Ever wonder how to track what is happening under the golden dome in Montpelier. A recent inquiry of my representative generated this roadmap. Thank you, Anne for your help.
The information is all there on the legislative web site (https://legislature.vermont.gov/), but that doesn’t make it smooth sailing to attempt to follow.
You can find every legislator’s vote under their name, but those are only recorded for roll calls on particularly contentious bills. https://legislature.vermont.gov/people/all/2024/House ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/people/single/2024/14557#voting-record Most are by voice vote. The vote then has to be tracked back by linking to the journal page for the issue on it that was being decided.
You can review every bill introduced by any legislator https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/introduced/2024, but the vast majority will never even be taken up by a committee.
You can look up and track each bill https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/search/2024, but the bills get rewritten along the way: first in committee process; then on House/Senate floor; then by the other body’s committee(s); then on that body’s floor; then in conference committee if there are disagreements between the two; then a final version.
You can track more precise progress by following a bill’s progress and witnesses testimony – obviously pretty arduous, especially for more than one bill.https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/S.18
You can check the weekly schedule of all House and Senate committees to see what they are working on, but the schedules often change during the week and need to be re-checked, especially further along into a session. (Or say, “tba,” which means, “not sure yet.”)https://legislature.vermont.gov/committee/weeklyAgendas/2024
And then, there is always the House or Senate calendar that can be checked each day… but bills are often bumped off the calendar. For example, a bill voted out by my committee might be on the calendar, but needs to be referred to Appropriations because it has a price tag, so it gets moved from being “on notice” one day , to disappearing, then showing up on the Approps committee agenda until voted on by them, then back on the House calendar.https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/Docs/CALENDAR/hc240227.pdf The outcome shows up on the next day’s journal.https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/Docs/JOURNAL/hj240223.pdf
You can also always ask your legislator to check on the status of any particular bill or vote 🙂