On January 2, 2019

Gearing up for the new legislative session and the new year

By Rep. Jim Harrison

In addition to the dawn of a new year, we are also on the eve of a new legislative session. The first few days of a new biennium are filled with a number of procedural items. The newly elected legislature will be sworn in on Wednesday, Jan. 9. Gov. Phil Scott and other constitutional officers will be administered their Oath of Office on Jan. 10. (Governor’s State of the State address is generally aired on VPT and/or local TV networks the afternoon of Jan 10 at 1:30 p.m.) All members of the General Assembly and state office holders serve for two years. The real work of the 2019 session will begin the week of Jan. 14.There will be no surprises in the election of the Senate president pro-tem or House speaker, both which will happen on day one. Both Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden District, and Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, are running unopposed for their respective Senate and House leadership positions which they have held the past two years.

With the start of the new biennium, all legislative proposals must start from scratch and with 40 new members in the House, proposals could take a different path this year.

Under Vermont’s constitution, amendments can be advanced every four years and must originate in the Senate. Initially they need to receive a vote of two-thirds of the entire Senate and then receive a majority vote by the full House. If a proposed amendment passes that test, it then comes up for a vote again in the next biennium (2021-22) and must pass that legislature by a majority vote by both the Senate and House. Only then does the issue go to the voters to ratify the amendment. It becomes apparent, perhaps with good reason, that we don’t amend our constitution very often.

Ashe is supporting amendments that would protect abortion access and guarantee equal protections under the law for minority groups and LGBTQ citizens. Both issues may be in response to concerns raised over the possible future direction of the US Supreme Court

Do you want to submit feedback to the editor?

Send Us An Email!

Related Posts

Pies, parades, and porch chats

July 2, 2025
“America is a tune. It must be sung together.”—Gerald Stanley lee The month of July is the height of summer, bringing a spirit of celebration to all of us. Our town of Killington may be small, but we know how to celebrate the 4th of July. We start early with the annual book sale at…

Inventing a better ski day: the innovations that drew crowds to Killington

July 2, 2025
By Karen D. Lorentz Editors’ Note: This is part of a series on the factors that enabled Killington to become the Beast of the East. Quotations are from author interviews in the 1980s for the book Killington, A Story of Mountains and Men. “We’ve got a million dollars that says you’ll learn to ski at…

‘Almost Heaven’

July 2, 2025
The stage was simple, designed to resemble a wooden board that resembled the siding of any barn, anywhere across America. It could have been the barn behind my house, or the one that my cousins have down in Georgia. It could have been a barn in Colorado or even West Virginia.  Nothing remarkable at all,…

Getting away from it all

July 2, 2025
My family and I went to the beach this past week. The temperatures were hot, and the weather was sunny, making for a classic seaside vacation. The house we rented was in the harbor of the town where we were visiting, so while we didn’t stare out at the ocean, we were able to sit…