Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.
Talks between lawmakers and business leaders grew fractious Wednesday morning as the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee considered a bill intended to strengthen consumer protections for fiber optic utilities, particularly in rural areas.
Sarah Davis, of Fidium Fiber, told the committee that such a bill was not only unnecessary but also improper under federal law.
“This is an area where the FCC … has chosen to regulate, and so it is not appropriate for the states to create their own legislation,” Davis said.
“That’s not my understanding, or what (we’ve) heard from (legislative) counsel,” said Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover.
The committee bill specifically seeks to ease customers’ transitions from older copper wire technology to the state’s fiber optic network, which has expanded in recent years with hundreds of millions in federal investment. In its current form, the bill would require more frequent and more comprehensive communication than federal rules mandate between providers and customers during such a changeover, lawmakers said.
Sibilia said in an interview Wednesday that she’d received three separate calls from constituents complaining about service issues related to this type of transition. She is particularly concerned about those in rural areas, where infrastructure might be more fragile, and alternative providers more scarce, she added.
“Market style regulation always fails rural people,” she said.
Emergency communications are also among the legislation’s chief priorities, Sibilia said.
“The problem that I think we’re trying to solve,” Sibilia told the committee, is “who can call 911, and when, and who might have problems?”
Unlike some traditional landlines, phones that use the internet require electricity to function. Several provisions in the bill seek more information from companies about customers’ use of battery backup services for fiber telephones, a technology designed to prevent users from becoming isolated in a power outage.
Kimberly Gates, of the Franklin Telephone Company, cautioned the committee that some parts of the bill remain technically vague or incomplete, for example overlooking situations in which battery backups would not be necessary, or would not work.
Committee chair Rep. Kathleen James, D-Manchester, confirmed the committee will move ahead to a vote on the bill. While some adjustments may be necessary, she said, she has little doubt of the Legislature’s legal authority to implement protections in this case.
— Theo Wells-Spackman
In the know
A coalition of advocacy organizations calling themselves Fair Share Vermont — Public Assets Institute, ACLU of Vermont, AFT Vermont, the Vermont-NEA, Rural Vermont and more — called on the state to raise taxes on the highest income earners in response to new tax breaks for the rich passed by Congress.
In total, the top 20% of income earners in Vermont are set to receive more than $730 million in tax breaks in 2026, according to Fair Share.
The average net cash income per farm is about $47,000 annually, according to Graham Unangst-Rufenacht, policy director at Rural Vermont. Yet the top 1% of income earners in the state are expected to receive an average annual tax break of $57,000, he said.
“We are losing farms. We are losing farmland. People cannot afford health care. They are losing essential services,” he said.
Fair Share has coalesced around a series of bills that would look to raise taxes on the wealthy, including H.619, H.620 and H.621.
— Ethan Weinstein
Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday that if the Trump administration does not commit to getting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to “change their ways,” he thinks U.S. senators should reject the federal Homeland Security appropriations bill they are considering this week that would direct about $10 billion to ICE for the upcoming year.
“I believe there’s a significant amount of training that needs to happen,” the Republican governor said of the agency. He was speaking to reporters at his weekly press conference. “They’ve expanded their team over the last few months, and I don’t think they’ve had the proper training to deal with the general public.”
Vermont’s three members of Congress have all said they won’t vote for the Homeland Security funding legislation after federal immigration agents shot and killed two people in Minneapolis. If enough Senate Democrats don’t back the appropriations bill — and the legislation in that chamber remains tied to other federal spending measures, as Republicans want it now — the federal government could shut down at the end of the week.
— Shaun Robinson
A panel that evaluates racial disparities in the criminal legal system wants to do more work.
“The group, being a bunch of passionate nerds, would like to meet more often,” said Xusana Davis, the state’s executive director of racial equity, who chairs the panel.
The panel also wants lawmakers to start evaluating the racial inequities of proposed legislation. Davis told senators in the Judiciary Committee that other states like New Jersey and Colorado require all bills under consideration in their capitals to be evaluated for potentially disproportionate effects on different citizens.
It would create more government accountability, Davis said, to dig into the potential inequities in legislation before it’s passed, rather than trying to correct course after the fact.
— Charlotte Oliver
Eye on the sky
Did you hear that?
A U.S. Coast Guard aircraft flew low enough over the Statehouse Wednesday afternoon to rattle a number of ears in the building, according to the Capitol Police Department. The plane was en route to Burlington, though officers weren’t sure whether that was its final destination.
“This was not expected and given the proximity to the State House, was alarming,” Sergeant-at-Arms Agatha Kessler wrote in an email to legislators and their staff later on Wednesday, which was viewed by VTDigger.
Capitol Police told VTDigger that while they might have preferred the aircraft fly a little higher, it never presented a threat to anyone’s safety.
Officials “are still determining the why and how of the flightpath,” Kessler wrote.
— Shaun Robinson
Department of corrections
Due to inaccurate legislative testimony, yesterday’s newsletter incorrectly referenced which state department issues fishing tournament permits. Naturally, it’s the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
