Rep. Curt Taylor's Session Journal
Week 9: February 28th to March 3rd
Floor Time and Town Meeting Break
Last week the schedule for time in the House chamber changed. We're starting earlier in the afternoon (1:00) because we need more time. Many legislators are scrambling to get their bill's out of committee before "crossover." There are a couple exceptions but, as a rule, "All Senate/House bills must be reported out of the last committee of reference (including the Committees on Appropriations and Finance/Ways and Means) on or before Friday, March 17, 2023, and filed with the Secretary/Clerk so they may be placed on the Calendar for Notice the next legislative day"
If a bill doesn't meet the crossover deadline, it will likely have to wait until the second session of the biennium to complete its path through the legislative process.
The Picture is the cover of a cartoon pamphlet produced by the Vermont Secretary of State with help from the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction. It is a good explanation of the democratic process in Vermont and is distributed at many town meetings.
Household Hazardous Waste Recycling
H.67 relating to household products containing hazardous substances came out of House Ways and Means and was voted upon by the full House. It passed and is now in the Senate. The bill sets up a system for the recycling of hazardous household products. Under the law, manufacturers of hazardous waste products will not be able to sell their products in Vermont unless they are part of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) organization. The basic idea is that the manufacturer is responsible for the proper disposal or reuse of household hazardous waste products. The EPR contracts with stewardship organizations that collect the waste and return it to the manufacturer. The cost of the program is borne by the manufacturer, not the customer.
Minimum Age for Marriage
H.148 sailed through the House last week on a voice vote with few "nays." It raises the minimum age for marraige from 16 to 18 years of age.
Election Law
H.429 relating to miscellaneous changes to election law came to the floor for 2nd reading on Wednesday and sparked some interesting debate. The bill had changed quite a bit while in the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs. The most contentious portion of the bill pertained to "Sore Losers." In current law, if a person loses to another candidate in a primary election, they can still run as an Independent in the General Election. The proposed change is that if someone chooses to run in a party primary and loses, they cannot then decide that they are an Independent candidate and then run in the General Election. Both sides of the debate claimed that their position was best for voters. In the end the bill passed.
"Stealthing"?
A new term for many of us, Stealthing is the "nonconsensual removal of or tampering with a sexually protective device." Apparently men engaging in consensual sex with the understanding that there is protection from pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Disease tamper with or remove those protections. The supporters of H.40 likened this to rape. A small group of legislators felt the bill was not equitable as it did not apply the same penalties ($2,000 or two years in prison) to women who lie about being on the pill.
These four bills are now off to the Senate.
From the Senate
More bills are coming to the House from the Senate. The bill causing the most controversy so far is S.5. This is the new Clean Heating Standard bill. the bill passed the Senate last week with 19 in favor and 10 opposed. When it comes over to the House in a week or so, I will write up the details.
H.66 Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance - Update
This bill will come out of my committee (House Ways and Means) next week and will likely go to the House Appropriations committee before it comes to the full House for a vote. It's a big 66-page bill with a large impact on the finances of the state. My committee has been taking testimony on that impact. It's likely that all twelve members of the House Ways & Means committee will not agree and the vote will be along party lines. This is a major Democratic Party initiative. I will have more to write about this in future posts.
The Bottle Bill (again)
My committee began work on the Bottle Bill (H.158). Last biennium a very similar bill passed both the House and Senate but was not able to get through the whole process by the end of the biennium, so we're starting again. The bill came out of the committee on Environment and Energy with some compromises designed to move it more quickly through the legislative process. The five-cent deposit was not raised, however, the number of products that will carry a deposit will be expanded to include wine bottles and others. We will be discussing the timeline for implementation and how financing the proposal will be handled.
Coming up
The General Assembly is on vacation for Town Meeting week. We will be back at it after that.