Dear Constituents –

The week of crossover in VT is behind us, and bills passed will go on to the other Chamber or to a money committee if they affect the revenue of the State, where they are required to be voted out by March 20 in order to stay alive. Big money bills (T-bill, the budget, the yield bill, and the Capital bill) are exempt from crossover deadlines. Apparently, the Education bills will also be granted exemption, as those committees continue to discuss everything but the elephant in the room, which is district maps.(I’ve heard there is another one coming soon…)

The House floor saw a flurry of action where we heard hours of bill reports and took many floor votes. A few of the bills that passed the House from the Committee on Government Operations & Military Affairs and on the Floor are: H686 (expanding identification of certain lobbying advertisements), H.588 (professions and occupations regulated by the Office of Professional Regulation), H762 (County and Regional Governance Study Committee), H841 (Animal Welfare procedures). Many more passed our committee but remain in the queue for Ways & Means or Appropriations. You can find these bills and their committee votes by visiting our webpage and clicking on “Bills Out of Committee”.

Committees heard amendments to bills coming to the Floor, and HGOMA heard our share. Even when a committee votes out a bill unanimously, it is most likely that someone will want something changed along the way. We spent the majority of our committee time working on a committee bill for Emergency Management and Disaster Response, DR 26-0550. As of this writing, it had not yet been introduced and assigned a bill number.  This bill had several sections and addresses technical rescues, emergency food and water distribution, wildland fires, emergency response involving individuals with disabilities, community media use in emergency situations, and public safety communications.

The Rural Caucus continued to hear updates on S325 that addresses some aspects of delay or reform of Act 181, the 2024 land use law that went into effect after the supermajority overrode the Governor’s veto. Breaking news: Senate Natural Resources & Energy voted out S.325 with a substantial delay to the Road Rule and more support for public outreach on these issues.

To submit public comment to the governing body, the Land Use review Board (LURB): [email protected].

The Rural Caucus will be hosting an event to listen to the concerns of rural Vermonters on Wednesday, March 25th from 5:30-7:00 pm in Room 10 of the State House and online via Zoom. More information is linked here and available on the resources page of vtruralcaucus.com .

The VT National Guard & Veterans Affairs Caucus heard from NE Delta Dental about a free veterans dental care program that they run in partnership with local dental clinics and the VTNG Family Programs.  Please call 1-888-607-8773 for more information if you are a veteran needing dental care.

It is an honor to serve as your Representative.

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5

[email protected]