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It gives me no pleasure to report this: It appears the Legislature will not be done with its work this week.
The office of Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, communicated to staff and senators on Monday that they should expect to work into next week, including next Monday. (Lawmaking usually takes place Tuesday-Friday.) And on Tuesday, House lawmakers were given a floor schedule for next week during their parties’ caucuses.
I know, I know, this is shocking. Absolutely no one saw this coming.
Except, apparently, basically everyone. I met Chris Ditmeyer today, a steward of one of the General Assembly’s most hallowed traditions: the House Clerk’s Office Adjournment Pool. Though organized by the House, all Statehouse ghouls are welcome to participate: senators, lobbyists, staffers — even reporters. (The winner in 2017 was VPR’s Bob Kinzel, who guessed it would all end at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, May 12.)
Ditmeyer was kind enough to show me to a large poster board, sitting atop some beige filing cabinets in the Clerk’s office, in which each participant’s bet for 2022 was inscribed. Only a handful of optimists predicted the gavel would fall for good on May 6.
The most popular bet? Friday the 13th. But of course!
Another programming note: the Senate is planning to vote to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto on S.286, the pension reform bill, on Wednesday. The House is expected to follow suit later this week.
— Lola Duffort
IN THE KNOW
A pilot program to allow Vermont distillers to ship their products to consumers during the pandemic is headed to … further study.
“Distillers, like every other industry, deserve use of the internet,” Ryan Christiansen, president of Caledonia Spirits, told the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs on Monday. Christiansen held up a bottle of Barr Hill gin as he made his pitch.
Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, the committee’s chair, expressed concern that out-of-state distillers would be able to take advantage of a change in the law meant to help Vermont distillers.
Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, proposed waiting until the Department of Liquor and Lottery has finished a study. An interim report is not due until January.
“Distillers are not where they would like to be, but certainly teed themselves up for action next year,” Sirotkin said. “I’m sensing the committee is not there on this one yet.”
— Fred Thys
Sen. Michael Sirotkin’s committee is also proposing a change in the rental housing registry attached to a housing bill, S.210, in the hopes of preventing a veto by Gov. Phil Scott.
After vetoing a similar proposal last year, Scott explained in a letter to lawmakers that he wanted any unit rented less than 120 days a year exempted from registration requirements. Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, who chairs the Senate Economic Development Committee, told colleagues Monday that he supports raising the exemption in the bill from 90 days to 120 days.
“If it can send a signal to the fifth floor,” Sirotkin said, referring to the governor’s office, “I try to be reasonable and transparent and work with them. I throw that out as an olive branch.”
But Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, pointed out that Scott’s main objection is to the rental registry itself.
“The rental registry is the poison pill,” Brock said.
— Fred Thys
ON THE MOVE
Lawmakers in the House voted heavily in favor of S.148, an environmental justice bill, Tuesday morning, indicating it’s likely to pass the chamber later this week.
The bill would establish and fund a mapping tool that would use Census data to identify communities where environmental burdens, such as pollution and the impacts of climate change, are likely to have outsized impacts.
Two new committees would ensure Vermonters who are disproportionately burdened by environmental harms have meaningful opportunities to participate in policy decisions that affect them. The groups would also guide state agencies toward investing more in environmental justice communities.
While the bill has won support from advocates across the state, members of Gov. Phil Scott’s administration — namely Julie Moore, secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources — have said the bill doesn’t include adequate funding for the agency to complete the work included in the bill.
— Emma Cotton
The Senate advanced a bill Tuesday that would create a truth and reconciliation commission, overriding some senators’ objections that the proposal was bureaucratic overreach and a misuse of millions in public funds.
One year after the Legislature’s eugenics apology, H.96 lays out a multi-step process to create the Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission: A five-member appointment panel would choose a seven-member selection panel, which would choose 3 commissioners, who could appoint up to 30 people to committees. The commission is expected to cost a total of $4.5 million before it sunsets in 2026.
