Week 13 - March 27th to March 30th

Done with Guns - for now

Last week we moved S.55 out of the House and sent it to the Senate. On Friday the Senate narrowly agreed to the House bill. It's now on its way to the Governor, who is expected to sign it. Here's a quick description of all the amendments we considered. Many of them were to improve the portion regarding large capacity magazines.

The last two weeks of this bill
Friday of the week before (3/23/2018), the bill came to the House floor for second reading. That was the session that ran until 9:30 at night. I wrote about that on my website. Over the weekend several members put together amendments primarily to make the restrictions on high capacity magazines more reasonable. Those amendments came up for votes on Tuesday of this week (3/27/2018), another long session. If you want the details, the official House calendar contains some of the amendments, and the official House journal has the others. Tuesday evening at about 8:20 the House passed S.55 as amended for third and final reading and sent it over to the Senate to consider. Friday (3/30/2018) the Senate approved the House changes. That sent it to the Governor. Here's a VTDigger article about it.

Weekly Summary

• Tuesday - 
• 10:00 Lots of orange vests and hats in the gallery and the Senate seats. I had a packed

  

  Printed Amendments to S.55

  House for my devotional that started the session. I'll write that up in another post. The House calendar showed us starting with S.55, but over the weekend the order of events changed. Leadership decided that it would be better to have the Capital Adjustment bill first and the gun legislation second. The previous week we did the opposite; that Friday we had guns first and ended with the Budget Bill. Everyone was exhausted and didn't really want to think about the budget. So Tuesday the order was reversed and my committee (Corrections &Institutions) reported out the adjustments to the Capital Bill. This was both good and bad for all the people dressed in orange and eager to get started debating gun regulations. Some had been there at 8:30 in the morning! So that was bad. But it was good that they saw a bit more of how the House operates and where the State's bonded money goes. 
• 10:15 - In committee. Right after the devotional the pledge of allegiance (which we do every Tuesday) our committee left the floor to meet. One of the amendments to S.55 had to do with School Safety. It had been decided to make that an amendment to the Capital Bill instead, because we had a section about School Safety. So we had to consider it and vote on it prior to presenting the Capital Bill which was scheduled to be first up on the day's agenda. This was real hurried work and not the way I like to do things. Close to 11:00  the committee voted unanimously to support the amendment  and we returned to the floor to begin reporting the Capital Bill. I reported out the Clean Water section of the bill. That entails speaking to the assembled House, going through a spreadsheet explaining how we allocated the money. It went fairly well.
• 11:27 - After reporting the capital bill we took up the amendment, which was approved, and then the bill itself. It was approved for second reading with only one vote opposed.
• 12:00 - Break for lunch
• 1:00 - Party caucuses before taking up S.55. In the caucus Leadership went over the amendments that would be presented on the floor.
• 1:30 - We left caucus to find that the Judiciary committee was meeting to consider various amendments. We knew it would be a long day.
• 2:30 - We finally started floor work on S.55.
• 2:30 - 8:20 Over the course of these six hours we debated and voted the dozen or so amendments listed at the beginning of this post. There was also a half-hour or so break for food and exercise and there were several recesses while the Judiciary Committee considered amendments. There was plenty of listening to speeches and explanations of votes. But it was all civil enough and a fine demonstration of the legislative process.
• Wednesday
• 8:45 -  Noon -  In committee on Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid addiction in Corrections facilities. Though everyone was a little tired from the day before, we switched gears and started work on three bills (H.166, H.867 & H.773) that are in our committee and deal with this issue. This gets complicated fast and I confess to being uncomfortable making what may be medical decisions when I am not a doctor and not real familiar with the treatment of addiction. We are trying to coordinate with the Human Services committee on this but they are busy with other bills. We had several people in to testify about the issue including people from DOC and the Dept of Health.  Prisoner advocates also testified.
• Noon - break for lunch
• 1:00 on the floor 
• 1:30 roll-call vote on the third reading of H.932 which is our Capital Bill adjustment. It passed unanimously. Our bill received some attention during the previous day's gun-regulation debate as there is $4 million in the bill for a school safety program. Much of the gun debate hinged on school safety.
• 1:50 - Back in Committee for more testimony on MAT.
• 4:45 - Done for the day
• Thursday
• 8:00 for IT Advisory Committee meeting
• 9:00 In committee for more testimony on MAT - This was a particularly frustrating day with a lot of talk and little progress.
• 12:00 break for lunch
• 1:00 On the Floor - I spent much of the afternoon going back and forth to a Senate committee taking up the bill I reported to House over a week ago (H.874). Because I reported it out of our committee it's my responsibility to see what happens to it. Meanwhile, on the floor of the House they were debating the Toxic Substance bill (S.103) primarily arguing about who should make the decision as to what chemicals are on the list of toxic substances and therefor subject to the regulations. In the end here was a roll-call vote and we agreed with the Senate version of the bill 96 to 42. I voted "Yes."
• 4:30 - adjourn
• Friday (Good Friday)
• 9:00 In Committee for discussion of MAT
• 9:30 On the floor - S.221 establishing an Extreme Risk Protection Order that sets up a judicial process for confiscating guns from a person who poses an extreme risk and preventing that person from purchasing guns. This passed easily on a voice vote.
• 10:08 In Committee for a little more testimony on MAT
• 11:30 Done for the week

Next week

We're hoping things will settle down a bit but there's talk of ending the session during the first week in May and that doesn't leave a lot time to deal with some big decision my committee needs to make.

