact tax debt forgiveness, and hopefully address the other impacts as well."
This is a short-form bill, Bos-Lun said, meaning that the actual details will come later - in this case, from the Ways & Means Committee.
• Another bill Bos-Lun submitted, H.227, is to build a peer support home in southern Vermont. This kind of home is a compassionate and affordable option to provide short-term support to individuals experiencing mental health struggles, Bos-Lun said.
Other parts of the state already have such facilities: Alyssum, in Rochester, serving central Vermont, and Rosewood Cottage in Williston, newly serving northern Vermont.
"The South needs a local residential support option, too," Bos-Lun said.
"I am hopeful it will pass before our biennium ends," she noted. "Start-up funds would be needed to get the program established, but by the end of this summer the Vermont peer certification system will be in place. Once peer staff are certified, their salaries can be paid by Medicaid."
Meanwhile, in the Senate...
As she starts her second term, Harrison chairs the Senate Institutions and IT Committee and serves on the Transportation Committee. She also works on projects outside of her committees.
• One such project, not yet a bill, is trying to find a way to return credentials to immigrants with medical degrees from other countries.
Sometimes she hears stories of medical doctors who are sweeping hospital floors because their credentials are not accepted in the United States. This is a waste of personnel at a time when medical professionals at all levels of care are badly needed here.
"A bill would provide a permanent pathway for qualified international medical school graduates (IMGs) to practice as physicians in Vermont. I worked over the fall with advocates, experts, and the Board of Medical Practice to refine the bill and will be introducing it in the next few weeks."
Harrison said the legislation as it's being written includes processes adopted by other states (like Massachusetts and Virginia) and language to acknowledge the financial and organizational capacity challenges of this proposal for the Vermont Board of Medical Practice, which licenses medical health-care professionals.
• In Transportation, one bill her committee is working on, S.4, comes in response to a lawsuit questioning the authority of a town (Tunbridge) to maintain its trails.
"Vermont has hundreds of miles of public trails, and this bill will ensure that municipalities can legally maintain them," Harrison said.
• Bill S.46 would provide a tax exemption for some logging vehicles.
• And S.66 proposes changes to the way Vermont regulates vehicle noise, exhaust modifications, and engine compression brakes.
"We also are considering the 'Department of Motor Vehicles Miscellaneous Bill,' which this year includes updates to registration processes," Harrison said.
• She and members of the Institutions and IT Committee are working on S.69, a bill to protect children.
"We approved it in my committee last week," said Harrison, the lead sponsor. "It requires large internet companies to limit the use of methods, i.e. infinite scroll, push notifications, etc., that have been shown to addict kids to their phones, to set default settings at the most protective levels, and to never sell or share kids' personal information."
• Similarly, S.71 is a data privacy bill that would provide similar internet protections to all Vermonters.
• Another part of Harrison's work is the Capital Bill, which "provides funding for buildings, farms, and long-term projects such as water and wastewater. I will ensure that our review includes the connection between housing development and water and wastewater systems."
• Harrison is also working with the Connecticut River Conservancy, river towns, and legislative colleagues to advocate in the licensing process for the hydroelectric dams. They want to require the dam operators to provide more and better recreational facilities and maintenance.
What's next?
Things are about to get very busy in Montpelier.
The biggest priorities are education reform and passing a budget that both keeps Vermonters' tax rates affordable while also anticipating potential funding changes caused by the federal policies currently unfolding. The governor's education proposals must be studied, understood, and either accepted or negotiated.
"The House has passed the Budget Adjustment Act, and we've passed some bills over to the Senate," Goodnow said. "But with the crossover date fast approaching on March 14, I imagine that you will be hearing about a lot of bills being debated in the coming weeks on the House floor.
"I encourage people to stay tuned for the next phases of this work and to reach out to any of the legislative delegation with questions about any particular bill," he added.
"I believe there is agreement across the board that we need a better education system at a price Vermonters can afford," Goodnow added. "But to truly improve our schools, we cannot sacrifice the quality of our children's education for cost savings."
He said he's "not sure where things will go from here."
"But I believe there is energy and a willingness from all parties to try and tackle this critical issue for Vermonters," Goodnow said.
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.