Updated at 6:52 p.m.
The Vermont Legislature appears ready to begin its 2022 legislative session remotely after all.
Changing course one week before they gavel in, lawmakers cited the Omicron variant of Covid-19 as the reason for their reluctance to return to Montpelier.
The Joint Rules Committee unanimously voted on Tuesday to recommend both the House and Senate kick off 2022’s session on Jan. 4 remotely. Under the plan, legislators tentatively would return to the Statehouse in person on Jan. 18, two weeks after their start date.
In those two weeks, the committee said it wants to keep an eye on caseloads, hear from public health experts and decide on a longer-term path forward.
The committee’s decision was made in a roughly 20-minute-long hearing, less than two weeks after the same committee voted on Dec. 16 in favor of a plan to return to an in-person session with rules for vaccination, testing and masking.
In a hearing later Tuesday afternoon, the House Rules Committee unanimously approved the remote start plan.
The Senate Rules Committee had already voted on Dec. 22 to begin remotely for the first week of session, citing Omicron.
The House will briefly gavel in on Jan. 4 in person to give final approval to the remote plan, according to Conor Kennedy, a spokesperson for House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington. Unless the resolution fails, representatives then would continue business remotely until Jan. 18.
On Tuesday, several members of the Republican minority said that they were willing to acquiesce to the plan to start remotely, but insisted that lawmakers begin working on official guideposts for when the Legislature goes in person versus remote — whether that be positivity rates, case numbers in the Legislature or a combination of measures.
Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, said that lawmakers should prioritize the health of themselves and their communities, but “our goal in all of this is to be here in person doing the people’s business in the way that it should be done.”
“I think it’s important that we ensure … that we’re using trigger points of some kind to decide what we do, so that we have some scientific or medical or public health basis for doing so rather than our gut opinion or feeling of what the right numbers ought to be,” he said.
Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, noted that in addition to health risks, the spread of the virus within the Statehouse could lead to logistical challenges. With only 30 members in the state Senate, several senators falling ill could render it impossible to reach a quorum in committee hearings and finish any legislation.
“We don’t have a lot of wiggle room,” Balint said. “The most important thing for us, from where I sit, is to make sure that the people’s work continues. We have hundreds of millions of dollars to get out the door to support Vermont families. We did not shirk that duty last year when we had to go remote. We’re not going to do that this year.”
Tuesday’s livestream began more than an hour late. Kennedy said that during that time, committee members in the Statehouse were having brief, informal discussions among themselves about how they would vote on the remote start plan. He compared the “huddles” to those that typically happen in hallways as lawmakers walk through the Statehouse, or as they wait at their desks for a hearing to begin.
But when the Legislature is working remotely, members of the public or media don’t see those conversations unless the cameras are on, and they weren’t on Tuesday. Kennedy said the Legislature is working on striking a balance to ensure transparency.
The committee’s hearing on Dec. 16 was several hours long, during which members heard from Tim Lahey, an infectious disease physician with the University of Vermont Medical Center. Lahey said at the time that the risk of coronavirus spreading at the Capitol was, in most situations, low with appropriate precautions in place.
At that hearing, the committee agreed to a plan to require all legislators and staffers to either be vaccinated or undergo weekly PCR testing. The plan also strongly recommended all lawmakers and staffers undergo weekly rapid testing, vaccinated or not. And everyone entering legislative spaces — lawmakers, staffers, lobbyists, reporters and members of the public — would be required to wear face masks.
The lawmakers on Tuesday said that the Omicron variant has since changed the situation. They did not hear any testimony, but said they plan to in follow-up hearings.
Rep. Patty McCoy, R-Rutland, said that the Statehouse is different from other workplaces, with lawmakers and others coming in from all corners of Vermont, then going home across the state on the weekends. But she said “we’ve made this building as safe as we could,” and cautioned against “hold(ing) ourselves to some different standard” than the rest of Vermonters by not returning to work in Montpelier.”
“I mean, that just doesn’t happen in other jobs,” she said.
