Degree’s appointment to finance was announced on the Senate floor — before Ann Cummings, chair of Senate Education, was notified.
Other names had been floated — including that of newly appointed moderate Republican Sen. Helen Riehle — but at the end of the day, the three most powerful players in the Senate — Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, Dick Mazza and Senate president pro tem John Campbell had the final say. Riehle will take Degree’s place on Senate Ed.
Degree says Scott asked him if he was interested in the seat last week and he had a similar conversation with Mazza. “I look forward to advocating on behalf of Vermont taxpayers,” Degree said.
Committee assignments are rarely made this late in the legislative session (Senate committee meetings end in a week or so), but when Sen. Diane Snellling left to become chief of the Natural Resources Board the shuffling began.
Sen. Richie Westman, R-Lamoille, was tapped for Senate Appropriations, and that left a hole on the Senate’s tax-writing committee. The powers that be wanted to fill the slot with another Republican.
The Committee on Committees is in charge of “personnel,” as Campbell describes it, and does not hold public meetings. Decisions are often made unilaterally by the close-knit group of three men.
And in this instance, there actually was no meeting to vote on the matter — the decision was made in casual conversation before the Friday Senate session.
Campbell happened to be talking to Scott in front of Senate Transportation where Mazza is the chair and the subject came up. Scott then talked with Mazza and the deed was done.
“We made these appointments through individual conversations with each other over the past few days,” Scott said in a written statement. “It’s difficult to find a time when all three of us can meet, so we talk in pairs until we come to an agreement. No formal committee vote is needed, simply an agreement on the appointment between the three of us.”
Scott, a Republican, holds sway in the Senate, which is held by a Democratic majority, and he has an outsized influence on the tiny Committee on Committees where he has the support of Mazza (a Democrat who has endorsed Scott’s gubernatorial run) and Campbell, a longtime friend.
Campbell said the committee had a meeting with all three members present on Wednesday.
“The concern we all had was that we have a person who was just appointed put on a major committee,” Campbell said. “It’s tough enough trying to fill it with a Republican when we shift around.”
Campbell wants Republicans on the money committees in order to ensure consensus on must-pass bills. He ticked off a short list of Republican senators who couldn’t be moved out of current committees to take the spot.
And because most of the major work this session in Senate Education is finished, it was logical to tap Degree, a member of the committee, for finance, he said.
Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, said “it makes no sense to move people around this late in the session.” She thought it made more sense to put Riehle, a former state senator, on finance to avoid the shuffle.
The casual decision-making process bothered Cummings. She said it would have been preferable to have a more formal meeting of the Committee on Committees. “It’s not ideal, but I understand how it happens,” she said.
