VTDigger is posting regular updates on the coronavirus in Vermont on this page. You can also subscribe here for regular email updates on the coronavirus. If you have any questions, thoughts or updates on how Vermont is responding to COVID-19, contact us at coronavirus@vtdigger.org
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson has removed Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, from her position on the powerful House tax committee after Browning forced the speaker to call 76 legislators into the chamber Thursday to vote on emergency COVID-19 legislation.
In an email to House members, Johnson said Browning “unnecessarily required every other member to choose between their duty to Vermont and the health and safety of their communities, peers, and loved ones at home.”
“A procedural motion forced 100 people- a generous quorum of members, plus staff, and press- to gather against CDC recommendations, less than 24 hours after the Governor’s stay-at-home order and at a time when infection rates are increasing exponentially in Vermont,” Johnson wrote.
Browning will be immediately replaced on House Ways and Means by Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro. She has not been notified where she will be assigned next.
“Being a legislator requires that we know the rules,” Johnson wrote. “True public service requires the wisdom to know when to use them. Yesterday’s quorum call was not wise.”
In an interview on Thursday, Browning noted that it was technically Johnson who called the 76 legislators into the Statehouse. Browning called a quorum because she had an issue with a proposed rule change that would allow the House to hold votes remotely.
She was hoping that the speaker would drop the remote voting rule change in response to her call for a quorum.
Browning, who frequently rankles Democratic leadership, said she made clear that she would have let other legislation and proposed rule changes pass on Wednesday without calling in 76 legislators.
“It was Mitzi that called people in,” Browning said. “She was not willing to drop that resolution and so she called everybody in. I would have been willing to drop the quorum call if that resolution had been dropped.”
She added that things didn’t play out the way that she wanted: “I would not have wanted everybody to come in.”
But she said she was trying to “correct what she thought was wrong in the name of upholding the democratic representative process in the House of Representatives.”
Only about a dozen lawmakers showed up to vote on Wednesday before Browning called for a quorum. After her call, 94 representatives came to the chamber to vote on the proposed rule changes and COVID-19 legislation on Thursday.
Browning, who said she will run for speaker of the House if she is reelected in November, said it’s within Johnson’s power to determine who serves on which committee.
But said she regrets losing the ability to serve on the House Ways and Means Committee with her experience as an economist.
“I just deeply regret losing the ability to serve Vermonters with my expertise on that committee,” Browning said.
Correction: This story has been updated to fix an incorrect statement that Browning had been reassigned to another committee. She has not been notified where she will be assigned yet. This story has also been updated to correct the number of representatives who came to the Statehouse after the quorum call.