My Devotional - "The Greatest" - a song by Kenny Rogers

The Daily Devotional

Me Doing the Devotional

We begin each days session on the floor with a devotional. It's just a couple minutes where some speaker gives us a payer or a thought to get us started. Sometimes the person delivering the devotional can't make it and we just have a moment of silence. I had told the clerk's office that if they ever needed someone to give a quick devotional, I had a poem in reserve that I could read. The clerk told me that this Tuesday was my chance. So I read (I did not sing) the lyrics of "The Greatest", a song by Kenny Rogers. The chamber that day was crowded with Vermonters in blaze orange, there to listen to the debate on gun control. I didn't realize it but this week is also the start of  baseball. It was a good, light, sports oriented devotional and went over well. Here are the lyrics:

The Greatest

From Kenney Rogers, words by Don Schultz or was it Dirk Heinz Berger

Little boy in a baseball hat stands in the field with his ball and bat

Says, "I am the greatest player of them all"

Puts his bat in his shoulder and he tosses up his ball.

And the ball goes up and the ball comes down,

Swings his bat all the way around

The world so still you can hear the sound, the baseball falls . . . to the ground.

Now the little boy doesn't say a word, picks up his ball he is undeterred.

Says, "I am the greatest that there has ever been"

And he grits his teeth and he tries again.

And the ball goes up and the ball comes down,

Swings his bat all the way around

The world so still you can hear the sound, the baseball falls  . . .  to the ground.

He makes no excuses he shows no fear

He just closes his eyes and listens to the cheers.

Little boy, he adjusts his hat, picks up his ball, stares at his bat

Says "I am the greatest when the game is on the line"

And he gives his all one last time.

And the ball goes up like the moon so bright

He swings his bat with all his might

The world's as still as still can be, the baseball falls

And that's strike three.

Now it's suppertime .  .  . and his momma calls,

Little boy starts home with his bat and ball.

Says, "I am the greatest, that is a fact,

But even I didn't know I could pitch like that!"

Says, "I am the greatest, that is understood,

But even I didn't know I could pitch that good!"

Week 12 - March 20th to March 23rd

Budgets and Guns

This week had some long days. Friday was, by far the longest. That day we not only handled second reading of S.55 on gun related issues, but we also voted the Big Bill (that's the budget) out of the House and sent it off to the Senate. If you're just interested in the Friday votes on guns you can go to this page of my website (www.ct4vt.com).

Weekly Summary

• Tuesday 

The Capital Budget Adjustment bill is in the Appropriations committee so we did not pay much attention to that. On the floor we considered H.911 which is a new Education Funding scheme. It reduces property taxes but adds an Education surcharge to the state income tax. We finished at about 5:30, just in time for me to make it to the School Board meeting in Colchester at 7:00.

• Wednesday
• 8:30 In committee to work on resolution for Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation regarding how the transfer of land.
• 9:10 Committee discussion
• 9:30 Senator Rogers to talk about S.166 dealing with Medication Assisted Treatment.
• 10:00 Rebeccah Ellis to talk about Ecosystem Restoration Fund and Lake Carmi
• 12:00 Budget presentation
• 24 Million in tobacco settlement money
• $10 Million to pay down teacher retirement
• $2 million to rainy day fund
• $500k to revolving loan for energy efficiency projects
• $13 million to Substance Use Disorder 
• $250k for Loan Repayment program
• $300k for DCF
• $600k for Corrections 
• 1:00 In Committee
• 1:44 On the floor for third reading of  H.911
• 6:30 Adjourned after passing H.911. It's on its way to the Senate now.
• Thursday
• 8:30 IT Advisory Group meeting until about 9:00
• 9:00 In Committee for review of Capital Bill amendments that will be coming up when the bill is back on the floor for second reading
• 9:40 Back to that Parks & Recreation resolution
• 10:40 I met with people from DEC and AG to get background info for my report of the Clean Water portion of the Capital Bill next week.
• 12:00 Met with person from Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to get background on their portion of the Clean Water spending int he Capital Bill
• 1:00 On the floor
• 1:45 Start of Budget reporting on the floor
• 4:30 Budget Presentation Ends - quick voice vote - There will be more discussion on Friday
• 5:00 to 6:00 Discussion off the floor about the Gun related legislation that will hit the floor Friday
• Friday
• See my website page for details of most of Friday work. It was many hours of gun amendments and roll-call votes.
• 7:30 PM - We finished S.55 on guns and took up the Budget for third reading. Everyone was already feeling the strain but we wanted to get it done.
• 8:55 Done with two amendments. Both voted down.
• Voted by division at 8:55 - 122 yes and 10 no
• 9:00 Done for the week

Next Week

• Tuesday I'm reading a poem for the morning devotional.
• Tuesday we'll also be reporting the Capital Bill. I get the Clean Water Initiative portion.

