The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs unanimously moved legislation Tuesday that would keep people who receive unemployment relief from losing certain federal benefits in the months ahead.
The bill, S.110, proposes extending federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits to anyone who was eligible for such relief last year.
It would further extend eligibility to anyone receiving state unemployment insurance whose regular benefit is at least $25 less than what they could receive in emergency Covid-19 compensation.
The bill would ultimately align state and national requirements for relief eligibility so that people don’t miss out on federal benefits, lawmakers said.
“This is a recession that’s hit so many Vermonters extremely hard, and has particularly hit women at an astronomically disproportionate level in Vermont over other states,” said Sen. Kesha Ram, D-Chittenden. “So all of the relief that we can provide people on unemployment will help us recover equitably in the long term.”
The committee plans to deliberate Wednesday on another bill, S.10, which tackles unemployment benefits and taxes.
—James Finn
On Monday, March 8, Susanne Young, secretary of the Agency of Administration, sent a letter to Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, outlining Gov. Phil Scott’s position on the House-passed, $70 million mini-Covid-19 relief package.
In the letter, Young said the governor also looks forward to working with the Legislature on a large coronavirus stimulus package, now that Congress is close to signing off on the $1.9 trillion federal bill.
Young said the Scott administration would be releasing proposals for how Vermont should spend the more than $1 billion in federal funding after it becomes clear what limitations are attached to the funding.
Young hinted that the plan would include prioritizing broadband, affordable housing, clean energy, community revitalization and government modernization.
“These one-time federal monies are an opportunity to make transformative investments in our systems that will modernize our infrastructure and ultimately establish a stronger fiscal foundation for years to come,” Young wrote.
—Kit Norton
A Senate bill that would have banned firearms from government buildings, hospitals and childcare centers is set to be dramatically whittled down in order to escape committee before Friday.
The bill, S.30, will now simply ban guns from hospitals and will likely include language mandating a legislative study on banning firearms from state government buildings, according to Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington.
Sears, who chairs the Senate Committee on Judiciary, briefed members of the Senate Democratic Caucus on the changes Tuesday, saying it was now likely to meet committee approval in the coming days.
The major rewrite comes despite the fact that 16 senators — a majority of the chamber — had signed onto the original language. However, the legislation ran into strong opposition in the judiciary panel.
Sen. Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden, the bill’s lead sponsor, told Democrats Tuesday that he still supports the original version of the legislation.
“We’re all aware that a bill has to get out of committee, and you have to compromise,” Baruth said. “I’ve appreciated the chair’s efforts to reach a compromise with me.” —KN
Rep. Mary Morrissey, R-Bennington, said Tuesday she didn’t “appreciate” the way she learned about a major Covid-19 outbreak last week at the Newport prison.
“I would respectfully ask in the future should issues come up of this magnitude or others that we are at least briefed before we’re reading it in the newspapers or seeing it on TV,” Morrissey said.
The Bennington lawmaker was chastising James Baker, interim commissioner of the Department of Corrections, during a meeting of the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions.
“I had a number of people reach out to me to ask what was happening in Newport and I had very little information except for what I was reading and seeing on TV,” she told Baker. “I don’t probably really appreciate getting it that way because I want to hear firsthand.”
Morrissey said she understood that situations can become “quick-moving,” and informing lawmakers is not always a top priority.
“But before it’s going into the media I would hope that we would at least have an understanding in the future of what’s going on,” she said.
“You have my commitment on that,” Baker replied. “It was hectic.”
—Alan Keays
Sen. Sears wants to cut down on wintertime colds and napping in committee.
During a discussion in the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sears said he hopes lawmakers seriously consider retrofitting the Statehouse’s notoriously cramped committee rooms with better air ventilation systems.
“I haven’t had my annual winter cold. I haven’t had the annual other winter problems that I created by having to sit in a small committee room in the Statehouse,” Sears said Tuesday.
“I really think that it would be in everybody’s best interest from the health point of view to reexamine the air flow in the Statehouse,” he added. “It’s a mess.”
Sears said in his 29 years in the Legislature, each year he has come down with bronchitis or a “significant cold,” and he put the blame squarely on the money panel’s accommodations.
“I do think the air quality, particularly in the Senate Appropriations Committee room, I might say, is particularly poor,” he said. “I think that is why certain members would regularly fall asleep.”
“Hopefully not the chair,” said Sen. Kitchel, who runs the panel, eliciting laughter from all her colleagues. —KN
