Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.

2025 Vermont legislative session

From Ballotpedia
Revision as of 07:03, 1 July 2025 by Myj Saintyl (contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
← 2024
2026 →


2025 Vermont legislative session
Seal of Vermont.png
General information
Scheduled session start:    January 8, 2025

Scheduled session end:    June 17, 2025

Leadership
Senate President
John Rodgers (R)

House Speaker
Jill Krowinski (D)
Majority Leader
Senate: Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D)
House: Lori Houghton (D)
Minority Leader
Senate: Scott Beck (R)
House: Patricia McCoy (R)

Elections
Next Election:    November 3, 2026

Last Election:    November 5, 2024

Previous legislative sessions
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2025 legislative sessions


In 2025, the Vermont State Legislature was scheduled to convene on January 8 and adjourn on June 17.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Democrats won a 16-13 majority with one member of the Vermont Progressive Party in the Senate and an 87-56 majority with four members of the Vermont Progressive Party and three independents in the House. The Republican Party controlled the governorship, creating a divided state government. At the start of the 2025 session, Vermont was one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session:
  • Democrats held a majority in the Vermont state House and state Senate.
  • Vermont was one of 12 divided state governments.
  • Vermont's governor was Republican Phil Scott.

    • Leadership in 2025

    See also: Leadership positions in state legislatures

    Vermont State Senate

    Vermont House of Representatives

    Partisan control in 2025

    See also: State government trifectas

    Vermont was one of 12 divided state governments at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

    Vermont was also one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

    The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Vermont State Legislature in the 2025 legislative session.

    Vermont State Senate

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 16
         Republican Party 13
         Vermont Progressive Party 1
    Total 30

    Vermont House of Representatives

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 87
         Republican Party 56
         Vermont Progressive Party 4
         Independent 3
    Total 150

    Regular session

    The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

    Legislation trackers

    See also: Legislation Trackers

    Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:

    Standing legislative committees

    See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Vermont state government


    A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

    At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 52 standing committees in Vermont's state government, including 19 joint legislative committees, 15 state Senate committees, and 18 state House committees.

    Joint legislative committees

    Senate committees

    House committees

    Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

    In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

    The methods by which the Vermont Constitution can be amended:

    See also: Amendments of the Vermont Constitution and Laws governing ballot measures in Vermont

    Section 72 of the Vermont Constitution lays out the procedure governing changes to the Vermont Constitution. Vermont does not feature the power of initiative for either initiated state statutes or initiated constitutional amendments.

    Legislature

    See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

    A two-thirds (66.67%) vote is required in the Vermont State Senate and a simple majority vote is required in the Vermont House of Representatives in the first legislative session. A simple majority vote is required in both chambers in the second legislative session to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 20 votes in the Vermont State Senate and 76 votes in the Vermont House of Representatives in the first session and 16 votes in the state senate and 76 votes in the state house in the second session, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

    Convention

    See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

    The Vermont Constitution, like that of several other states, does not provide for constitutional conventions. Perhaps as a result, Vermont's current constitution is one of the oldest in the country, having been adopted in 1793. The Massachusetts Constitution is the only older constitution.

    Although there are no provisions in the state's constitution governing the calling of a constitutional convention, in 1969, the Vermont State Legislature referred an advisory measure to the ballot which asked "Shall a Vermont Constitutional Convention be convened at the state house in Montpelier on October 6, 1969 to consider the following topics which shall receive a majority of the votes cast upon it in this election, and no others?" The question was rejected by the voters.


    Historical partisan control

    The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Vermont.

    Vermont Party Control: 1992-2024
    Ten years of Democratic trifectas  •  No Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
    Governor D D D D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R D D D D D D R R R R R R R R
    Senate D R R R R D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D
    House R D D D D D D D D R R R R D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D

    Historical Senate control

    Democrats won control of the Vermont State Senate in 1996. In 2024, they won a 16-13-1 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Vermont Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Vermont State Senate election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 14 12 17 17 16 19 21 23 23 22 21 20 21 22 21 23 16
    Republicans 16 18 13 13 14 11 9 7 7 8 7 9 7 6 7 7 13
    Other 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 2 2 0 1

    Historical House control

    Democrats won control of the Vermont House of Representatives in 2004. In 2024, they won an 87-55 majority with four minor party legislators, three independents, and one vacancy.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Vermont House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Vermont House of Representatives election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 87 86 88 77 62 70 83 93 95 94 98 85 83 95 92 109 87
    Republicans 57 61 58 66 83 73 60 49 48 48 43 53 53 43 46 38 55
    Other 6 3 4 7 5 7 7 8 7 8 9 12 14 12 12 3 7

    Analysis

    Adopted legislation, 2013-2024

    See also: The State Legislative Decade - Vermont

    In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.

    See also

    Elections Vermont State Government State Legislatures State Politics
    Ballotpedia Elections Badge-VOTE-no shadow-Square.jpg
    Vermont State Flag-Close Up.jpg
    State Houses-Tile image.png
    State Courts-Tile image.png

    External links

    Footnotes

    v • e
    State legislatures
    Legislatures
    Alabama (H, S) · Alaska (H, S) · Arizona (H, S) · Arkansas (H, S) · California (A, S) · Colorado (H, S) · Connecticut (H, S) · Delaware (H, S) · Florida (H, S) · Georgia (H, S) · Hawaii (H, S) · Idaho (H, S) · Illinois (H, S) · Indiana (H, S) · Iowa (H, S) · Kansas (H, S) · Kentucky (H, S) · Louisiana (H, S) · Maine (H, S) · Maryland (H, S) · Massachusetts (H, S) · Michigan (H, S) · Minnesota (H, S) · Mississippi (H, S) · Missouri (H, S) · Montana (H, S) · Nebraska · Nevada (A, S) · New Hampshire (H, S) · New Jersey (GA, S) · New Mexico (H, S) · New York (A, S) · North Carolina (H, S) · North Dakota (H, S) · Ohio (H, S) · Oklahoma (H, S) · Oregon (H, S) · Pennsylvania (H, S) · Rhode Island (H, S) · South Carolina (H, S) · South Dakota (H, S) · Tennessee (H, S) · Texas (H, S) · Utah (H, S) · Vermont (H, S) · Virginia (H, S) · Washington (H, S) · West Virginia (H, S) · Wisconsin (A, S) · Wyoming (H, S)
    SLP badge.png
    2025
    2024
    2023
    Historical elections
    2022 •  2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 • 2009 • 2008 • 2007 • 2006 • 2005 • 2004 • 2003 • 2002 • 2001 • 2000
    Features of
    state legislatures
    State senates
    State houses
    Leadership positions
    Retrieved from "https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=2025_Vermont_legislative_session&oldid=10425048"