Week 11 - March 13th to March 16th

Another Forced March Week

Two Days in the Capitol Plaza Parking Lot

Another snow storm. Nearly a foot of snow on the ground kept me in Montpelier overnight three times this week instead of my usual two. It was a good thing. We were busy. We were desperately trying to finish working on the Capital Budget Adjustment Bill. That bill needs to get to the Appropriations Committee as soon as possible so they can get their work done on it and get it to the floor and out of the House. We have a two-year budget for how bonded dollars are spent. That budget was put together last session and spending began July 1st. Now we look at how the spending has gone and see if there needs to be adjustments. The Governor wants to spend $5 million on School Safety upgrades. No one suspected that request last winter when we were putting together the budget, so now we look for ways to shift money from delayed or no longer needed projects. We also received $10 million in bond premiums that we can now spend on things like the Governor's Work Force training initiative or the state's need for more mental health beds to alleviate pressure on hospital emergency rooms. All this means a lot of discussion, testimony, writing, proof reading, double checking, clarifying  and finally . . .  decision making.

The Chair started the week by telling us that it would be a rough one and that we might be working in the evenings. It's hard to get Committee work done when there's action on the floor. The weekly summary will illustrate. We were fortunate in that there were not a lot of controversial bills on the floor, but somehow, even the most straightforward bill can become controversial.

Tuesday I presented H.487 on the floor. I had the speech well prepared and cleared with the Chair over the weekend it was no big deal. Just read it clearly and slowly.

Weekly Summary

• Tuesday 



Reporting the Bill

• 10:00 On the floor. No real debate or issues with bills. I could see, by the calendar that I would be reporting my bill sometime before noon depending on what else happened. There was one long unimportant presentation that was bringing us close to 11:00, when the chair came by and said the Committee would meet at 11:00
• 11:00 In committee for markup of the capital bill. It's always awkward for me to leave the floor while there's still things being done. I feel like I should be in both places at the same time: in committee and on the floor.
• 11:20 Back on the floor, as we were told that my bill was next. This is not actually my bill. It's just that I was chosen to report it out of committee. When the time came it went fairly well. I'm still too nervous but getting better.
• 11:35 Back in Committee to start working our way through the spreadsheet that details how the money will be spent. At this time I think the Democrats were in caucus so I missed that.
• Noon to 1:00 break for lunch
• 1:00 Back in Committee while action on the floor started up again. We needed to consider two new proposals: one that would create a grant system to help schools design physical changes needed in schools that are consolidating, the other was part of the governor's request for $5 million to go to School Safety. Both presentations lacked details and were not received well. We don't just hand out money unless we really know where and how it is being used.
• 2:00 Back to the spreadsheet until . . . 
• 3:15 Bells rang announcing a roll-call vote. Now this was interesting. I had no idea what bill was up for a vote. I had heard none of the explanation or debate, but for some reason someone had asked for a roll-call, which usually means it's controversial. How should I vote? My seat mate gave me a quick explanation of what the bill was about and the roll-call began. I could see pretty quickly that it was not going to be close and that my vote would not matter much so I voted as recommended by the committee that reported the bill. I voted - yes. I think there were 4 no votes. But this would not be fun if it was a bill that really mattered.
• 3:40 Back in Committee - The discussion got confused when we hit funds for Clean Water projects. There are too many different agencies doing too many things. In order to do this right we really have to know what everyone else is doing.
• 5:30 - Done for the day.
• Wednesday - About a foot of new snow on the ground in Montpelier.
• 8:30 Working our way through the Capital Bill adjustment. Discussions about 108 Cherry Street garage and offices in Burlington. The garage needs serious repair. Do we sell it or fix it up? 

  

  Hanks and Weeks, Stanley and Wasson

• 9:10 More Building and General Services (BGS) issues. This time it's Waterbury and what to do about the Hanks and Weeks buildings in the complex. Weeks and Hanks are being renovated and may be able to take people from the Cherry Street in building Burlington but there are several other options. Stanley and Wasson are two other buildings in the complex. They are empty, but are still being heated (barely) and sorta maintained at a cost of some $30k a year. The plan seems to be to move Wasson and tear down Stanley. These are multi-million dollar projects.
• 9:30 Break
• 9:44 Back in Committee for Clean Water lines in the Capital Bill adjustment.  There's about $25 million of bonded money invested in Clean Water projects. At the end of last session we had $11 million for FY19 that we sent to the Clean Water Fund Board to look at and give recommendations on. Now we're considering those recommendations and any other adjustment. It's very messy and hard to keep track of. I need to spend the summer writing up a manual for Clean Water Funding. Maybe when I've finished my School Funding manual I can do that.
• 11:30 - Switched to Mental Health lines and whether or not to do that 12-bed forensic mental health unit up in St. Albans. We heard from the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Health Care.
• 12:00 I had promised a constituent that I would attend a lunch at the Capitol Plaza. It part of a day's lobbying by children services people.
• 1:00 On the floor - for bills etc.
• 1:48 Pulled from the floor into committee to make progress on the Capital Bill and discussion of funds to go to Lake Carmi.
• 1:52 Sargent at Arms in to talk about a new sound system for the House and Senate chambers. The existing sound system is dying and it's getting to be hard to find parts. That's one of the problems with working in a museum. 
• 2:15 - Called to the floor for a roll-call vote. No idea what bill is being voted. I checked with my seatmate and watched the votes leading up to mine. Ended up voting as the committee recommended and as people who I usually vote with voted. This vote showed overwhelming approval so I didn't worry much about mine.
• 2:37 - Back in Committee with more talk of Clean Water funding. Representative Brennan spoke a little about Transportation projects and who's funding what.
• 2:57 Break
• 3:25 Back to BGS capital projects. A $600k retaining wall project in Springfield has gone sour. An excavator with its shovel down 13 feet hit an old wooden pipe that was used to take crud from a dye factory to the river. Testing found mercury, lead and arsenic in and around the pipe. Now they have to dig it all up to find the extent of the pollution. That means more money.
• 4:10 Another roll-call vote. This dragged as one member asked for a "time out" so he could read up on the bill. There really is no such thing as a "time out." After a little confusion, a caucus was called and while that was going on we returned to Committee to get some work done.
• 4:27 Switched to consideration of School Safety money. This is a couple million to be made available for grants to school districts so they can improve their school safety infrastructure. This is the $5 million the Governor wanted. We knocked it down to $2 million because there is supposed to be some Homeland Security money available as well.
• 4:45 Back on the floor for a roll-call. Again I had no idea what the bill was about, but was briefed quickly. This one had to do with designating Lake Carmi as a Lake in Crisis. That makes it available for some special funding, This turned out to be a fairly close vote, so I wish I had heard the discussion.
• 5:25 Done on the floor and done in Committee. Done for the day.
• Thursday



