News from Montpelier 2021 week 1

Wednesday, January 6 the opening ceremonial events for the first year of the 2021-2022 biennium were conducted electronically for all but a handful of the elected members. After a roll call to affirm there was a quorum the elections and swearing in of the Speaker and Clerk were conducted in the Well of the House by Secretary Jim Condos with the leader of each of Vermont’s three major political parties physically present and the remaining members via remote access. Five House Resolutions and six Joint Resolutions originating in the Senate were adopted that spoke to the State of Emergency, Rules and Procedures for this biennium. The newly elected members were “seated” in the afternoon by the stating of their district and seat number when their name was called. Once all members had been welcomed to their seats the committee assignments were announced with several changes for the new session. After the House adjourned for the day members of the General Assembly who had been elected to be on the canvassing committee met to certify the election to the statewide offices.
A Joint Assembly met Thursday morning to accept the report of the Canvassing Committee and a second Joint Assembly in the afternoon was called to order to receive the welcoming message from Governor Phil Scott. After the Governor’s message the House reconvened and took up and passed J.R.H. 1: “Joint resolution condemning the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 as an attack on democracy”. https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2022/Docs/RESOLUTN/JRH001/JRH001%20As%20Introduced.pdf The resolution was taken up and adopted by the Senate on Friday.
The Speaker opened Friday’s Floor session with the listing of the names of House members who have passed and the terms they served. Representative Bernard Juskiewicz of Cambridge and Representative Steve Beyor of Highgate Springs, both having served from 2013-2018 were two of the eight recognized with a moment of silence. Three bills were introduced to join the fifty introduced by number only yesterday and referred to the appropriate committee. With the fall of the gavel the members disbursed to join committee meetings. In the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs testimony was taken from several witnesses on an update to Homelessness in Vermont. It was stated that ‘housing is health care’. Being homeless or housing insecure is a health risk in the best of times but in a pandemic it can be deadly. Many Vermont agencies worked together on behalf of tenants and landlords to keep Vermonters in secure housing. Housing stock was created and some dilapidated stock was renovated to increase the units available to house the homeless. There is more work to be done but the CRF dollars invested in these programs has made progress in the goal to end homelessness.
Rep. Barbara S Murphy
bmurphy@leg.state.vt.us