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— The Vermont Senate is poised to approve the Global Warming Solutions Act this evening and was still debating the measure around 5:30 p.m.
The measure, a major priority for Democrats this year, would legally mandate the state to meet strict carbon emission reductions targets in the coming years. And it would allow individuals to sue the state if it didn’t meet those targets.
Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Windsor, said he would support the bill but criticized it for not going far enough to address climate change. He said that the state also needs to impose a carbon tax, and expand alternative energy sources and mass transit.
“If this is the best that’s going to come out of the Senate, this Legislature this year, it is a terrible disappointment,” he said. “But it’s not a bad bill, just not enough.” – Xander Landen
— At the end of the Senate’s first session of the day, Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Windsor, reported what he believed to be an “historical moment” in Vermont Senate history.
“I venture a guess that I am the first Vermont state senator to have a chipmunk run across his foot while in session,” said McCormack, who was seated outside his home for the Senate’s meeting via Zoom.
“Secretary Bloomer has already started doing the historical research to determine if that’s true,” Senate President Tim Ashe replied, referring to Senate Secretary John Bloomer. – Xander Landen
— The House passed a bill, H.880, that would require the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation to list the Abenaki place name for sites within Vermont’s State parks.
The bill would require that all signs in state parks see these revisions by 2025. For any new signs that are installed within state parks, the bill requires the commissioner of the department to confirm if there is an Abenaki name for the site to be included on the sign.
Rep. Brian Cina, P/D-Burlington, the lead sponsor of the bill, read from a letter on the House floor provided by the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs.
“Land and places are living entities in Abenaki culture and are honored by the names given to describe them. After years of state policies and actions, which have effectively made the Abenaki language almost extinct by making it inaccessible to most, H.880 will make it possible for these places to be honored again in the old way.” – Grace Elletson
— Just as the House floor session was beginning, Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, asked Rep. Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington — who was filling in for House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero — if she had been appointed to another committee.
Browning has been committeeless for months after Johnson pulled her from her spot on Ways and Means after she called for a quorum just as Covid-19 was beginning to hit the state, forcing 76 lawmakers to fill the chamber to pass a remote voting measure.
“Madam Speaker the right to serve on a committee is part of the right to serve as a representative,” Browning said. “The speaker has the power to change committee assignments but the speaker has no unilateral power to take away the right to serve on any committee.” Krowinski responded that she would pass Browning’s comments on to Johnson.
At one point later on during the floor session, conversation was interrupted by a male voice saying, “And you, of course I’m sure, have been alerted to Cynthia’s rant this morning?” Then Johnson responded “I just heard that there was a kerfuffle. I didn’t know anything about it —” but was cut off, after she presumably found her mute button. – Grace Elletson
— House Education took testimony this morning from the state’s education leaders to hear their concerns and questions about how schools will begin to reopen in the fall. Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, collected “candid” responses from superintendents across the state about reopening concerns.
Some superintendents expressed concerns about funding and affording the added expenses needed for reopening. Some expressed concerns about the guidelines that have been established for schools to open and questioned whether they’re possible to follow or if families will comply with them.
“What happens to finances if a significant percentage chose to homeschool their children?” Francis said a superintendent asked him. “I have never encountered such fragility among staff,” he said another superintendent told him. – Grace Elletson
— House Commerce voted a bill out of committee that would allow workers to file and potentially collect a worker’s compensation claim if they catch Covid-19 while at work.
In order to qualify for a claim, under S.342 a worker would have had to test positive for Covid-19 and work in a job that requires “regular physical contact with known sources of COVID-19” like in a nursing home, correctional facility.
The committee also added a section that would require the Department of Financial Regulation to examine whether a “special fund” could be propped up to fund these compensation claims, in an effort to lessen the burden on employers. The bill, which has already passed the Senate, now heads to the House floor for final approval. – Grace Elletson