Counting the Votes for Judges

• 8:00 Meeting of the IT Advisory Committee
• 9:00 In Committee with Sarah Buxton to hear more about the money she wants for Workforce Training Grants to Tech Ed Center to buy equipment. She really took some hits because the chair is getting disgusted  with people coming to the committee looking for money without firm plans on how it will be spent. I've been impressed with Sarah's work and think she'll do it right, so it was a little unfortunate. The chair apologized but it is an indication of the building pressure to get this bill done.
• 9:45 One of the lawyers form Legislative council started going over the language of the Adjustment Bill. We picked through each change. 
• 10:30 Joint session, House and Senate, to vote on Judges. Every year there are a couple judges or magistrates whose terms need to be renewed. Generally, it's just a formality with votes on judges with no opposition candidates. But it takes time.
• 11:15 Back in Committee for the Capital Bill
• 12:45 Break for Lunch
• 1:00 On the Floor for Lakes In Crisis bill and one on Beer Franchises. 
• From 1:00 until about 3:35 we went back and forth from the Committee to the Floor working on the Capital Bill but then being pulled to the floor for a roll-call vote.
• 3:35 Working with Buildings and General Services on what to do about the State building at 108 Cherry Street in Burlington. That building has been a money pit for some time.
• 6:00 Done for the day having made one pass through the Capital Bill language. That gives Legislative Council a bunch of work to do with re-writes.
• Friday
• 9:00 - In Committee for Capital Bill. My notes for this day are limited. The House was in session from 9:00 to 12:00, but we were only there for roll-call votes on bills about which I heard very little. I don't like not hearing the floor discussion, but again, in this case, the votes were pretty lopsided and not controversial. If it were a subject of real importance I would leave the committee for the floor. We were in Committee until about 5:30 in the afternoon when we finally took a formal vote on the Capital Bill Adjustment. The vote was 9 - 0 - 2. Which mean nine of us approved of it, zero objected and two were absent. The Chair was happy. We were all glad to be done with it.

Guns and Education Funding on the Horizon

Next week should bring two controversial bills out of Committee and to the floor for debate and vote. 

One is H.911 modifying Vermont's public education funding formula. I've put some time this week into writing up my explanation of how that works. It's a sort of Idiot's Guide to Ed Funding. I hope to finish it this weekend. I also need to look closely at this bill before School Board meeting on Monday. And there are rumors of amendments, including the infamous Beck Amendment to move teacher health care negotiations to the State level. Last session I voted twice on that amendment: once Yes, and once No.

The other is a bill coming out of the Judiciary Committee is regarding guns. It's the Senate bill S.55 about which I have been getting a lot of emails. I have been ignoring it as there have been many rumors about what it will contain or not contain: back ground check, AR-15 ban, age limits, high capacity magazines and such. Judiciary should wrap it up early and the week and move it to the floor. That will be a long, but interesting, day.

Week 10 - Town Meeting Week

A Week's Vacation

My Science Project - Vermont's Clean Water Initiative

The Vermont General Assembly is not in session during Town Meeting week. For the most part I stayed away from State business but the days leading up to and around Town Meeting were busy. The weekend before Monday night's lasagna dinner I worked at putting together My Science Project to be displayed at the dinner. The picture shows the project: the two watersheds that pour water through Colchester: the Lamoille and the Winooksi rivers. The maps have numbered pins to show the various State funded projects in the watersheds.

I also worked on my speech to be given at the dinner. The text of the speech is provided further in this post. The other member of the Legislature just stand up and kinda talk about what their doing, but I still can;t leave a written script. so mostly I read what I have prepared. Though the speech was good, the delivery needs work.

Monday night there was the dinner and then the Official Town Meeting. The voting on Municipal and School budgets are the next day, but at this presentation in the Colchester High School Performing Arts Center the budgets are presented and there is the opportunity for the public to ask questions, There were no real contentious issues so the evening went smoothly.

Monday I was at the polls from 7:00 am until 1:00 pm helping out. I'm a greeter. Yes, like at Walmart. Mostly I help people determine which voting district they're in. Because I know the streets of my district so well, it's a good job for me. It also gives me a chance to re-connect with my constituents.

