Sen. Russ Ingalls is the new chair of Senate Institutions

Leadership over the 11 Vermont Senate committees includes all three Northeast Kingdom senators with one of them serving as the only committee chair from the Republican party. Sen. Russ Ingalls, a Republican from Newport, whose newly-drawn legislative district includes all of Essex County and several towns in Caledonia and Orleans counties, is the new chair of Senate Institutions. He served on the committee in the last session and this year replaces former Sen. Joe Benning, also a Republican, who was the committee chair. The Senate Committee on Institutions has jurisdiction over matters relating to public buildings, lands in which the State has an interest, and the Department of Corrections. The remaining ten committees are all chaired by Democrats. As state senators are called upon to serve on two committees, Starr’s second committee is Appropriations and Ingalls is also on Transportation. There are 30 state senators, and only seven of them are Republicans.