Rep. Dara Torre, D-Moretown, speaks during a meeting of the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday, Jan. 10. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerThere are new hubs for information technology oversight in the Vermont House and Senate.In the House, last biennium’s Committee on Environment and Energy has once again become two, an environment committee and an Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee. And in the Senate, the Finance Committee — up to its eyeballs with education funding — has lost its authority over state and legislative IT to the Institutions Committee.The changes arrive as one recently ousted lawmaker with a keen interest in state IT warned her colleagues that additional oversight is necessary.“Taxpayers are fretting about education spending. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions (or more) of Vermonters’ dollars are being spent on a variety of state technology systems and services, now and in the years ahead, with little to no effective oversight,” Irene Wrenner, who represented the Chittenden North Senate district, wrote to her peers on the Joint Technology Oversight Committee last month. But the jurisdictional changes sound like merely that, not an indication of newfound fervor for digging into spending on state servers and software.Rep. Kathleen James, D-Manchester, is chairing the Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee. With so many new members and an entirely new committee, the group will take time to build expertise, she said, allowing testimony to guide its work. “One of the most formative experiences I had as a newer legislator was trying to help my constituents navigate the (unemployment) system during COVID,” James said, referencing the state’s notoriously finicky platform. But in addition to IT, Digital Infrastructure also has jurisdiction over one of this year’s most controversial topics, the Affordable Heat Act, which is bound to consume much of the committee’s time. And in a worrying omen for the future, the IT committee struggled last week to livestream their first hearings. “Somebody knocked a little connection loose under the table,” James explained. The fix, she joked, involved duct tape. — Ethan WeinsteinIn the knowVermont has made “huge” progress toward using up its share of funding from the American Rescue Plan Act — the Covid-19-era economic relief legislation — said Rep. Robin Scheu, a Middlebury Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, on Tuesday morning.Scheu’s committee heard an update from Doug Farnham, Vermont’s chief recovery officer, who estimated that the state has so far spent more than $880 million of the total $1.05 billion in ARPA funding it was awarded. All of that money must be spent by the end of 2026, at which point the feds are obligated to take any remaining funds back. (The Legislature has already decided how it wants to spend all of the cash.)That roughly billion-dollar figure — among the highest per capita in the country — does not include the roughly $200 million in federal funds that ARPA also directed to Vermont cities and towns.In certain cases, the state has used its ARPA funding to offset costs that would otherwise come out of the state’s general fund. Farnham said that’s helped the state leverage its federal dollars more quickly, something he said he and other officials have been focusing on before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.“We don’t know how a new administration will behave whenever they come in — and there have been efforts at the federal level to recapture ARPA in the past,” Farnham said. “So having that money safely expended means it’s no longer on the table. It’s no longer part of the discussion.”— Shaun RobinsonThe city of Burlington is laying the groundwork to open an overdose prevention center, often known as a safe injection site.Vermont’s largest city has hired a part-time staffer to oversee the implementation of the facility, and officials are working on a zoning amendment to allow for the site. The city hopes to start seeking an operator in early February, Joe Magee, deputy chief of staff in the Burlington mayor’s office, told the House Human Services Committee Tuesday afternoon. Still unclear: where in the Queen City the center will be, and when exactly it will open. “I don’t have a firm timeline right now,” Magee told lawmakers.Also unclear: will the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump have an impact on the site?“I’m sure there will be a lot of discussion about that very topic,” committee chair Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, said.– Peter D’AuriaAs the Vermont Climate Council prepares its second state Climate Action Plan, its members know parallel conversations on climate policy are going on in the Legislature. They are worried about the timing of their report — which is due July 1, shortly after the conclusion of this year’s legislative session, meaning that lawmakers won’t be able to consider most of the council’s recommendations until next January. A major recommendation being considered is for Vermont to join a regional program to cap transportation emissions.  — Emma CottonConstructive criticismA new pro-housing advocacy group, Let’s Build Homes, has entered the scene at the Vermont Statehouse. Their message: Vermont needs to build, build, build, or else the state’s housing deficit will pose an existential threat to its future economy. The coalition includes many of the usual housing players in Vermont, from builders of market-rate and affordable housing, to housing funders, chambers of commerce and the statewide public housing authority. But its tent extends even wider, with major employers, local colleges and universities, and health care providers among its early supporters.— Carly BerlinGo figureRoughly 38% of people detained in the state’s prisons while awaiting trial are from Vermont, according to data from the state’s Department of Corrections. Forty percent are from out of state. The rest did not specify. — Ethan WeinsteinRead the story on VTDigger here: Final Reading: New committees take over jurisdiction of Vermont’s IT systems.