The multi-step selection process was intended to center the people hurt by discriminatory state policies, particularly eugenics, said Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden.
Sens. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, and Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, voiced opposition to the bill on the Senate floor. Brock called it a “49-member colossus,” and said he would rather that money be put towards solving the childcare crisis, or on schools.
“If one reads deeply into the language of the bill itself, this is a commission that could very well get out of control in a hurry based on politics,” Benning said.
Senate lawmakers made only minor changes to the version approved by the House in late March. The Senate version passed 22-7 in a roll call vote.
— Riley Robinson
ON THE FIFTH FLOOR
An effort to ban evictions “without cause” in Burlington hit a major speed bump Tuesday, as Gov. Phil Scott vetoed legislation to give city leaders the authority to pass tighter restrictions around rental housing.
H.708, an amendment to Burlington’s city charter, would empower city councilors to enact an ordinance limiting when landlords could evict or not renew a tenant’s lease. The measure was passed by 63% of Burlington voters in March 2021, and then by the Vermont House and Senate (with some tweaks) this year.
With Scott’s rejection, the future of the charter change is now uncertain. It would take a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the Legislature to override the veto.
In the House vote on Feb. 18, the measure received 98 votes, though two of the body’s 150 members were absent. The bill cleared the Senate on April 7 in a voice vote, but at least a handful of dissents could be heard among that body’s 30 members.
— Jack Lyons
Scott signed four bills into law Tuesday:
- H.629, which will grant some adoptees access to their original birth certificate;
- S.72, which adopts an updated version of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children;
- S.265, which criminalizes threats of violence against third parties, with heightened penalties for threats against public officials and election workers;
- S.171, which creates a state code of ethics for all three branches of government.
In a statement, Scott called the ethics code a “positive step towards ensuring public trust.”
“Even though the Legislature created an exception for itself regarding conflicts of interest, I believe this represents an opportunity for them to develop transparent rules and policies consistent with this new state law,” Scott said.
— Riley Robinson
IN CONGRESS
With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn a pair of decades-old rulings that protected the right to abortion, all three members of Vermont’s congressional delegation say it’s time to scrap the filibuster — at least to legislate nationwide access to abortions.
That includes U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who has served in the Senate since 1975 and has historically resisted calls to change parliamentary Senate rules. Leahy told VTDigger on Tuesday that he would support bypassing the filibuster in order to get a bill protecting abortion access to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Politico first reported a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s highest court late Monday. In it, Justice Samuel Alito declares that Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey — two landmark cases for reproductive health care decided in 1973 and 1992, respectively — “must be overruled.”
— Sarah Mearhoff
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Brenda Siegel, an anti-poverty activist and two-time statewide candidate, on Monday launched a campaign for governor on the steps of the Statehouse in Montpelier.
With less than one month until the state’s filing deadline, Siegel is the first candidate to enter the race. Incumbent Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, has yet to announce his plans.
— Sarah Mearhoff
COVID CORNER
The federal government has upped Vermont’s weekly allocation of Paxlovid to 2,000 doses per week, a sharp increase from the roughly 200 a week the state had been receiving before, officials said at a press conference Tuesday.
— Erin Petenko
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH
Wednesday’s special will be a salmon grain bowl, with a cornucopia of toppings, including — but not limited to — grilled fennel, pickled ginger, yellow beets and roasted butternut squash. The deli special will be a ham panini with baby arugula, cheddar and chipotle mayo. The grill special Thursday will be grilled cheese and poutine, with cheese curds from a Bennington farm.
— Riley Robinson
WHAT WE’RE READING
Abortion would remain legal in Vermont if Roe v. Wade is overturned (VTDigger)
State, parents say Springfield schools fail to provide adequate special education (VTDigger)
Green Mountain Club plans complete overhaul of popular Camel’s Hump hiking trail (VTDigger)
