The Vermont Legislature is scheduled to reconvene Tuesday for the second year of the biennium — but no need to find a parking spot on State Street just yet.
Following a last-minute change of course last week, both the House and Senate are expected to work remotely at least until Jan. 18.
A quorum of the House is set to gather briefly at the Statehouse on Tuesday to approve the remote work plan. So long as that resolution passes, everything else will happen online for at least the next two weeks.
But no matter where legislators are, Vermonters will still be able to livestream the action, from their homes, cars, libraries or wherever they can get connected. (A fun snow day activity, perhaps?)
Though legislators and lobbyists will surely miss their cloakroom chats and cafeteria confabs, pandemic-inspired changes to the Legislature’s operations have made it easier for the general public to follow along from home.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the House didn’t even record its proceedings on the floor, though VPR offered a live feed. The Senate recorded audio from the floor to CDs, according to Kevin Moore, director of the Office of Legislative Information Technology. Those recordings had to be requested through the Senate Secretary’s Office. Committee meeting recordings were, similarly, available only upon request.
Vermonters who want to tune in remotely this year can do so via these links:
- The House of Representatives will stream here.
- The Senate will stream here.
- Each legislative committee has its own Youtube channel. Those links to stream are collected here.
Not sure what to watch? A weekly list of every scheduled legislative committee meeting can be found here. You can also find each committee’s agenda here.
The House and Senate are both scheduled to begin their first floor proceedings of the year at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
Gov. Phil Scott is scheduled to deliver his State of the State address at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Scott’s budget address is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 18 at 1 p.m. VTDigger plans to livestream both speeches on our Facebook Live page.
Other notable dates in the legislative calendar are available here.
