Updated January 2025
The fate of legislation at the Vermont Statehouse lives and dies by the calendar — or calendars, really. Three different schedules are important to understand and to check, that is if you want to follow the action closely: the annual session calendar, the weekly calendar and the daily calendar and journal.
Annual session calendar
The session’s legislative calendar sets the overarching rhythm of activity under the Golden Dome. The dates tend to follow a general pattern from year to year, but that — as with all schedules involving 180 lawmakers — is subject to change.
The date of the start of the annual session begins usually during the first week of January. The day that launches the biennium (a two-year period of lawmaking between elections), is set in the Vermont Constitution to be “the first Wednesday next after the first Monday of January” following elections. (The members of both chambers serve for the duration of the biennium and are up for election in even-numbered years.)
According to those same rules, both chambers will meet every day following the initial convening. The House’s rules actually state “shall meet every day (Sunday excepted) at nine o’clock and thirty minutes in the morning.” But it doesn’t generally happen that way.
Each chamber regularly sets dates of recess, that is days during the biennium when the Legislature will not meet. Those are set either through a joint resolution or by separate resolutions, if schedules diverge between the House and the Senate.
Recess can last several days, which happens before most weekends and for over a week at a time at the beginning of March to allow legislators to connect with their constituents around Town Meeting Day. The chambers also vote to adjourn for six months or so between the first and second session of the biennium, usually in late May. The final adjournment of the biennium is also set by vote.
Another essential date is the crossover deadline, which is the date by which bills must be approved by the committee of jurisdiction in one chamber, typically in mid-March. A bill that fails to “make crossover” in the biennium’s first year can be taken up in the second. If it misses crossover a second time, it would need to be reintroduced in the next biennium.
Other important dates relate to when new bills must be introduced. The deadlines differ between the first and second year of the biennium and the best place to check for those dates are the House and Senate rules. Deadlines are earlier for fully developed bills called a “standard-form” bill (one that contains the textual changes to state law proposed) and later for “short-form” bills (containing a title and general statement of purpose). A short form bill filled after a certain date needs approval from its committee of jurisdiction to be fleshed out further. Bills can also be developed within the committee process with dates that are generally even closer to crossover. All dates for the introduction of new bills tend to be shifted earlier during the second year of the biennium.
By the way, all of the above can be suspended at any time by each chamber’s rules committee.
Weekly and daily calendars
The schedule of committee meetings can be found in a weekly calendar, which often also provides the timing of floor sessions. If you know what you are looking for and don’t want to scroll, the meetings for the week are also listed by each committee in the House and the Senate, as well as joint committees, which include members of both bodies. Committees generally post their agenda for the week in these places by Tuesday morning. The names of people scheduled to testify and other details are frequently updated, so check back. The “Announcements” box on the Legislature’s homepage also provides details of any party caucus, public hearing or other public meeting of interest over the coming week.
Finally, there is the daily schedule for action on the floor of each chamber, called the House Calendar and the Senate Calendar. New versions of each are linked to from the Legislature’s homepage in the afternoon or evening for the following day of legislative work.
Those more formal-looking documents provide the date and time a chamber is set to convene, the Action Calendar (bills or resolutions for which there will be a vote that day) and the Notice Calendar (bills for which votes are warned for the future, often the following day). The text of proposed changes to the law made by a bill are sometimes also included in the calendar, as well. Be aware, however, that — unless specified elsewhere by law — bills on the notice calendar can be taken up and voted upon the same day if the chamber votes to suspend normal rules.
To look back at calendar days gone by, the chambers produce a daily House Journal and Senate Journal, which lists the bills that were introduced. It also includes entries on the bills that were considered for action, including a summary of discussion and the outcome of a vote.