The rest of the week I relaxed, though I am preparing my report of H.874. Tuesday of next week I will report the bill out of committee on the House floor. It will be short and sweet. Just a quick explanation of a pretty simple bill. It's not my bill, but the Chair chose me to report it. That will be fun.

These coming weeks are expected to be busy. We have bills over from the Senate and more gun-related legislation. Our Town Meeting vote resulted in a Charter change that needs to be approved by the Legislature so I may well get involved in working that bill through the system. More to learn.

Tuesday - Night before Town Meeting Day

At Tuesday's School Board meeting we learned that the School District Budget was approved by the voters. Thank you Colchester voters. The Board knew that there was considerable concern over the estimated 10% increase in Homestead Property Tax rates. It remains to be seen when the actual rate increase will be.

My Speech at the Lasagna Dinner

Down in Montpelier we begin each day’s work on the floor with a Devotional. Someone, usually from outside the House, gives a short talk, or speech, poem or just a thought. Last week, singer/songwriter John Gilmore gave us a song about Town Meetings in Vermont.  It was warm, funny and thoughtful. To me it was a reminder of how unique Vermont, and New England, are in having these opportunities to vote on budgets and issues, to reunite with friends, and to talk openly with your town and state policy makers. Democracy is an incredible political institution and I am thankful that the voters of Colchester gave me an opportunity to be a part of it. Thank you.

Me Helping at the Polls

I do really enjoy my job as your Representative. Not because I get a lot of free food at receptions, or a license plate with a 79 on it, or even because when I call a State agency I get a call back. The reason I like my job so much is because I get to learn so much. And I get to use what I learn to solve specific, important, real-live problems. The solutions can have a tangible, beneficial effect on the lives of the citizens of Vermont. Seeing those effects is very rewarding.

Here are a couple of problems with which I am involved this session.

I’m on the House Corrections and Institutions Committee. So that’s  Corrections policy. Next week I’ll be on the House floor presenting a bill about what happens when a person enters the Corrections system and is already taking prescription and/or non-prescription medications. The person may also have serious mental health issues. He or she may be violent or suicidal. Providing a proper Medical care transition from the community to inside a prison is a messy issue I’d never thought of prior to being elected.

You may have heard that the governor has a long-term plan to build a 925-bed corrections campus in NorthWest Vermont. My committee will be considering that. But that problem will have to wait until we deal with the critical backup in Hospital Emergency Departments caused by Corrections and Mental Health patients. It took us many hours of testimony to finally understand how people move through the Criminal Justice and Mental Health systems.

Vermont’s Clean Water Initiative relies on about 20 million dollars a year of Capital Funds. My Committee is responsible for the Capital Budget, so we get to worry about that one as well.  Is that money well spent? Where and how should it be spent. I put together that poster display to give you some idea of the scope of the Clean Water Initiative. The Science is fascinating. The funding is equally so. Different agencies have different funds, each with its own restrictions and purposes. They all need to be coordinated to assure tax payers that Clean Water Funds are spent efficiently and effectively.

Because I’m also on the Colchester School Board and believe strongly in the importance of public education, I try to keep up with Education Funding in Vermont. Every time there’s a forum coming up or a gathering like this, I live in fear that someone will ask, “So, Honorable Representative Taylor, what exactly is this thing called the Dollar Yield?” Up until about a week ago I never had an answer I believed in. I now do.

This session has already been, and will continue to be, very interesting. There are important issues being worked through. I have great respect for all the members of the House and am proud to be a part of that body. I am confident that when the session ends in May . . . (or June) we will have taken positive steps, toward solving some of the problems confronting both the State and its citizens.

Thank You.

Week 9 - February 27th to March 2nd

The Race to Town Meeting

Lots of Spectators and Paper During Cross-Over Week

Town Meeting Day is an important date in Vermont. It's the first Tuesday in March. Winter is on the wane. The sap is beginning to flow. Mud season is right around the corner. Public schools take the week before off. Lots of people travel. Under the olden Dome in Montpelier the week leading up to Town Meeting is feverish. Friday is 'cross over'. Any bill that is going to be considered by the Senate and perhaps the Governor must be out of the House and on its way to the Senate by that date. This being the second year of the biennium, the pressure is that much greater. Action on a bill cannot be put off until next year. If it doesn't make it this year it dies.

A bill doesn't make it to the floor until it's out of committee, so committees must wrap up  taking testimony and debate and, finally, make a decision. Nearly all the pressure falls on the Committee Chair, but a lot also falls on the Legislative Council. That's the team of lawyers that serve the Legislature.

Leg (pronounced "ledge") Council is stressed. Before a bill is voted on in Committee it must be reviewed carefully by the committee. So our legislative assistant (usually a bright young female lawyer) goes over the bill with us, explaining each portion. We try to find all the unintended consequences, the little nits that come back to bite you or the grammar errors that change a meaning. Before we review it, the bill is submitted to an editor, so there aren't many of those type of errors. Primarily we just have to think very carefully about the intentions and the ramifications of the bill. Inevitably that results in a change, sometimes small, sometimes large. Leg Council then has to hustle off and make the changes and run it past the editor while we go on to something else. When the change is made we go review it again.

