On September 29, 2021

Vermont’s legislative leaders call off plans to convene in October

By Grace Benninghoff/VTDigger

Vermont’s legislative leadership has called off plans to reconvene this October due to substantial delays to President Biden’s federal infrastructure bill. The decision likely forecloses the possibility that the Legislature could seek to enact more stringent Covid-19 protocols this fall, as some Democrats have urged.

As the 2021 session wound down in May, lawmakers passed an adjournment resolution allowing the Legislature to return to the Statehouse in October in order to manage a flood of cash that was expected from the feds.

Now, though, the fate of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill remains in limbo ahead of a vote expected in the U.S. House next week. (An even larger $3.5 trillion spending plan is also on the rocks.)

“After monitoring the progress being made on the bill in Washington and the timeline for us, it’s clear that we do not need to come back in October,” said House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington.

Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, also expressed concern that reconvening with 180 members next month amid a surge of the Covid-19 Delta variant may be a “superspreader event waiting to happen.”

The continued wrangling over the infrastructure bill has further implications for the state, Krowinski said, as lawmakers are already spending federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act passed in March in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If we knew we would be getting a certain amount of money for broadband or roads via [the infrastructure bill], we would be making different decisions about where we are putting ARPA money,” Krowinski said.

Balint said she would have hoped to use an October session to push through more stringent Covid-19 mitigation measures in the face of increasing infections in Vermont.

“Right now it doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to not change what we’re doing given the amount of community spread,” Balint said.

An adjournment resolution is the only authority the Legislature has to reconvene unless the governor were to call lawmakers back to session. But Krowinski and Balint said they aren’t holding their breath.

“I think that the governor is very happy to have us out of town,” Balint said.

Do you want to submit feedback to the editor?

Send Us An Email!

Related Posts

Vt Legislature advances bill to ban toxic ‘forever chemicals’ from firefighting gear, dental floss, cleaning products

June 4, 2025
The Vermont Senate and House advance legislation (H.238) May 29 that would outlaw the use of toxic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in firefighting gear, dental floss, cleaning products, and fluorine-treated containers—a critical step in reducing Vermonters’ exposure to these harmful substances. The Senate expanded the bill as passed by the House by adding a provision that…

To be continued…

June 4, 2025
A final compromise on education reform proved elusive late Friday, and at about 11 p.m., the Senate adjourned, followed by the House at about 11:30 p.m. As late as 10 p.m., legislative leaders were still hopeful that the six conferees (three House and three Senate members) could reach a deal sometime before midnight that would…

Nearing the end?

June 4, 2025
After passing several challenging bills in the last few weeks, the Vermont Legislature adjourned until June 16 due to an impasse over negotiations on our education transformation bill, H.454. Many other bills addressing housing, homelessness, healthcare, and several other major issues required compromises from both the House and the Senate in order to be passed…

Vermont gets $23 million from ongoing settlement with tobacco manufacturers

June 4, 2025
Attorney General Charity Clark announced last month that Vermont received a total of $23,132,483.92 from tobacco manufacturers under the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). Annually, Vermont receives monies from tobacco manufacturers from the MSA, which resolved the state’s lawsuit filed in the 1990s. The settlement funds are credited to the state’s Tobacco Fund, and the…