News from Montpelier 2020 COVID-19 recess week 2

The teleconferences of last week continued to be held allowing Committees to be informed on the Administration’s actions and needs in facing the COVID-19 crisis. Both the House Rules and Joint Rules committees worked to find common language for the emergency legislation that was needed to allow the State Agencies to respond in a quickly changing atmosphere. An understanding was in place to provide this first response legislatively in a way that minimized the number of people who needed to convene on Wednesday. Unfortunately this process was derailed by a single Legislator using House Rules to request a quorum. After a few hours delay to permit enough members to get to the State House the quorum was affirmed and the legislation was passed. The Sergeant at Arms, Chief of Capitol Police, Clerk of the House and the Clerk’s Assistant provided critical assistance. With the legislation and resolutions that were passed, the House is now able to use electronic means to move forward.
These are posted in the House Journal of March 25th and available at the following link: https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2020/Docs/JOURNAL/hj200325.pdf
Committees began holding meetings on an electronic platform. To access the live stream of these meetings a link is posted on each Committees page from the Legislature’s main page : https://Legislature.vermont.gov . Friday morning House Transportation held its first such meeting. A member of Legislative Council gave the committee a refresher on the sections of the COVID-19 emergency bill as it came back from the Senate and passed Wednesday. The committee began a walk through of S339, an act relating to miscellaneous changes to law related to vehicles, also known as the DMV Bill. The bill has yet to be voted out of the Senate.
Director Boomhower and Commissioner Minoli both were available to speak to the committee on actions the Agency has taken as well as areas of critical concern that the Legislature is requested to address. Financial updates were provided by a Senior Fiscal Analyst from the Joint Fiscal Office and the Finance and Administration Auditor on the potential impacts of the crisis on the FY20 budget as well as the FY21 budget that H.942 has been drafted for. Information was also given on the portions of the Federal crisis response budget that is currently being proposed and would provide assistance to Vermont’s Transportation sector.
I offer my deep gratitude to each and every one of you who are being cautious in contact but taking care of and serving our community. I can be contacted at bmurphy@leg.state.vt.us or 802-849-6545