Henry Raymond
Fairfax News => Political Issues/Comments => Topic started by: Barbara on April 21, 2017, 01:57:30 PM
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On Tuesday the House began consideration of H525, an act relating to the Department of Liquor Control and the State Lottery and after an interruption for the Party caucus, the bill was committed to the committee on Government Operations. This reflected the divided tone of the floor debate last week on HR 14, which spoke in opposition to the Governor’s Executive order for the merger of the two departments.
A few of the bills that did make progress in the House this week were S75, S20, S12 and S72. The first three have in common a connection to our natural world, specifically control of aquatic nuisance species, permanent hunting and fishing licenses for persons 66 years of age or older and increasing the penalty for aggravated animal cruelty. The fourth bill identified above relates to requiring telemarketers to provide accurate caller identification information.
Three House bills that have been appointed committees of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses are H42, H171 and H494. The last is an act relating to the Transportation Program and miscellaneous changes to transportation-related law, or the T-bill. Other Transportation committee action was the report of S127 with the committee amendments Friday morning. As sponsor of H232, Rep Keefe presented an amendment to extend the grace period for the OBD portion of automobile inspections which with the support of the committee was accepted on a roll call. This was one of the bills several BFA students were focused on last week.
With conference committees being appointed and committee work being relinquished in favor of floor time the pace of the session is truly in its last weeks. Whether the gavel can fall a week early is yet to be seen but the hope is still alive.
Please continue to contact me at bmurphy@leg.state.vt.us, 802-849-6545, or by mail at 7 Lily Rd. The Sergeant at Arms office in the State House will pass on queries as well.