The first reading of a bill on the House floor was when it was first introduced and pushed it off to committee. The full House does not discuss the bill at that point. It's barely noticed. After that, if it's a controversial bill we hear rumors of what's going on in committee. When a bill comes out of committee and hits the floor for second reading, we notice. The bill is presented by a member of the committee and a vote is called. At that point, before the actual vote, there can be debate. Often there is no debate at all, but sometimes it can go on for hours, as it did this week. At the same time, Leg Council is working on rewrites. If our bill's redrafting is completed and the floor debate is dragging on, our chair might pull us from the floor for more discussion or a vote on our bill.

Most debate on controversial bills occurs on 2nd reading, then the bill sits for a day before it hits the floor for the last time for third reading. Even controversial bills will fly through third reading on a voice vote. All the arguing was done on second reading. There's no point in going through it all again. That's usually the case, but sometimes third reading can be just as rough. All along the way there can be calls for roll-call votes which slows everything up. When a roll-call vote is called, the bells ring and if we're in committee or wandering around stretching our legs, we return to the House chamber for the vote.

You can guess that all this is disruptive and unpredictable. In addition, this week we had gun violence related legislation about to come over from the Senate. That resulted in a bit of political jostling.

I should add that during all this I'm still trying to figure out the algebra behind Vermont's education funding formula. I found a Representative on the Education committee who was willing to look over my work and I wanted to get it done by Town Meeting. So while on the floor half-listening to some other Representative wax eloquent about some obscure passage in a bill, I scribbled algebraic formula and pulled my hair out.

For the first two days of the week my committee concentrated on getting bills out of committee. We knew action on the floor would make the last two days of the week difficult. As you'll see, Thursday was the rough one with Saliva and Guns on the Floor. Friday was no picnic. Here's what happened:

Weekly Summary

• Tuesday 
• 10:00 On the floor. No new bills, nothing exciting, no debate.
• 10:38 - 11:41 Public Democratic Caucus
• H.675 Statement of purpose of bill: This bill proposes to clarify that a court may order, as a condition of release prior to trial, that a defendant participate in prevention of domestic violence programming or that a defendant not possess a firearm or other weapon.
• H.237 Statement of purpose of bill as introduced: This bill proposes to allow law enforcement to use saliva testing on operators of motor vehicles reasonably suspected to be drug-impaired.
• 1:00 In Committee - Took testimony on H.874 about prescription and psychotropic drugs in Corrections. Good testimony from a variety of perspectives inside and out of Corrections: Nicholas Palmisano, Vermont Recovery Network, Paul Capcara, Director of Inpatient Psychiatry, Central Vermont Medical Center,  Richard Fales of Rutland, Ron Coppola, NAMI Vermont. Though we made no final decision we are getting close.
• 2:25 Drones (H.615) again. And again we are getting close to a final decision on this. We're tweaking the language in the bill.
• 3:15 State Treasurer Beth Pierce testified to the committee in support of H.777 about changes in the Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund. This too should be wrapped up Wednesday.
• 4:10 break
• 4:20 H.806 Why do these get so messy? This is the Windsor facility bill that just seems to spin wheels. Discussion and testimony going around and around.
• 4:45 Done - Some discussion after before departing.
• Wednesday
• 8:30 - 10:25 - H.874 - Worked on this for nearly two hours. A thorny issue with what seems to have no solution. But we did work it closer to a conclusion. 
• 10:35 - Back to the Drones bill (H.615) 
• 11:30 Done with Drones, Back to Windsor commission (H.806 ).
• 12:00 - lunch
• 1:00 - 2:30 - On the floor 
• 2:30 - Back in committee to work on Drones
• 3:22 - Done with Drones - on to H.777 about the Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund.
• 3:40 - Back to Drones for an official committee vote - That one;s out of Committee
• 3:48 - Back to Clean Water
• 4:25 - We're trying desperately to be done with the Water Bill but need more information.
• Various unofficial talk until 4:50. Done for the day.
• Thursday
• 8:40 - In committee for H.874 another two hours on this. The dam finally broke when we just deleted the most controversial part. Another draft requested
• 10:40  - H.777 Back with clean water - finally a clear description of how the money flows. 
• 11:30 - Something new - Louis Josephson, Chief Executive Officer, Brattleboro Retreat gave presentation about the need to remedy the back up in hospital emergency rooms. We are also interested in hearing from the Retreat with regard to our bigger problem of the flow of individuals through the various mental health and corrections facilities of the state.
• 12:30 Break for lunch
• 1:00 - Proceeded in an orderly manner through a bunch of bills but then got stuck on (in?)  The Saliva Bill (H.237).  That occupied us for nearly two hours. The Saliva Bill came out of  the Transportation committee chaired by Colchester Representative Pat Brennan. He's a strong Republican but has remained chair of Transportation for some time, because he's good at it. All the Saliva bill wanted to do was to add a saliva test to the kinds of tests that can be done at roadside to determine if a person might be driving under the influence. Here's the SAT question: The Breathalyzer test is to alcohol as the Saliva test is to what? . . . right ! drugs. Somehow this triggered all kinds of problems to some Representatives. After about an hour, our Chair pulled us to the committee room to work on a bill.
• 3:25 - H.675 came up on the floor for third reading. It's a Justice committee bill that went through the House on second reading with no debate. I'll explain what happened here in detail below. Suffice it to say that, as soon as it hit the floor, a caucus was called and each political party went to a meeting place to huddle.
• 4:15 Left caucus with at least some understanding of what might transpire next. But all the paperwork behind the process had to be taken care of, so we wandered around, went back into committee or worked on other things (email, algebra, etc.)
• 5:35 Back on the floor, and it begins to look like a long night. We're usually done by now. Fortunately there was a reception in the Cedar Creek Room so we could grab some meatballs, cheese and crackers and such. There is also no food or drink in the House chamber (except for water) so you can't dawdle. 
• 8:55 Done with H.675. Yes, that took about four hours. I'll explain it below, for those that might be interested.
• 9:00 pm -  With everyone tired and cranky the Speaker asked for a motion to adjourn and one was made. At which point someone yelled 'Roll-call.' We thought it was a joke as it would entail another half hour for use to vote on whether or not to adjourn. There was some laughter as people gathered up their papers. But the gavel came down. The Speaker (rightfully so) took it seriously and carefully explained that there was a call for a roll-call and if six members stood up to sustain the request, there would be a roll-call vote on adjournment. Five Republicans stood up and we adjourned at 9:05.
• Friday



