Dear Constituents –

It has been a very busy week in the Statehouse. It is officially the end of crossover week for policy bills, and next Friday will mark the crossover deadline for any bills passed out this week that ask for an appropriation or raise revenue.

On the House Floor, we passed the following bills to the Senate: H.96 (increasing the monetary threshold for certificates of need; H.50 (identifying state real property suitable for conversion into affordable housing); H.21(relating to writs of possession); H.105 (expanding youth substance awareness safety program); H.458 (relating to Agency of Digital Services); H.1 (accepting and referring complaints by the State Ethics Commission); H.206 (relating to the Uniform Commercial Code); H.238 (phaseout of consumer products containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances;  H.2 (increasing the minimum age for delinquency proceedings), which pauses the progression of Raise the Age legislation from a prior biennium; H.463 (technical corrections to the 2025 Legislative session); H.137 (regulation of insurance products and services); H.266 (protections for 340B converted entities and 340B contract pharmacies); and H.141(the Budget Adjustment Act), which is a bill that the Governor vetoed on Friday.  Concerns around the continued extension of the hotel-motel program led to the veto with House and Senate Republicans voting against H.141 in their respective chambers.

In the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee, we voted out eight bills: H.67 (Government Operations and Legislative Accountability); H.463 (Technical Corrections to the 2025 Legislative Session); H.1 (accepting and referring complaints by the State Ethics Commission); H.321 (miscellaneous amendments to cannabis statutes); H.397 (miscellaneous amendments to the statutes governing emergency management and flood response); H.472 (professions and occupations regulated by the Office of Professional Regulation); H.244 (State contracting standards for advertising); and a miscellaneous elections bill that does not yet have a number. As a reminder, you can look up the content of any bill by number on the General Assembly website, as well as on each committee’s webpage to learn who the witnesses were and what action was taken by the Committee. Please make sure you are looking at the most recent draft, as indicated by number next to the bill number. As a result of many hours of testimony, we were able to include language from several individual bills that were referred to us in bigger omnibus or miscellaneous bills and also to provide policy language for the budget asks that our committee outlined in a letter to House Appropriations.

Special issues caucuses met this week amidst the hustle and bustle of committee action. The VT National Guard & Veterans Affairs Caucus heard about the distinction between State and Federal active duty and the obligation to the Federal government when a Guard unit is called up. We also discussed an action alert for veterans groups to reach out to House Ways & Means and Senate Finance with support for H.43/S.17, exempting military pensions and survivors benefits from State income tax. The VT Rural Caucus heard more about land use legislation and conservation efforts, as well as the constraints that Federal funding uncertainties are putting on agencies that assist our farmers and loggers.

Please reach out to me with questions or concerns. It is an honor to represent your interests in the Statehouse.

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5