Hurry up and wait: Long voting nights ahead as legislative session winds down
The pace has started to slow in some committees, while elsewhere important work and negotiations continue. The House Health Care Committee is hard at work exploring primary care options to include in S.197, including one idea for primary care as a public utility with a common fund. At a public hearing held last week, many attendees urged lawmakers to make progress on securing universal primary care in the state.
Meanwhile, House Appropriations unanimously declined to concur with the Senate on their changes to the FY27 state budget (H.951). There’s now an active Committee of Conference for H.951 that will meet periodically over the next few weeks to hammer out these differences. Typically, the budget is passed last to ensure alignment with other key bills like the Yield Bill, education bill, and miscellaneous tax bill. Another Committee of Conference looms for the Yield Bill (H.949), as the House and Senate debate the excess spending threshold changes proposed by the Senate and whether to buy down property taxes using General Funds all in one year or split over two years. HUUSD board co-chair Cindy Senning shared powerful testimony in the House Ways & Means Committee on the negative impacts the proposed changes to the excess spending threshold would have on our district.
In House Energy & Digital Infrastructure, we’ve been following how our committee's bills are faring in the Senate and finished up our work on S.202, the portable solar bill, which we passed unanimously on the House floor this week. S.202 regulates the usage of portable plug-in solar panels to require national safety standards and landlord permissions for renters. Also called “balcony solar”, these plug-in photovoltaic (PIPV) devices are widely used in Europe where they allow apartment dwellers to offset their electricity usage. We learned that some electrical work may be required for safe operation in the US, but these small systems do not require approval from the electric utilities nor the Public Utilities Commission. Check out BrightSaver.com for more information.
Also on the solar front, we examined a controversial proposal by the Department of Public Service to scale back net metering compensation and heard from a number of witnesses. As energy affordability concerns mount, so does scrutiny by our Public Utilities Commission of any cost shifting from solar compensation, while advocates are pushing for a more holistic consideration of the value rooftop solar delivers. This is an area the committee will likely prioritize next session.
After hosting a well-attended reception last week to honor retiring Chair Mike Marcotte, members of House Commerce & Economic Development are fine-tuning S.71, an act relating to consumer data privacy and online surveillance. The bill seeks to ensure that businesses only collect the data they need, that Vermonters can delete data they don’t need, and that the Attorney General can enforce the law. The bill proposes new data minimization regulations for the collection and storage of consumer data, as well as restrictions on targeted advertising and fraud prevention measures. The challenge is to balance effective consumer protection with the need to ensure our Vermont businesses and nonprofits are not unduly burdened.
Finally, we will be voting on S.325 this week, which addresses changes to Act 181. After hearing extensive testimony, House Environment made changes to the Senate version of the bill, including the repeal of Tier 3 and the road rule, and all aspects of Act 181 related to those provisions. A big piece of learning this year was the need for better public engagement. S.325 therefore calls for the development, design and funding of a public engagement plan with input from the VT Council on Rural Development and the VT Association of Conservation Districts. The plan is due to the Legislature by January 15, 2027.
Please stop in at Lawson’s next Monday, May 11 (5 to 6 PM) for my last legislative office hours of the session or reach out at
