In: High-tech temperature scanners. Out: Mingling after adjournment.
Exclamations of “so nice to see you!” and “can I give you a hug!” rang out Tuesday in the halls of the Statehouse as legislators gathered to gavel in the 2022 session.
The House overwhelmingly approved a resolution, H.R. 13, to operate remotely until Jan. 18, voting 106-19. Several members said they were “reluctantly” voting in favor — reluctant because they recognize the threat of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 but feel strongly that lawmakers should get back to negotiating in 3D.
“This was not an easy decision, but I believe it was the right balance — the right compromise between a potential overreaction and our inability to assess the potential actual threat within our timeline,” said Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield.
Only three senators — Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, as well as Sens. Brian Collamore, R-Rutland, and Mark MacDonald, D-Orange — voted in-person Tuesday. Unlike the House’s rules, the Senate’s permit the body to continue remote operations without another vote.
“Politics is a social business,” MacDonald said, noting that it’s hard to replicate that on Zoom.
For him, one of the best parts of the legislative day is the friendly teasing senators aim at one another on Zoom before the call is broadcast to the public.
He recounted one zinger over his — and Sen. Jane Kitchel’s, D-Caledonia — Zoom backgrounds: “Hey MacDonald, you and Kitchel are the only ones who have wallpaper.”
His response: “Well 40 years ago, everybody had wallpaper!”
Wallpaper does seem to be making a comeback, but I digress.
–Riley Robinson
IN THE KNOW
Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, was one of 19 representatives who voted against the resolution to allow remote work for the next two weeks.
Scheuermann, who is now serving her eighth term and 16th session, argued that informal interactions between legislators, leadership and lobbyists are important to the political process and should happen in public view, rather than on private phone lines.
Remote proceedings not only hide those conversations from Vermonters, but also silo legislators off from each other, she said. Scheuermann normally watches out for which lobbyists are meeting with which committee chairs, helping her know what her colleagues are working on.
Scheuermann also criticized the message she believes Tuesday’s vote conveys to Vermonters, especially those who continue to go to work in person.
“It sends a really privileged message to Vermonters that we are somehow more important than those who are getting up and going to work every day,” she said.
She noted that while the Statehouse has a plan for abundant antigen testing — in addition to mask and vaccine protocols — most Vermonters must scour stores or wait in long lines to access a limited number of rapid tests.
“Just because we can go remote, doesn’t mean we should,” she said.
–RR
Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, told VTDigger that she’s “sympathetic, absolutely, to the feelings” of frontline workers who have been working in-person through the pandemic for months, but, “Unfortunately, in politics, optics are always part of the conversation, but they cannot drive the work that you do. So the goal is for us to be back in the building, as soon as we can safely do that.”
Over the course of a 10-minute sit-down with Digger, she said several times that “this is not what we want” — but it’s what leadership feels is necessary right now. And to make an “apples to apples” comparison between the Statehouse and other places of employment is a false equivalency, she said.
“We also are unique in that we represent every single town in every single county,” Balint said in her office after the floor session, a box of rapid tests sitting on a table behind her. “And if we were to have an outbreak here, essentially, you instantly have a super spreader event of us bringing the disease back to all of them.”
–Sarah Mearhoff
So who voted against the House resolution authorizing remote work? Here are the nays, according to the Clerk of the House:
Sally Achey, R-Middletown Springs
Patrick Brennan, R-Colchester
Rodney Graham, R-Williamstown
Mark Higley, R-Lowell
Paul Lefebvre, I-Newark
Samantha Lefebvre, R-Orange
Felisha Leffler, R-Enosburgh
Marcia Martel, R-Waterford
Christopher Mattos, R-Milton
Leland Morgan, R-Milton
Michael Morgan, R-Milton
Woodman Page, R-Newport City
Joseph Parsons, R-Newbury
Arthur Peterson, R-Clarendon
Carl Rosenquist, R-Georgia
Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe
Patrick Seymour, R-Sutton
Vicki Strong, R-Albany
Thomas Terenzini, R-Rutland Town
MEET GLENN
Photographer Glenn Russell has covered every legislative session since 1986 — for the Burlington Free Press for most of those years and now for VTDigger.
In past years, he said, the coolest part of the job was his unfettered access under the golden dome. Vermont journalists’ access to the Statehouse was, historically, “unparalleled” in comparison to other state capitols.
“History is made in a small room packed shoulder to shoulder with 30 people,” Russell said. He’s worried that access will slowly disappear, as Covid-19 protocols have already restricted press to the galleries in the House and Senate chambers.
This year, you’ll probably see a lot of the tops of people’s heads.
The hardest part of the job is keeping it fresh, Russell said, as the scenes he shoots in the Statehouse always feature the same elements: people and podiums and papers.
“I’m always looking for a photo that I haven’t taken before,” he said, “and that gets harder and harder every year.”
COVID CORNER
In just a week, the state’s seven-day case average has more than doubled, hospitalizations have risen 17% and the seven-day positivity rate has hit 12% — more than double Vermont’s discarded reopening benchmark of 5%, according to state data.
The Vermont Department of Health reported 1,727 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, shattering the one-day case record set just a few days earlier. Eighty-three people are hospitalized with Covid, including 19 in intensive care units.
– Erin Petenko
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Covid boosters for kids ages 12-15. Gov. Phil Scott has directed the Agency of Human Services to incorporate the change into the state’s online vaccine registration site as soon as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives final approval, according to a Monday press release.
– Riley Robinson
WHAT’S ON TAP
Wednesday, Jan. 5
8:30 a.m. — Senate Natural Resources and Energy hears from Secretary Julie Moore on the Climate Action Plan
9 a.m. — House Government Operations continues discussing redistricting
9 a.m. — Senate Judiciary takes testimony on the Raise the Age initiative
9:30 a.m. — Senate Health and Welfare and House Health Care hear from Interstate Telehealth Working Group (joint meeting will be streamed on the Senate committee’s Youtube link, here)
Noon — Senate Health and Welfare, Senate Judiciary and Senate Institutions hear from the Department for Children and Families on the placement of youths (joint meeting will be streamed on the Judiciary committee’s link here)
2 p.m. — Scott delivers State of the State Address (We’ll be streaming on Facebook Live here.)
