The Vermont Progressive Party passed a resolution at its annual convention Sunday calling for a special session of the state legislature. But Republican Governor Phil Scott says it’s not necessary.
The Progressives, considered a major party in Vermont, say they want a special session so legislation can be passed to protect residents from any potential policies by the incoming Trump administration that could threaten their rights and safety. Progressive Party Executive Director Josh Wronski said while they do not have specific legislation drafted, a number of issues need to be addressed before Trump takes office.
“I don’t want to say that we’re going to be able to preempt every single policy coming out of the Trump Administration. But there’s certainly some broad things that we can be doing that set the stage and prepare us for what’s to come so we’re not sitting flat footed in January when we start losing federal funds and we start seeing the policies coming out of D.C.,” Wronski noted.
During his weekly briefing on Wednesday Republican Governor Phil Scott said calling a special session is impractical and unnecessary.
“By the time we get organized it’ll be January. So we’ll see what happens. The President-elect has not been sworn in yet. So I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I think we need to tamp down some of this, the controversy,” advised Scott. “And we’re going to have to take this in, take a deep breath and figure out what we can do, what we can live with and what we can’t. And if there is something that is impacting Vermonters we’ll act. We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again.”
Wronski said the Progressives assumed Scott would not take action.
“He very much takes a wait-and-see approach. We’ve seen that on a whole range of issues and this is no different,” Wronski feels. “You know, I think it’s really challenging that Scott has both made clear his opposition to Trump throughout the campaign and was elected partially as a Republican who opposed incoming President Trump and also is unwilling to take action to actually address the worst outcomes that President Trump is saying he is going to be implementing.”
Vermont Democratic Party Executive Director Jim Dandeneau says his party has already done a lot to protect Vermonters regardless of the presidential race outcome.
“We’ve been working on this for years now because the trauma of the first Trump Administration didn’t go away when Joe Biden took office, as we saw with January 6th. That said, a lot of the stuff that the Project 2025 agenda lays out is complicated and difficult and it’s going to take more than a couple of days to find a solution to and I don’t know that a special session is going to be enough to adequately address those problems,” Dandeneau said. “I think that’s something that we’re going to have to work on when we get back to full time legislating in January.”
Vermont GOP Chair Paul Dame contends that after losses on Election Day the Progressives put forth the idea of a special session in an effort to stay relevant.
“It’s really unclear what they would want to be covered during this special session because Trump hasn’t even taken office so there’s no actions that he’s done that anyone can really counteract. And it’s going to cost the state money to send legislators in unexpectedly around the time of the holidays,” Dame noted. “So it’s just a bad idea and a desperate attempt at regaining relevance.”
Vermont legislators return to Montpelier to begin the regular session on January 8th.
