Dear Constituents -

We are now in the 8th week of the Legislative session. Committees are working on getting their bills out the door by March 13, which is crossover for policy committees.  Money committees have an additional week for those bills to be examined before going to the House or Senate floor.  If a bill you are following doesn’t make crossover, don’t be alarmed yet – there is a chance for it to stay alive as language in a related bill that may have a better chance later in the session. If there is one thing that I’ve learned in my tenure at the Statehouse, it’s that nothing is dead until the final gavel of the biennium falls.

The House floor has been unusually quiet, which is setting us up for a busy March, voting on all of the bills that have yet to make that crossover deadline. The Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee is intent on passing out several bills by that date: H.588 (updates to the Office of Professional Regulation); a veterans-related omnibus bill, a miscellaneous alcoholic beverage committee bill, H.841 Animal Welfare, H.762 County & Regional Governance Study, H.67 Government Accountability & Legislative Operations; and an Emergency Management & Disaster Response committee bill.  Some do not have bill numbers, as we are building them by combining other bills that are already on our wall.

The Rural Caucus continues to hear from municipalities, businesses, and individuals affected by the proposed implementation of Act 181 (2024) and the organizations advocating for land use regulatory reform.

The General Assembly had a busy day on Thursday, with hearing the State of the Guard presentation by the outgoing Adjutant General, Major General Gregory Knight, a ceremonial reading of a Resolution honoring General Knight, and a Joint Assembly to elect the new Adjutant General, Brigadier General Henry “Hank” Harder. We also elected two Trustees for the Vermont State Colleges System, Rep David Durfee of Shaftesbury and Rep John Kascenska of Burke.

Please reach out to me with your concerns [email protected]

There is also the opportunity to meet with your legislators in person on the following dates:

March 16 at 8am at Fairfax Town Office

April 20 at 8am at Enosburg American Legion

May 2 at 8am at Swanton Village Office

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5