John Gilmore Sings the Devotional

• 8:30 - We're not supposed to be on the floor until 10:30 but the Committee Chair wanted to move the Clean Water Bill (H.777) We met at 8:30. After an hour and a half our Leg Council had enough for another draft and we paused work on Clean Water. Discussion and break until we're went on the floor with no idea how long we'll be there. Saliva was coming back for third reading, as well as that bill that kept us four hours on Thursday.
• 10:30 - The devotional was John Gilmore playing guitar and singing his song about Town Meetings in Vermont. Very good.
• 10:55 Representative Poirer rose and asked to be recognized for a point of personal privilege. Whoa! Never heard that before. And I'm not sure what it means, but it stops everything and allows him to speak about something that effects only him. The Speaker, a little taken aback, agreed. Rep. Poirer issued a serious apology for something he had said in the heat of Thursday's debate. I'll cover it below. We continued cranking through bills until lunch break.
• 12:45 Back on the floor. 
• 12:50 Back in committee for Clean Water work while floor action continued.
• 1:25 - Saliva hits the floor for third reading and we returned to the floor for an expected vote. But the whole debate began again .  .  . 
• 2:24 - Committee Chair calls us back as the Saliva debate continued.
• 3:00 - We wrapped up the Clean Water bill and sent Leg Council off for another re-write.
• 3:10 - Back on the floor to see where we are. Not only had the Saliva bill passed as expected but the gun related one from Thursday had flown through on a voice vote during my absence.
• 3:35 - Back in committee for a vote on Clean Water bill
• 3:55 - Back on the floor.
• 4:00 - Adjourn for the week, in the course of which we had voted three bills out of committee. Our Chair felt it was work well done.

What Happened with Guns?

The lay of the land

There were at least four gun-relate bills floating around the General Assemble. The governor is pressing for something to be done. Everyone would like to have something to bring back to Town Meeting to show we've made some progress on this issue. At Town Meeting, legislators get a chance to talk about what they've accomplished. This could be something to talk about.

The Senate recently passed S.221 with a unanimous vote of 30 to 0. This is their Red Flag bill with a stated purpose of:

This bill proposes to establish a procedure for a law enforcement officer to obtain an extreme risk protection order. The order would prohibit a person from possessing a firearm for up to six months if the Family Division of the Superior Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the person poses a significant danger of causing injury to himself or herself or another person by purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm or by having a firearm within the person’s custody or control.

Everyone supports the concept of having a court decide if someone should be restricted from possessing or purchasing a firearm under these circumstances.

The Senate is also considering H.422 which we passed (with me voting against it) last session. It hasn't really gone anywhere yet in the Senate.

On the House Notice calendar there sits S.267. When a bill is on the Notice Calendar, that means it waiting for the required day before it's next action. This is a Senate bill, so the House could amend it and sent it back to the Senate.

The Plan

When we went into caucus on Thursday at 3:28 in the afternoon, the innocuous  H.675 was waiting for a vote on third reading. The Democrats want to toughen up the Red Flag Bill (S.221) and somehow get H.422 moving again. All before the end of the day.

Two ways forward were being rumored:

1. Suspend rules and pull S.267 off the Notice Calendar, amend it with all of H.422 and S.221, pass it and send it back to the senate. A vote to suspend the rules requires 3/4 of those present. It was unlikely that enough Republicans would go along with this. Though they like S.221 the way it passed the Senate, several don't like the other bill (H.422) which allows for a police officer investigating a domestic violence incident to confiscate weapons.
2. Amend H.675 so it contains both H.422 and S.221, pass it and send it to the Senate.

Leadership chose the second path in order to avoid the suspension of rules vote.

The idea was that the Red Flag portion of the amended bill would get enough votes to drag the H.422 portion along - two birds with one stone. Enough Republicans would not want to have to explain, at Town Meeting,  why they voted against the Red Flag bill. They really wanted to wait for the Senate Red Flag bill to come over to the House and pass that. Several Republican members professing how great it would be for the House and Senate to unanimously pass this bill and send it on to the governor (which actually sounded good to me). But that would have left H.422 in limbo and the Democrats wanted S.221 to be stronger. I should add here that the Democrats and the Republicans in the Vermont House are not highly disciplined. It's not unusual to vote against the party position.

