The University of Vermont has rolled out a service to help legislators conduct research, respond to constituent inquiries, and carry out publicity.
Last month, UVM launched the Legislative Intern Center, a group of five students led by advisors, who are ready to assist lawmakers with basic tasks.
The center is designed to provide additional support to lawmakers who have limited research capacity because of chronic understaffing.
Vermont has one of the smallest legislative staffs in the country. Legislative counsel and the Joint Fiscal Office provide legal drafting support and financial research services for the Vermont Legislature.
About 100 staff members serve 180 lawmakers. Only two legislators — the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tem — have personal aides.
In many other states, legislators have access to hundreds of staff members and in some cases aides to help them with research and communications work.
States including Massachusetts, Illinois and New Jersey had nearly 1,000 staffers in their statehouses as of 2015, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Richard Watts, the director of the Center for Research on Vermont, who launched the program, said the new service will be useful for lawmakers and students.
“The idea is that in Vermont, legislators have no staff and we have this rich pool of students who could benefit from experience working directly with legislators,” he said.
Between 1998 and 2013, UVM ran a similar program for the Legislature called the Vermont Legislative Research Service, which continues as a class. Students conducted research about policies and programs in other states, social science issues, and federal programs and grants, according to UVM.
Watts said the new internship program will focus on short-term answers to legislative requests. The class will continue to work on long-term research projects.
In addition to research, Watts said that students, who work for college credit, will be prepared to assist with other tasks including communications and social media work.
Steve Maier, who served in Vermont House between 2003 and 2010, is on the Legislative Intern Service’s advisory committee. Maier said the program is needed in the Legislature.
While some committees have higher staffing levels, others are limited, he said.
“They’re fairly well staffed around the budget for example, on the legislative side,” Maier said. “But a lot of the other committees have pretty minimal staff and while they are available to Legislature there’s only so far they can go.”
Rep. Lucy Rogers D-Waterville, said she looks forward to using the service this fall to help her shape legislation she will introduce when the legislative session begins in January.
She says that without a large staff, lawmakers in Vermont have to conduct policy research, and complete other work outside of “Statehouse hours.”
“Even for the most dedicated legislator, it is difficult to be able to do as much academic research on policies as we would like,” Rogers said. “Yet, this type of in-depth background research is precisely what is needed in order to construct evidence-based policy. That is where the UVM students can come in, by supporting this peer-reviewed research.”
Rogers, a recent UVM graduate, said she believes the program will be “mutually beneficial” for students and legislators.
“When I was in college, I learned very strong research skills but lacked the opportunity to apply them to real problems in my state,” she said. “I could have benefitted from a program like this.”
Correction: This story originally incorrectly stated the Vermont Legislative Research Service had closed in 2013. In fact, it continues as a class.
