The pace has picked up as some bills have come to the House floor for a vote and have been sent to the Senate, and as committees work on bills that they hope to get to the floor in time to see action this year. On Feb. 3, the House passed the annual Budget Adjustment Act, which makes changes to the current fiscal year’s budget before we move on to adopting a budget for the next fiscal year which begins in July.
The bill contains many adjustments, tweaks and updates based on current information. All House committees are asked to review and comment on adjustments proposed by the administration and others that fall under their jurisdiction, and my committee supported a significant one for continued broadband expansion. This year, there was a fair amount of floor debate around items related to affordable housing and homelessness. A few amendments were offered to eliminate or limit some of these expenditures, but these amendments were not approved, and the bill passed essentially as proposed by the House Committee on Appropriations.
The House Committee on Environment and Energy continues to be briefed about the status of the numerous programs and activities involving environment, energy and telecommunications. We have taken up some bills that we will vote on soon and likely send to the full House for consideration. These include a bill that deals with the collection and proper disposal of household products containing hazardous substances (H.67), a bill relating to community resilience and biodiversity protection, and bills relating to the siting of telecommunications infrastructure (H.110 and H.70). We will also be considering major bills related to climate change introduced in the House and being worked on in the Senate.
An event of personal importance. For the past several years, I and others have introduced bills supporting education in our schools about the Holocaust. The Holocaust is the largest and worst instance of genocide in human history, but genocide continues to happen in our world to this day. It is important that young Vermonters know about this subject so that the world may someday no longer experience the worst that humanity is capable of.
While no bills have yet seen action, the Legislature and the Agency of Education did take an important first step this year. Both the House and Senate unanimously passed a resolution (H.C.R.11) recognizing the first ever Holocaust Education Week in Vermont schools, which took place Jan. 23-27. Having grown up among Holocaust survivors and refugees, families of victims and families of those who fought in the Resistance, I was able to speak about this briefly when the resolution was read on the House floor on Jan. 27.
To reach me, email apatt@leg.state.vt.us or leave a message at the sergeant at arms office (802-828-2228).
Avram Patt, a Democrat from Worcester, also represents Morristown, Elmore, Woodbury and Stowe in the Vermont House.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexual language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be proactive. Use the "Report" link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.