Strengthening S.221

What level of proof do you need to show that someone is about to commit a crime and, therefor,  that their guns should be taken away? S.221 as passed by the Senate required that there was Clear and Convincing evidence that the crime would occur. The Democrats wanted the bill to read that a Preponderance of Evidence suggested that the crime would occur. It's harder to prove that there is Clear and Convincing evidence. By making the level of proof Clear and Convincing, the bill is strengthened and may be applied in more cases. The levels of proof are, I've learned, as follows, from hardest to prove to easiest:

1. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - hardest to prove
2. Clear and Convincing
3. Preponderance of Evidence
4. Probably Cause - easiest to prove

My understanding is that with Preponderance of Evidence you are saying that the crime is more like than not to occur. With Preponderance of Evidence it is highly likely that the crime will occur.

The Democrats also want to extend the length of time that the restrictions would be in effect from six months to one year.

How it worked out

When we returned to the floor to implement this plan it was 5:30 in the evening. This would be a tough vote for me. I wanted the Red Flag portion but H.422 I had voted against before, and for good reasons. The Colchester Police Chief (also President of the Vermont Police Chief's Association) opposed it. She didn't want the hassle (legal and otherwise) of storing gun. She didn't like the hassle (legal and otherwise) of returning guns. She didn't like her police officers having to decide, during a tense domestic violence intervention, whether to confiscate guns or not. She didn't like putting them in legal jeopardy if they do not confiscate and the result was someone getting injured, even though the law tried to cover that. It was all too messy for me, and she made a great deal of sense. 

When debate on the bill began I texted the Majority Whip: "I don't like this." He texted back that we should talk. Se we both left the chamber to sit down in the card room and talk. After about ten minutes I told him I would think about it.

Somewhere during this debate Representative Poirer said that the House Committee on Justice that owned the bill had forced the vote through when several members who would have voted against it were absent and hadn't been told that a vote was being taken. He really implied that the committee, and the committee chair, where behaving badly. The next day he apologized on the House floor, lamenting that he had listened to only one side of the story. I heard rumors of this as well. 

At 6:00 I was saved when Representative Dean divided the question. That meant there would be two votes. One on the Red Flag portion and one on the H.422 portion. 

After some discussion, at 6:40 another caucus was called but it was primarily leadership that wanted to talk. The rest of us milled about and waited. I had the opportunity to confer with several others, including Representative Troiano, who were helpful in organizing my thoughts.

At 7:00 a roll-call vote was called for the first (S.221) portion. After I spoke with a couple others I texted the Whip that I would vote "Yes" on the S.221 portion and "No" on the H.422 portion. I didn't say how I would vote on final amended bill because we had yet to decide how it would be amended.

The roll call vote continued on the S.221 portion and the results were: 93 yes and 46 no. I voted yes. Here's the details:

R-Yea	6
R-Nay	43
D-Yea	75
D-Nay	1
R-Absent	4
D-Absent	6
Oth-Yea	12
Oth-Nay	2
Oth-Absent	0
Abstain	0
Not-Voting	1
	150

Next, at 7:20, the roll-call for the second portion of the divided amendment was called. My name begins with a "T" and the roll is called alphabetically. I planned to vote "no", but as the votes came in there seemed to be a lot more "yes"s than I figured. Should I switch? During a roll-call, when I hear the two Sullivan's called I know I'm next. I still wasn't sue when those two names came up, but . . . "Taylor of Colchester" , a pause, and I replied "No." I was one of only 28 that voted "No", the other 112 voted "Yes." Here's the details:

R-Yea	25
R-Nay	24
D-Yea	74
D-Nay	3
R-Absent	4
D-Absent	5
Oth-Yea	13
Oth-Nay	1
Oth-Absent	0
Abstain	0
Not-Voting	1
	150

But we weren't quite there yet. After the first amendment was passed Representative Donahue submitted yet another amendment which sure appeared to me to unwind the amendment we passed. A point of order was called that it was just doing that and after some conferring at the podium the amendment was deemed ok. 

This required another roll-call vote. The amendment was defeated 85 to 53. I voted against it. Here are the details:

R-Yea	45
R-Nay	2
D-Yea	4
D-Nay	73
R-Absent	6
D-Absent	5
Oth-Yea	4
Oth-Nay	10
Oth-Absent	0
Abstain	0
Not-Voting	1
	150

And finally there was a roll-call on the amended bill. I wanted the Red Flag portion, so voted yes on the whole bill. It passed 104 to 29. I voted "Yes". Here are the details:

R-Yea	15
R-Nay	27
D-Yea	76
D-Nay	1
R-Absent	11
D-Absent	5
Oth-Yea	13
Oth-Nay	1
Oth-Absent	0
Abstain	0
Not-Voting	1
	150

And that brought us to 9:00 pm when the shenanigans mentioned in the above summary occurred. It was a long day.

Next Week:

The Vermont Legislature does not meet during the week of Town Meeting. I'll be giving a short talk at the lasagna dinner the night before Town Meeting day and taking questions. Then Tuesday we vote the usual way by going to the polls. Colchester is too big to have a real traditional Town Meeting with important votes being made by only those who attend the meeting. The rest of the week I relax.

This week my Committee did vote out a bill on Prescription Drugs in Vermont Prisons and I will be reporting that on the day we return from break.