The Vermont Legislature begins the second half of its biennium on Tuesday.
The House and Senate will gavel back into session but due to the spread of the Omicron variant, instead of returning to the Statehouse in Montpelier, legislators will meet virtually for two weeks.
Middlebury College Professor Emeritus Eric Davis says while formal proceedings can occur via Zoom, much of their work is done informally.
“Conversations in the halls, conversations over lunch," Davis said. "Both among legislators themselves and with executive branch officials and with advocates and that sort of thing just doesn’t happen over Zoom. So I think most members would like to be back in person. At the same time with the sharply increasing case load in Vermont in recent weeks they don’t want to take actions that would be risky.”
There will be obvious items lawmakers will take up including COVID policy, responding to the federal infrastructure bill, state pension reform and redistricting.
Middlebury College Professor of Political Science Bert Johnson expects redistricting and a potential statewide mask mandate vote to be among the first issues addressed. He also points out it is an election year.
“We’ve got some candidates that are running for higher office that are going to also be working in the Legislature," Johnson said. "And so it may be in people’s interest, but also people who may be facing new, entirely new, legislative districts to get their work done as quickly as possible so they can figure out the fall campaign.”
Legislators hope to return to the Statehouse on January 18th for in-person meetings.