News from Montpelier 2018 week 5

The action on the House floor this week was prefaced each day by the suspension of rules in order to introduce the bills by their number-only due to the volume. From H. 725 on Tuesday to H. 863 on Friday, 138 new bills were introduced and assigned to the jurisdiction of a House committee. Final votes were taken on numerous bills including H. 633, an act relating to fiscal year 2018 budget adjustments. The House concurred in the Senate’s proposal of amendment and it will now be passed on to the Governor for passage. A roll call was requested on H. 410, an act relating to adding products to Vermont’s energy efficiency standards for appliances and equipment, with 137 voting in favor and 4 opposed.
The House and Senate Transportation Committees held a joint meeting to hear an update on potential Federal Infrastructure investment proposals from Congressman Peter Welch. Congressman Welch shared a summary of H.R. 1664, legislation he is cosponsoring, opinions proposed by the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of which he is a member and co-founder, and currently available information on President Trump’s forthcoming infrastructure plan. Current Federal Earmarks could be rolled in to the Federal dollars being proposed for State’s needs which would be detrimental to Vermont’s allocations. The bulk of funds are expected to be provided by a Public/Private partnership. The Public/Private funding proposal relies on a dividend or return on investment that is problematic due to Vermont’s rural nature.
Congressman Welch answered a question about Ethanol with his belief there has been traction due to the removal of subsidies and holding the per-gallon percent to 10 but repeal is still hard. The absence of any statement in regards to access to the internet as a part of the Federal Infrastructure plan is a concern for the Congressman. He believes similar to the Electrification plan of Rural America in the 30’s Broadband should be considered as a Social Policy question.
Throughout the week the House Transportation committee took testimony on areas of the proposed Agency budget. Overviews of the Rail and Aviation programs were presented, as well as the Governor’s Highway Safety Budget, the latter completely supported by Federal Funds. The greatest amount of testimony was given on H. 237, an act relating to saliva testing. The committee heard from the Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Public Safety, Attorney General’s Office, Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs and three out of state experts on the tools and practice of saliva testing in suspected impaired driving stops. Testimony was given by the Policy Director of ACLU of Vermont and a member of the Defenders General office in opposition to the implementation of saliva testing. More testimony will be gathered next week.