Dear Constituents –

The Legislative session is winding down with the passage of the Big Bill (the State budget) and other money bills (Capital Bill, Transportation Bill, Yield Bill) in motion. This year, the Committee of Conference on the Budget (H.493) had a heavy lift to bring down much higher spending proposals than both the House and the Senate had voted out over the Governor’s recommended budget. This is the time of year when bills are being passed between chambers fast and furiously, so in the spirit of being timely and concise, if you are interested in which bills have passed the House and/or the Senate, you may find them on the General Assembly website (www.legislature.vermont.gov), click on “More House Information” or “More Senate Information”, and then on “All House Journals” or “All Senate Journals”, which will report on all bills in motion on that day. Additionally, if the reader knows the bill number, all action on that bill is found by typing the bill number into the bill tracker field.

In House Government Operations & Military Affairs, we finalized our work on S.59 (changes to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law) by making several adjustments to language requested by municipalities and other organizations, including more clarity around disturbances at public meetings. We also began our work on a biennial reports repeal bill, which has us looking at all of the reports required by legislation and determining if those reports are being received by Committees of jurisdiction and if they are useful. We are also commencing what is anticipated to be extensive testimony on S.131 (approval of an amendment to the charter of the City of Burlington relating to the possession of firearms); and H.508 (approval of amendments to the charter of the City of Burlington), which changes how and when the City redistricts wards and notices of termination of residential tenancies.

Rural Caucus met to hear updates from the Senate about the Education bill (H.454) and from the Ways & Means committee on their amendment to the Housing bill (S.127), both of which contain problematic language for rural communities. More work is being done on both of these bills, and I hope to be able to report on progress next week.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve. Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5