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The Vermont House Friday unanimously passed provisions of a COVID-19 emergency response package before recessing for a week.
The measures, which will be presented as amendments to another piece of legislation, would expand the powers of the Agency of Human Services to ensure vulnerable populations have access to health care.
The House also changed the state’s sick leave law to protect both businesses and employees who are forced to take time off because of the virus.
In addition, lawmakers passed a resolution asking the federal government to stop detaining people in Vermont because of their immigration status when they seek health care.
“This resolution is about trying to give our voice to ensuring that there not be individuals in our community that, based on fears of immigration status, do not seek health assistance,” said House Committee on Health Care Vice Chair Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, on the floor.
Mid-morning Friday, as the House chamber was in session, the House Human Services Committee feverishly workshopped a 47-page response proposal for addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The package was attached to H.742, legislation which provides grants for emergency medical personnel training.
Donahue said that assuming the coronavirus continues to spread in Vermont, the legislation would outline steps to be taken under a state of emergency.
“There are a whole series of things trying to ensure that Vermonters have access to the health care system and what they need in health care and what that the Agency of Human Services can, as is appropriate, have the authority to do,” Donahue said.
Gov. Phil Scott officially called a state of emergency on Friday, banning all gatherings of more than 250 people and prohibiting all non-essential travel for state employees.
The proposal aims to direct more resources to childcare programs and older Vermonters who are residents in assisted living facilities. Training for people delivering food and meals to these groups is a key component of the legislation.
Rep. Anne Pugh, D-South Burlington, chair of the House Committee on Human Services, said she hoped the legislation would be “more expansive” to ensure that as many vulnerable residents and children can access aid.
“We are concerned about Vermonters,” Pugh said.
During committee discussion, Sandy Haas, P-Rochester, human services vice chair, raised concern over a line in the amendment that would have limited access to meals programs.
“Does somebody have to have a critical health issue to be entitled to eat? Can we delete that?” The committee concurred with Haas.
Sick leave law expansion and funding
While the panels on health care and human services looked at health related measures, the House Committee on General, Housing, and Military Affairs in tandem with the commerce panel worked on changing the earned sick time law and the Parental and Family Leave Act.
The changes would ensure that employees who are forced to take COVID-19 related leave are eligible for benefits, but would also give businesses relief for some of the cost related to paid leave. This would take effect July 1, 2020. The provisions were amendments to H.681, legislation on employer registration for unemployment insurance.
In his emergency declaration Friday, the governor directed the Department of Labor to extend unemployment insurance to Vermonters who are directed by health providers to self–isolate. He also asked the department to eliminate the work search requirement for workers affected by a temporary business closing.
No action taken on waiver for candidate petitions
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos floated other possible emergency proposals on Friday with the House Committee on Government Operations, but no action was taken on his recommendations.
Condos said he was seeking legislation to give his office flexibility to change election procedures over the next nine months to prevent exposure to the coronavirus.
He is hoping legislators will waive the requirement for candidates seeking elected office this year to gather petitions with signatures. Condos said that the next eight weeks is typically the time of year when hundreds of candidates would collect signatures.
“We’re trying to limit that exposure,” Condos said.
He said he was also hoping lawmakers would give voters the ability to avoid casting ballots at physical polling places, in the event that the virus continues to spread and continues to present a risk through the end of the year. This could involve expanding the public’s opportunity to mail in ballots.
Condos said that most of the state’s poll workers are older and among the group for which the virus presents the highest risk.
Senate to take action after recess
While the House passed these proposals, the Senate will not be taking them up immediately. Lawmakers voted Friday to adjourn for a week, though leaders acknowledged that the Statehouse could be shut down for weeks or even months.
Before passing the package, Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, said that the coronavirus measures were “never intended to get to the governor’s desk immediately.”
She said that before the COVID-19 legislation could take effect, lawmakers would need more information and guidance from the governor and federal government.
“The House’s actions are not meant to rush the entire process in a day,” Johnson said.
“The House’s actions are to put some ideas on the table and most importantly provide a vehicle for the body that has a lot more people in it.”
She said the Senate, which has fewer members, could then come back and take action on the measures when there is more information about the spread of the virus.
During a morning meeting between Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P-Burlington, and Senate committee chairs, Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, who heads the panel on economic development, said there were a number of bills in “very initial” stages to deal with the state’s response to COVID-19 and asked the Senate leader whether he should prioritize those measures.
“Is there any reason to try and rush those through in the next hour?” Sirotkin asked. But Ashe said the committee shouldn’t push legislation through immediately.
“Let’s be real — then what happens? It’s out of committee and then what, “Ashe said.
“I don’t think anyone is honestly going to be ready to learn what the bill does and cast a vote, sort of, sight unseen,” he added.
“It may be very well that because of that work, if we have to come in for one day to accomplish a few objectives, it means we’re already much further along,” Ashe added.
Xander Landen contributed reporting.
