A Final Report From Montpelier for 2015-16

The Vermont House and Senate convened at 10 AM Thursday, June 9 to respond to the Governor's veto of two bills, S 320 and H 518. There are rules that govern the drafting and introduction of bills as well as the pace of the General Assembly's actions. These rules can be suspended but to do so requires permission either from the Rules Committee or the legislative body itself. Suspension of rules happened a lot through out this biennium, perhaps too often as it came to be deemed obstructionist to deny the request.
The Senate was presented with a new bill, S 260 early in the day and after some discussion passed it through to the House. In order to take action on this bill three fourths of the members present have to agree. Roll calls were taken twice during the course of the day that failed to reach that threshold. My rational for voting no was that we had yet to address the veto of the original bill. The Senate had to take action first as it was a Senate bill. Until that action was taken I felt it was inappropriate to vote on a new version. The Senate took a vote on the veto of S 230 at 7:15 PM and sustained the Governor's veto leaving the House no opportunity to vote.
During the course of the day I continued to try and get the opportunity for the House to take action on the veto of the House originated bill, H 518. When I brought it to the House floor, the result was a vote of 103 to 10 to override the veto. Despite the strength of this vote the Senate voted overwhelmingly to sustain the Governor's veto. So the bill failed.
The end was inevitable as far as passing the new energy bill, S 260. The votes were counted and the only question was would it take four days or be done in one. With the taxpayers at the register waiting to pay the bill, it fortunately was done in one. This adjournment was made with no appointed date for resumption.