UPDATE: Senate Transportation has scheduled testimony on the drivers license bill at 10 a.m. in Room 11 on Thursday.
Undocumented migrant farm workers in Vermont could wait another year before they can count on driver’s licenses, if the key Senate Transportation committee doesn’t vote out a bill by the end of this week.
The Senate Transportation committee hasn’t taken any testimony on S.38 yet, and hasn’t scheduled a hearing for later this week.
Committee chair Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Chittenden/Grand Isle, says he hopes to hold a hearing later this week, though he’s making no promises.
Asked if there’ll be a vote by the cross-over deadline, Mazza said: “I don’t know, it depends on what the committee does. We have to gather all the information.”
“It’s a very complex issue…I’m not going to say it’s going to be easy. It’s going to be very difficult. We have insurance issues to talk about; what kind of a license it’ll be; how you’ll label it…It’s a very sensitive subject,” said Mazza, who doesn’t have a position on the bill yet.
“I have no feeling one way or the other,” said Mazza. “I just want to make sure that it’s doable, and that we’re doing the right thing.”
Migrant workers Danilo Lopez and Carlos Diaz visited the Statehouse on Tuesday, along with a small lobbying contingent, urging lawmakers and others to help ease passage this session.
“Every day that goes by, our community continues to suffer from a lack of access and meeting our fundamental needs,” Lopez said.
He worries about the looming cross-over deadline this Friday. If bills aren’t approved by committees of jurisdiction of the House or Senate by that time, they won’t be taken up this legislative session.
Advocates for the bill have talked with Mazza about a hearing for months, but have received mixed messages. They’ve been told that a hearing will happen this week, but are confused because it isn’t on the calendar, and because they haven’t received final confirmation.
“From the conversations that we’ve held, it seems that is a legislative priority. Yet seeing that it’s not moving, it’s hard to see what’s happening, where the disconnect is…The process seems to be stagnant,” Lopez said.
Migrant Workers Justice, an organization which launched a spirited lobbying campaign last year, plans to descend on the Statehouse on Thursday, holding a press conference and concentrating supporters.
“Vermont is ready for this,” Lopez said via an interpreter, fellow organizer Natalia Fajardo. “We have done all the work that has been asked of us. We have cleared out all the concerns that might have been around it.”
Gov. Peter Shumlin, who’s backed this legislation publicly, appeared to take a slightly more patient stance.
“Our last understanding was that the committee was considering taking it up, and we would like to see that happen,” said Shumlin’s spokesperson Sue Allen. “But he also understands that the legislature is dealing with a number of bills heading into cross-over.”
There are at least three bills dealing with this topic, which include S.38, H.289, and H.290. The House bills have seen little action.
Fajardo is uncertain if it’ll be a straightforward vote on the day S.38 is considered, if it is taken up at all. There’s been much testimony and attention on the subject, after lobbying last year failed, and a summer study committee in between voted 8-1 to recommend the licenses.
Rutland Senator Peg Flory, who chaired that study group, voted against recommending the licenses. Flory also sits on the Transportation Committee.
Mazza is also trying to juggle budget items and a pending gas tax hike, with a gap in the transportation fund being his primary concern so far. He told VTDigger: “Like I said, we have a two year span [biennium]. It doesn’t have to be done immediately…This is the first year of the session. We got two years. It doesn’t have to be done this year.”
Shumlin, too, hasn’t advised Mazza that the legislation has to be out within a specific timeframe. Mazza has told Shumlin the bill will run through the usual committee process: “Nothing will be rushed. And they’ll have their day.”
