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Barbara
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« : February 12, 2021, 03:17:47 PM » |
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The Franklin County delegation and municipal officials were invited to a meeting with Dr. Levine and Secretary Smith Thursday afternoon. As they said, this is not an invitation that anyone wants to receive. The purpose was to get the word out that cases of COVID-19 are on the rise in our county. We can still get ahead of it by being vigilant about taking precautions and testing. The precautions are straight forward; wash our hands often with soap and water, cover our nose and mouth with a mask and stay six feet apart from each other. There are several opportunities for access to testing and an area Representative who just experienced it offered his assurance they no longer ‘tickle your brain with the swab’. He thought it was important to allay fears of the test from the early versions that were so invasive. Kinney Drugs in St. Albans is offering testing Monday and Thursday from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. and NOTCH locations are offering testing including the office in Fairfax. For information on getting the vaccine click on this link https://www.healthvermont.gov/covid-19/vaccine/getting-covid-19-vaccine
Floor action this week was mostly occupied by the introduction of bills. The tally reached two hundred and fifty seven on Friday. J.R.S.13, providing for the election of a Sergeant at Arms, and Adjutant and Inspector General, and three Trustees of the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College and J.R.S.14, establishing a procedure for the conduct of the election of UVM trustees by plurality vote by the General Assembly in 2021, were adopted by the House Tuesday. A Joint Assembly will be held Thursday, February 18th at 10:30 A.M. for the election. One bill H.20, an act relating to pretrial risk assessments and pretrial services was passed by the House.
The committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs voted out H.81, an act relating to statewide public school employee health benefits. It was committed to the Appropriations committee before returning to the notice calendar for floor action Tuesday, February 15th. Testimony was heard from members of the Administration to support areas of the Governor’s FY22 recommended budget the committee has jurisdiction over. J.R.H.2 Joint resolution sincerely apologizing and expressing sorrow and regret to all individual Vermonters and their families and descendants who were harmed as a result of State-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices, was introduced to the committee with an initial walk through by legislative legal staff as well as a sponsor. Committee members are reading a book that gives a history of the eugenics project in Vermont to gain an understanding of the State’s participation. Other committee time was spent on bill introductions for three more of the 14 that have been assigned to date and a walk through of the Joint Fiscal Committee’s motion to approve Grant #3034 $200,000,000 to the VT Agency of Administration from the US Dept. of the Treasury, Emergency Rental Assistance Program. https://ljfo.vermont.gov/assets/Meetings/Joint-Fiscal-Committee/2021-02-11/965c5c67c1/Final-Motion-to-Approve-JFO-Grant-3034.pdf
Representative Barbara S Murphy bmurphy@leg.state.vt.us 802-849-6545
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