Members of the Senate Committee on Judiciary took issue Tuesday morning with how their recent discussions have been portrayed in the press — and went out of their way to make it clear that they weren’t a committee of bill-killers.
In recent weeks, the judiciary panel has thrown cold water on a number of House bills.
The list includes H.133, which seeks to clarify that a judge issuing an emergency relief-from-abuse order has the authority to require an individual to hand over their firearms, and H.183, which would make it clear that people who are unconscious or substantially impaired by drugs or alcohol cannot consent to sex.
Legislation to prohibit the use of the LGBTQ “panic” defense in court also got held up in the judiciary committee — and became the subject of controversy — but ultimately moved out of committee and won Senate passage.
“Since our committee has kind of taken it on the chin lately with some of the things we’ve said and how it’s interpreted in the press, I want to make very clear, for the record, we are not in any way, shape or form trying to ‘kill’ this thought process,” Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, said Tuesday.
Benning’s comment came during a discussion about H.317, which would establish a Bureau of Racial Justice Statistics to track disparities in Vermont’s criminal and juvenile justice systems.
Committee members on Tuesday went about tempering expectations for how quickly an entirely new bureau of state government could be created. They also queried whether it should be limited to only statistics on race or expanded to include disparities in education, health care and every other area of state government.
Senators continued to explain themselves, noting that the racial justice statistics bill had not even officially made it from the House to the Senate — making it impossible for them to take swift action on the proposal even if they wanted to.
“We have a biennium to work in. No one is killing anything in the first year of a biennium,” said Sen. Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden, vice chair of the committee. “Some things can move forward because they’re relatively not as complex, and other things might need a little more study.”
Sen. Jeanettte White, D-Windham, chimed in, saying the committee’s ability to work on the bill would be “very minimal” since three of its members would be tied up with appropriations work next week.
“The press is really watching us closely,” said Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, who chairs the committee.
“I think we have to make a good effort and attempt to deal with this bill, should it come over from the House, and hopefully this year. Whether we’re able to or not, the most important thing is to get it right,” he said.
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