Dear Constituents –

The House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee started the week with a Senate amendment to H.10 (charter of the City of Barre), hearing testimony on H.376 (creation of the Treatment and Recovery Fund and the labeling and taxation of alcoholic beverages), more proposed amendment language for S. 59 (changes to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law), S.233 (State-funded grants), H.505 (approval of amendments to the charter of the Town of Barre), H.504 (approval of amendments to the charter of the City of Rutland), S.56 (creating an Office of New Americans), learning about the potential effects of federal directives regarding elections, and hearing from the Vermont State Youth Council with their legislative priorities.

On April 30 at 4pm, our committee will be holding a joint public hearing on Veterans Affairs. If readers would like to testify, please use this Online form: https://legislature.vermont.gov/links/joint-public-hearing-on-veterans-affairs

Some of what we do in the Legislature is like a treasure hunt: at this time of year, especially, language from one bill may get rolled into another bill, or language will disappear entirely, so I spent time this week pursuing where military pension and survivors’ benefits language is moving by scouring various committee agendas, trying to track down which bill it might put into. I’ve also been following S.127 (housing and housing development) to learn the potential implications of Act 250 mapping changes and language to permanently extend National Guard tuition benefits, which are some of the best in the nation.

On the House Floor, we passed: S.27 (medical debt relief and excluding medical debt from credit reports), concurring to the Senate amendment to H.10 (Barre City charter), S.36 (Medicaid payment model for residential substance use disorder treatment services), and a bill that I presented on the floor H.346 (approval of annexation of property by the Village of Swanton).

The Rural Caucus met and heard an update from the Regional Planning Commissions on mapping and budgeting, with an emphasis on FEMA projects and a presentation on brownfields.

It is an honor to serve. Please reach out to me at [email protected]

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5