Rep. Stevens: Focusing on Vermont amidst ‘turmoil and chaos’ emanating from Washington, D.C.

February 10, 2026  |  By Rep. Tom Stevens

As we close out the first month of the second session of the 2025-26 biennium, we are headlong into dealing with what will be a very difficult financial year in the General Assembly. You have undoubtedly heard about education taxes, health insurance subsidies, growing homelessness, loss of housing vouchers, transportation fund shortfalls, and other financial losses threatened by the Republican administration in Washington, D.C. Sorting these issues out over the next several months will be our main focus, as well as the more mundane needs that keep the lights on.

For my part, as a reminder, I now serve on the Appropriations Committee. This was a big change for me, and I now have the responsibility and privilege of seeing the hows and whys of how we expend money in our government up close. It is technically not a “policy” committee, but the policies that our committees present to us that require appropriations cannot be executed without that funding. In many ways, we trust that the policy committees have dotted as many “i’s” and crossed as many “t’s” as they can to move the bill forward, and our job, when it lands in our committee, is to determine whether we have the funds to make the program work.

This kind of work, in context to our whole agenda, is obviously important and necessary, and the House version of the budget represents a climax to the first half of our legislative year. Regardless of the high opinion of our own work we have, the bill then must go to the Senate for their work, and then final negotiations will occur in April and May before we vote to send it to the governor.

There will be many disappointments – we simply do not have enough income at this time to cover all of our desired expenses, and we will budget accordingly. It is far too soon to say with confidence what initiatives will get funded and which ones will not.

All of this said, we will hear compelling reasoning for why particular elements are important, and, personally, I will agree with them. No one wants to think their program or need is a luxury, and truth be told, none of them are. Deciding how the funding is distributed will be our most important and most difficult job, and we are doing it in a political atmosphere that ranks high in tension.

It must be said, as a fact, that the turmoil and chaos emanating from Washington, D.C. is the most caustic and toxic that I have experienced as a legislator, and makes a decidedly negative impact on our work, and on the work that needs to be done for Vermonters, especially the most vulnerable. As we move forward, please know that we are filtering out as much of the noise as possible and keeping those who need our protection most in our line of vision and in the heart of our work.

All of our committees are keeping that same focus, and our goal is to make sure our decisions are grounded in making positive change for Vermonters and not increasing their vulnerability to the worst impulses of the current federal government. 

We have a lot to do to keep that promise, and your words, thoughts and ideas are always welcome. Please share them.

Peace.

Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, is one of two representatives in the Washington-Chittenden House district representing Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington and Buels Gore. Stevens serves on the House Appropriations Committee. Contact: tstevens@leg.state.vt.us