Rep. Bob Hooper, a Burlington Democrat, has stepped down from his committee after an internal legislative panel found that he violated the Vermont House’s sexual harassment rules.
The panel investigated two complaints, according to a confidential legal document obtained by Vermont Public. But an investigatory report it commissioned from an outside law firm unearthed prior “alleged similar conduct” that the panel said in the order indicated a pattern.
House Speaker Jill Krowinski announced Hooper’s exit from the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs early Friday morning in an email to House lawmakers. He cannot be appointed to another committee for the remainder of the biennium, which ends this year. That will leave the four-term lawmaker with few opportunities to actually craft legislation for the rest of 2026, although he can still vote on the floor.
Hooper’s resignation follows an investigation by the House Sexual Harassment Prevention Panel, which is made of five sitting members of the House. Its deliberations generally take place outside of public view, but the panel can release the identity of individuals who have been found to have violated sexual harassment rules and the corrective action that has been taken.
“I commend the impacted member who filed the complaint,” Krowinski, also a Burlington Democrat, wrote in her email to House. “It was an extraordinarily courageous action to come forward and I’m asking that you give them privacy at this time.”
Vermont Public obtained the written agreement, known as a consent order, that Hooper and the chair of the panel signed on Thursday. It states the panel's most recent investigation started in 2025. Hooper had sent an edited photograph of the complainant to committee members without the complainant's consent and “made inappropriate remarks” in the committee room.
Hooper, in an interview, said it was appropriate he’d been asked to leave the committee. But he said he was “perplexed” by the process.
“What is a really good policy for people who are being sexually harassed seems to have been weaponized to some degree,” he said. “The House doesn’t really seem to have a convenient slot for what you would consider uncomfortable work environments.”
The picture and his comments were intended to be jokes, he said, and not sexual in nature.
“I could see how it turned into something that was humiliating. Not sexual — but humiliating,” he said of the picture. He said he apologized at the time.
According to the order, the panel had received an “informal complaint” about Hooper before, in 2022. The panel discussed the complaint with him and resolved the matter at the time according to its informal complaint procedure, the document says.
The order also says that the investigatory report had unearthed other “instances of alleged similar conduct” by Hooper that did not result in complaints to the panel or formal action but nevertheless “demonstrate a pattern of conduct.”
Hooper said he wasn’t told who the complainant was in 2022, but that he’d been told he’d gotten too close to someone and said something that made them uncomfortable.
“I don’t think I’m a serial sexual harasser,” Hooper said. He said he just sometimes acted in ways that might be perceived as inappropriate for more formal settings, like the Legislature.
“I make no bones about being sarcastic and a jokester and I come from a family that’s, you know, touchy. It’s kind of like ‘This is not the place.’ And sometimes that’s lost,” he said.
Hooper said he hadn’t made a decision yet about running for reelection. He previously told party officials he was planning to run again, Hooper said. But he’s since had second thoughts after learning that the leader of the Vermont Senate, Phil Baruth, was stepping down, citing his age.
“His rationale of ‘life is short, I have other things I want to do,’ — that impacted me. Because I have less time on my clock than Phil has. So I have been examining that,” he said.
This story may be updated.
