It is hard to believe as I write this that we are
already three weeks into the new legislative biennium. There is very little
“action” to report.
The glorious thing about a citizen legislature is
that we come from all walks of life, bringing diverse backgrounds to the job.
The flip side, of course, is that we bring no expertise to most of the subjects
that will come before us.
I have been re-appointed to the Health Care
Committee, where six of the 11 members are new to the committee, and five are
first-time legislators. There is a whole lot of information for them to absorb
about the many components and issues that make up our health care system and
that are in the jurisdiction of our committee.
Most of our time thus far has been spent on hearing
overviews from the many players in that system. There has been little time
spent on the House floor, since bills are not yet being voted out of any
committees.
We are also just beginning to get to know one another.
We will be spending a lot of time together these next four months. The bulk of
the work of the legislature takes place in the various committees as they hear
testimony and consider new bills.
So what kinds of folks make up the committee that
will make major decisions about the evolution of health care reform in Vermont?
I think that learning just a small amount about them helps gain a valuable
perspective on how our democracy functions.
Our returning chair is Bill Lippert, a Democrat and 22-year
member from Hinesburg. He is the former Executive Director of the Counseling
Services of Addison County and a founder of a foundation for GBLT Vermonters.
The other two returning committee members are Tim Briglin,
a Democrat from Thetford, and Doug Gage, a Republican from Rutland.
Tim was new last term and is the managing partner at
Tuckerman Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2001 to invest in and grow small
manufacturing businesses. Doug is starting his third term and is a
tractor-trailer driver for Coca-Cola.
Sarah Copeland-Hanzas was majority leader for the
Democrats last session, and now returns to the Health Care Committee, where she
served since 2005. She is from Bradford, and is a science teacher as well as
owner of local cafe.
Mike Hebert is a Republican from Vernon who has
served on the Natural Resources Committee since 2010, and was moved to Health
Care this year. He has background in the health care field in emergency medical
systems.
Our five brand new members include a recent college
graduate, Ben Jickling, who is an Independent from Brookfield and who works for
the local golf course and for a youth mentoring program.
Annmarie Christensen is a Democrat from Weathersfield
who has a background in journalism and communications in global public health, most
recently at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
Lori Houghton is also a Democrat, from Essex
Junction, whose background is as a sales operations specialist with LexisNexis,
the online legal publishing firm.
Betsy Dunn of Essex Junction, a Democrat, is a labor
and delivery nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center, where she has
also served the union as chief steward.
Brian Cicio of Burlington, a Progressive, is a
clinical social worker with a private psychotherapy practice.
I round off our crew, and am the second longest
serving House member on the committee, starting my 8th term. I was greatly
honored this year to have been asked to serve as vice-chair.
We range in age from the 20s to 60s, but only two of
us – me and Ben (who grew up working on his grandparents’ sheep farm in Chelsea)
-- are native Vermonters.
During this past campaign season, now-Governor Phil
Scott promoted the idea of a legislature that served only 10 weeks, restricting
its focus to the annual state budget and saving on costs.
As much as I respect him and his views, I strongly
disagree on this issue, because it would radically shift the balance of power
between the executive and legislative branches of government.
It will take the rest of this month to learn the
subjects at hand, and February into March will give a fairly narrow window to
take on some of the significant subjects that demand attention. To name just a
few: the crisis in our mental health system; oversight of the next stages of
the “All Payer Model” for financing health care; identifying what we are going
to do about Vermont Health Connect; addressing how Vermont will respond to the
as-yet-unknown actions taken on the federal level, particularly their potential
financial impact on our small state.
As we get to April, there will be little time for
the committee to get further work done, as we will be on the House floor for
debates and votes as bills emerge from committees; we will also need to focus
on responding to bills that come from the Senate.
The decisions we make, flawed as they sometimes are,
arise after hours of public testimony and public access to the process. They
emerge through a process of discussion and often, compromise. They are aired in
two bodies, both House and Senate.
The alternative would be that these decisions would
be made by a single person, with input from appointed staff instead of elected
representatives.
As clumsy and time-consuming and in-expert as it may
be, I think the legislative process is vital and needs to be protected.
Thank
you for the honor of representing you. Please contact me with your questions
and your opinions. You can reach me by message at home at 485-6431, at the
statehouse at 828-2228, or at this email at counterp@tds.net
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