Rural Vermont's 2023 Legislative Session Guide

A new biennium has begun! To help our constituents understand what has changed in the State House and support them in engaging with agricultural issues and the legislative process, we've created a simple reference guide. Read on!

Biennium. Since 2023 marks an odd-numbered year, the legislative procedure prescribes the beginning of a new biennium. Any bill introduced has the next two years to be passed into law by the General Assembly. Since the COVID shut down in March 2020, it’s been three years that lawmakers have been meeting remotely (mostly). Vaccination and testing policies were dropped by the Joint Rules Committee in fall 2022 for the State House (VT Digger article) and lawmakers of the House are expected to be back in-person “unless sick or otherwise necessarily detained” (House Rules). In contrast, Senators will continue to abide by the 2021 rule that “A Senator participating remotely shall be considered present and in attendance at the meeting of the Senate, including for purposes of determining if a quorum is present” (Senate Rules). Both chambers will continue to use the ability to livestream committee hearings and floor sessions on YouTube. 

Find out what’s important to you within:


Legislators. There has been remarkable and record turnover in lawmakers; about one third of the elected body are new to the legislature. Democrats and Progressives won 10 seats and now hold the two-thirds majority needed to override vetoes from Governor Scott. The new spirit brings hope for transformative change as young legislators organize in the new Vermont Future Caucus. Aside from the partisan caucuses, there are many others that meet independently to discuss strategy like the Social Equity Caucus, Climate Solutions Caucus and the Rural Caucus for example.

Committees. The House Ag committee got renamed to House Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry (H.R. 4) overseeing matters related to: “Agriculture, food resiliency, climate change mitigation and adaptation, forestry and forest products, and State parks and lands, and other similar policies.” While food resiliency is not defined in the House Rules, we understand that it’s inclusive of food security. 

You can find bios and contact info of committee members on the committee’s website: Reach out to any of these legislators to express your needs and concerns regarding agriculture, food and climate policy and regulation (House Ag; Senate Ag).


Leadership. Long time chairperson of the former House Agriculture and Forestry Committee, Carolyn Partridge, retired after the 2022 session and over 24 years in service. The new leadership of HAG includes young farmer Rep. Heather Suprenant from Barnard as Vice Chair and we are excited to see the farmer leadership - congratulations Heather! Re-elected farmer Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman has been a long time supporter of the Rural Vermont membership and will welcome us back to in-person Small Farm Action Days at the State House with NOFA-VT (Stay tuned - dates TBD)!

Bills. Follow along as legislation is starting to be introduced here or tune in to House and Senate Floor Sessions. Did you know? Rural Vermont and the Cannabis Equity Coalition are working with legislators to introduce a bill that enables direct sales of cannabis for growers (recent VTDigger article).


Testimonials. If you want to testify in committee because you are affected by pending legislation - reach out about that to the committee assistant, not the chair or another committee member. Great soul and long time committee assistant Linda Leehman ((802) 828-2258 lleehman@leg.state.vt.us) is still with the Senate but there’s a new point person to assist the new respective House committee (Alaura Rich (802) 828-2267, arich@leg.state.vt.us); see also witness information. Additionally, reach out to Legislative Director Caroline Gordon for support and guidance.

Reports and Rules. Many legislative reports - including those on revitalizing the Dairy Industry, the rollout of on-farm composting of food residuals; and from the depack stakeholder group, and the Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working group - are being released in January. You can find reports here. The legislative committee appointed to adopt new rules, LCAR, decided last week to postpone their vote on a new pesticides rule after the Department of Health announced concerns. The new rule is mostly concerned about how commercial applicators notify about when and how pesticides are being used as well as requiring some new municipal permits for their application in public spaces (recent VTDigger article).  


Reach out and Connect! Let us know what your interest in any of the upcoming new legislation is and help to inform our shared work and goals:

Rural Vermont