Meetings
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[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Alright. You're live. Good morning, everyone. This is the Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. It's Tuesday, 02/10/2026 at 09:05 in the morning. So we're beginning our week with JRS 37, which should have been adopted by the senate resolution joint resolution dealing with issues in the Olympics. And we have lieutenant governor Rogers with us this morning to kinda give us an idea of why we have this resolution, why it came to us. So lieutenant governor, good morning. Thank you for joining us.
[Lt. Gov. John Rogers]: Good morning. Thank you for having me. John Rogers, lieutenant governor. This was brought to our attention by an athlete, Tara Garrity Moats, who I didn't even know previously lives as the crow flies only a few miles from my house. So she's a local kingdom girl that is a world class athlete and brought it to our attention that there are still sports where there is not gender parity. And we believe in myself and my chief of staff, both believe strongly in equality for men and women. And I cannot believe at this point that the Olympics doesn't recognize that. And so we, working with Tara, have put this together, working with Mike Chernick, got the resolution together and then asked Senator Morley and Senator Baruth to sponsor it so that it would be bipartisan. As you will hear from the chair of the Senate Economic Development Committee soon, I think it passed through with little controversy and broad support. It passed the Senate floor unanimously. And I believe that it would be hard to argue that if men are able to compete in an Olympic sport, there should be an equal chance for women to compete. My hope is that we can pass this quickly through the shameful legislature, get it to the governor's desk so that we can actually have a press conference after the Olympics is over and all our athletes are home. And my intention is to send it out through the lieutenant governor's associations that I'm part of and try to get other states to adopt it as well, so that we can put pressure on the IOC to make true gender equality. That's it.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Questions for Lieutenant Governor?
[Unidentified Committee Member (House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Yeah, quick question. So I saw the resolution specifically mentioned the Nordic combined, which I think is Nordic plus jumping.
[Lt. Gov. John Rogers]: It's yes, cross country skiing combined with jumping.
[Unidentified Committee Member (House Commerce & Economic Development)]: And there's a men's and not a women's
[Lt. Gov. John Rogers]: And the women do not get that opportunity.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Yeah.
[Lt. Gov. John Rogers]: And I don't know if there are other sports that are similar. I'm kind of assuming if there's that one, there probably are still others, but we think we think there should just be parity.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. My friend The fantastic billion. Yeah. Madam chair.
[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs)]: Stop in at my committee to check-in with Ciara. Good morning, everybody. It's so good to see you and to begin the week with you.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Too lucky.
[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs)]: I am. I think we are lucky. Good morning, Alison Clarkson, chair of Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, and this resolution came to us actually without reference to Vermont athletes and without asking for future parity. So yes, this is the Nordic Combined was the reason this came to us. We wanted to get it out before the Olympics started and we managed to do just that and get it through the Senate on Wednesday last week because John Morley was leaving for a bit. So it asked for just on Nordic combined, we added Vermont, you know, whereas lauding our Vermont athletes who've gone to the Olympics and asking for future parity for any new sport that is introduced to the Olympics, that we would have gender parity, and that is really the sum total of this bill asking for gender parity going forward in all competitions and honoring those who represent Vermont in the Olympics and have in the past. So it's very straightforward. We really hope that we can get this done as John said before the Olympics, well, while the Olympics are happening, I mean, they are exciting. It's so much fun. I mean, have had a ball watching them all weekend. So anyway, is what we bring to you.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Questions for the chair? Any issues that came up in front of your committee on this?
[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs)]: Only those two that we didn't include Vermonters and we didn't ask for gender parity going forward. So that was our modest addition and it passed in our committee four zero one. We had a person absent and, Senate passed it unanimously. I mean, it's not exactly a controversial one.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: I don't see any reason why we would have a conference committee on this, but
[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs)]: We could come up with an excuse for one. Why not? Anyway, I wish you luck as you discuss it. Thank you very much for taking it up in such a timely fashion, and I hope you have a rocking week.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: You too. Thank you, ma'am. Are
[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs)]: we having lunch on Thursday maybe? Maybe? Or a check-in anyway?
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Maybe? We should have a check-in. Okay.
[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs)]: Yeah. Is this your new committee assist?
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Sadly, no. No. He's he still is in on Tuesdays.
[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs)]: Thank you for filling in.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Yes.
[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs)]: Kara and I are going to go back downstairs, if that's okay with you. Thank you, we look forward to seeing you all, have a great day, oh, and now you have an athletic person. I'm going to pass the torch to Molly. Have fun. Thank you very much. Ciao.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Wonderful day.
[Sen. Alison Clarkson (Chair, Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs)]: Yes. Ciao. We're in Italy now.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Yeah. Gonna be officially. Is that where the conference committee would have to be? Oh, I know how to call
[Molly Mahar (President, Vermont Ski Areas Association)]: Morning.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Good morning. Morning. Thanks for joining us. Sure.
[Molly Mahar (President, Vermont Ski Areas Association)]: I missed all of that.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: So No. That's okay. We haven't actually walked through the resolution yet with Michael, but I was told the lieutenant governor was gonna be late and then he showed up five minutes later. So just we'll continue on and we'll hear from Michael at 09:30. Correct. But if you could just give us give us your perspective as, you know, being ahead of the ski association for the state of Vermont. This has a lot to do with skiing functions at the Olympics. Yes.
[Molly Mahar (President, Vermont Ski Areas Association)]: So I am not an expert on this, but I did some research on it. And, yes, it is the only Olympic discipline that lacks gender parity. And women began competing in Nordic skiing back in 1952 at the Olympics and in ski jumping in 2014. And the first women's Nordic combined FIS World Cup was in the season of 2020 and 2021. So they were really trying to show the depth of the field, and grow the competitors and then also grow an audience. And, and as I understand it, that is what the IOC that was their reasoning for not bringing in the women's sport is because they, I guess, determined that they did not have the depth of the field and the audience, which I don't know how they measure audience. But, and, in fact, the men's sport as well. They're gonna be making a determination after these games whether they will be continuing with the men's Nordic combined as well for the same reasons. So, you know, given that, I think that, it makes sense to show support for the women at this time, and hope that the, sport will stay in the Olympics going forward. Excuse me.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Any questions? Yeah, I'm happy to try to answer. This is something that the ski association supports. Yes, absolutely. Just for Molly. Molly, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Of course. Sure. Yeah. So sorry about that. Thanks very much. So so what's the mindset? I mean, I I I guess I get sport, death, and all that sort of stuff. But what's the mindset of the Olympic Committee in, you know, saying, well, we're gonna have men's combined, but not women. I mean, what's the mindset there?
[Molly Mahar (President, Vermont Ski Areas Association)]: Well, I cannot answer of the issue. If they're going to have men compete in sport, they should also open it up to women. So they need to determine if they are going to introduce new sports, there should be gender parity. And, you know, why they didn't if they were gonna continue with the men in Nordic combined, you would think that they would have allowed women to compete this time. So but, yeah, I I can't speak to, you know, what what they were thinking. But other than, you know, they said that I mean, those were the reasons that they gave for it. But, again, if you're gonna open up a sport for Olympic competition, it you should have men and women competing. Thanks a lot. Sure.
[Rep. Michael Marcotte (Chair, House Commerce & Economic Development)]: Anything else from on? Hey, Molly. I think can go off live now. We'll be back on it.