The chairs of only two Senate committees changed hands Friday as senators learned their committee assignments.
Washington County Democrat Ann Cummings was named chair of the Senate Finance Committee and Sen. Philip Baruth will run the Senate Education Committee.
Other than finance and education, the other nine committees will continue to be run by the senators who led them in the previous session. The finance committee chair position became open after the former chair, Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, won the top leadership post in the Senate. The education committee post was vacant because Cummings had been chair.
Cummings’ selection marks a return for her as chair of Senate Finance. She lost that position after she challenged the previous Senate Pro Tem, Sen. John Campbell, for the top leadership post in the Senate. Campbell, a fellow Democrat who had a rocky first term as Senate leader, defeated the challenge by Cummings. After that election, Cummings was replaced on Senate Finance and Ashe was put in as chair in 2013.
Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, Ashe, and Sen. Richard Mazza, D-Colchester, chose the committee chairs and made the committee assignments. Zuckerman told senators on Friday that the Committee on Committees tried to take into account their requests and provide balance to the committees.
Speaker Mitzi Johnson also retained the bulk of the House committees chairs from last session.
The Senate committees are as follows:
Agriculture: Chair Robert Starr, D-Essex/Orleans; Vice-Chair Anthony Pollina, P/D-Washington; Brian Collamore, R-Rutland; Carolyn Branagan, R-Franklin; Francis Brooks, D-Washington.
Appropriations: Chair Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia; Vice-chair Alice Nitka, D-Windsor; Richard Sears, D-Bennington; Richard McCormack, D-Windsor; Ashe; Richard Westman, R-Lamoille.
Economic Development: Chair Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland; Vice-chair Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden; Baruth, Rebecca Balint, D-Windham; Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor.
Education: Chair Baruth; Vice-Chair Balint; Mullin; Joe Benning-Caledonia; Christopher Bray, D-Addison; Deborah Ingram, D-Chittenden.
Finance: Chair Cummings; Vice-Chair Mark MacDonald, D-Orange; Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden; Pollina; Sirotkin; Brian Campion, D-Bennington; Dustin Degree, R-Franklin.
Government Operations: Chair Jeanette White, D-Windham; Vice-Chair Collamore; Claire Ayer, D-Addison; Clarkson; Christoper Pearson, P/D-Chittenden.
Health and Welfare: Chair Ayer; Vice-Chair Lyons; Cummings; McCormack, Ingram.
Institutions: Chair Peg Flory, R-Rutland; Vice-chair John Rodgers, D-Essex/Orleans; Mazza; Branagan; Brooks.
Judiciary: Chair Sears; Vice-chair Benning; White; Nitka; Ashe.
Natural Resources and Energy: Chair Bray; Vice-Chair Campion; MacDonald; Rodgers, Pearson.
Transportation: Chair Mazza; Vice-chair Westman; Kitchel; Flory; Degree.
