Dear Constituents –

Post-Eclipse: the Statehouse is back to its usual rhythm. Committees are digging into bills passed over from the other body, taking testimony, and prioritizing for the end of session. Rumor has it that we have just four weeks until adjournment; the second half of the session always seems to go faster than the first half!

In House Government Operations, we’ve begun our work on: S.310 (natural disaster government response, recovery, and resiliency); S.42 (divestment of state pension funds in the fossil fuel industry); HR.18 (House Resolution calling for Franklin County Sheriff to resign); and S.220 (relating to Vermont’s Public Libraries) and continued our work on S.55 (changes to Open Meeting Law).  These bills are all complex pieces of legislation, demanding much more testimony and consideration than I think we have time left for in the session.

If you’d like to learn more about these bills, go to the House Government Operations webpage, open the tab “bills in/out of committee”, click on the bill number, then “drafts and amendments”, and choose the highest draft number to click on for the latest version. Please feel welcome to pass along your comments to the Committee (email addresses are found on the home page for the Committee).

On the House Floor, we passed: S.659 (relating to captive insurance); S.25 (regulating cosmetic and menstrual products containing certain chemicals and chemical classes and textiles and athletic turf fields containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs)), with an amendment to change the threshold of lead from 5ppm to 10 ppm; and H.543 (Vermont’s adoption of the Social Work Licensure Compact).

If you’d like to learn more about these bills, type the letter and number into the bill tracker on the General Assembly website and click on either “as passed by the House” or “as passed by the Senate” to get the most up-to-date version.

In Rural Caucus, we reviewed the progress of bills pertaining to rural Vermont and discussed potential vehicles to move those that aren’t making progress and future plans.

I am continuing to follow bills of interest to my constituents as they make their way through the process, as well as representing the interests of the Vermont National Guard and veterans in various committees. The VT NG&VA Caucus, of which I am a Co-Chair, values the contributions the Guard makes to Vermont and is grateful for the sacrifices made by the many veterans who call Vermont home.

Please reach out to me at [email protected] with questions or concerns.

Stay well,

Rep Lisa Hango, Franklin-5