Senate adopts rule changes to assign chamber seats, add IT jurisdiction and expand ethics panel

The Vermont Senate adopted Senate Resolution 1 on a voice vote to carry forward the chamber’s permanent rules with several amendments, including reassigned senatorial seating, new committee jurisdiction for information technology and an expansion of the ethics panel’s remit to include discrimination complaints involving senators.

SR 1, read in full to the chamber, amends the permanent rules that govern where senators sit and makes three substantive changes the Senate discussed. First, the resolution updates seat numbering for senatorial districts as a housekeeping measure requested and explained by the secretary’s office.

Second, the resolution amends Rule 24 to add oversight of information technology: "information technology, generally along with the acquisition, operation, and management of information technology, (in state government and in the General Assembly)." The sponsor explained this creates a standing home for IT policy and oversight—rather than sending IT matters to subject committees without technical expertise—and said the Institutions Committee would become a committee with permanent, accumulating expertise in information technology as well as physical infrastructure.

Third, the resolution amends Rule 102(a) to require the Committee on Committees to establish an ethics panel at the beginning of the biennium (or as soon as possible thereafter) to receive and investigate allegations of ethical violations and allegations of discrimination by senators, except for complaints covered under Rule 101. The panel may recommend disciplinary action to the Senate if it deems it necessary.

Senator Philip E. Baruth of Chittenden Central, who presented the amendment, described the IT jurisdiction change as a response to the modern reality that many government functions rely on web-based systems and that committees of jurisdiction lack consistent technical expertise. "The idea was to create a committee with specific permanent accumulating expertise in IT," he said.

On the expansion of the ethics panel, the sponsor said the amendment addresses a gap where discriminatory conduct could fall between the existing committee jurisdictions.

The resolution was adopted by voice vote. No roll-call tally appears in the transcript.