Sanders keeps the office, but loses the furniture
MONTPELIER — Vermont’s incoming member of the U.S.
House of Representative Peter Welch is going to be playing musical office furniture in the next few weeks with Sen.-elect Bernie Sanders.
That’s because Welch will set up his Vermont operations in the Burlington office at 30 Main St. now used by retiring Sen. James Jeffords – but all the furniture and equipment is owned by the Senate.
Across town at 1 Church St., Sanders, Vermont’s lone U.S. House member who will succeed Jeffords, is going to have to give up all the office furniture and equipment he has been using for years because it belongs to the House.
“The process seems a little bit absurd,” said Sanders’ chief of staff Jeff Weaver.
“Administratively, the House and Senate operate independently of one another. The computers and office furniture we have in Burlington belongs to the House,” Weaver said. “It will go to Congressman Welch. We will have access to the computers and furniture that belongs to Senator Jeffords. It’s a little do-si-do.”
The furniture switch is just a part of the process of changing two-thirds of Vermont’s con-gressional delegation.
Rep.-elect Welch is in the process of setting up offices in Vermont and Washington, hiring staff and, for Welch and others headed to Washington, finding places to live in the nation’s capital.
Sanders has moved out of his House office and is in temporary space before he moves into his Senate office. He’ll be hiring more staff and expanding Vermont operations.
Meanwhile, Jeffords is in the process of closing his office after 38 years in public office. His staff will be out of work.
After his Nov. 7 election, Welch had to start from scratch setting up operations in Vermont and Washington.
So far Welch has hired three staff members and expects to hire 15 or 16 who will be split between Vermont and Washington, said Welch’s chief of staff Bob Rogan, the first person Welch hired. The transition is being run out of a section of Welch’s Burlington law office.
Rogan said Welch was frustrated that he couldn’t do more faster.
“He’s chomping at the bit. He has no office, no staff. Basically all of us are volunteering. He effectively is already a member of Congress. He’s in this limbo period.”
Rogan said Welch was also eager to learn his committee assignments. He’d like to serve on a committee that deals with finances, energy or health care. But the committee process is a bit of a mystery.
Weaver said Sanders would be taking all of his House employees — about 15 — with him to the Senate. Sanders will expand the size of his Burlington office, open a small office in Montpelier and maintain the office in Brattleboro. He expects to add about a dozen staff members.
Meanwhile, Jeffords’ offices in Vermont and Washington will be closed before Christmas, said spokeswoman Diane Derby.
An archivist has been working to send Jeffords’ records to the University of Vermont and the remaining dozen or so staff members have been looking for work.
“There’s a lot of interviewing going on. A lot of people have prospects out there. It’s not something we’re all talking about. It’s done privately,” said Derby who hasn’t decided what she’s going to do.
“The beauty of this is we’ve known for quite some time that December 15th would happen,” Derby said. “It’s bittersweet. It’s been a great run, but we’ve had the luxury of adjusting to the idea.”
