Appropriations committee advances S.109, a miscellaneous judiciary bill that creates working groups and technical fixes

Montpelier — The House Appropriations Committee voted May 14 to report S.109, the annual miscellaneous judiciary bill, to the full House after a briefing that highlighted a mix of technical statutory fixes, new working groups and a small fiscal impact tied to one group.

The bill packages about 40 separate judiciary items — from clarifying language in court diversion statutes to changing how the number of superior judges is set — and creates several study groups. "I'm here to chat with the committee a little bit on S.109, which is the annual miscellaneous judiciary bill," said Eric Fitzpatrick of the Office of Legislative Council during the committee meeting.

Why it matters: S.109 combines numerous low-profile statutory updates and policy studies that affect court procedures, victim notification, guardianship procedures and how temporary firearm surrenders are handled. The committee discussion focused on the bill's working groups and the limited fiscal effects tied to one that includes compensation for nonstate members.

Most important items and details

- Firearms-surrender order compliance working group: The bill establishes a working group to develop a uniform procedure for handling firearms that must be temporarily surrendered under existing law (for example, relief-from-abuse orders and extreme risk protection orders). The group must consult a wide range of stakeholders, may meet up to six times, and must file a report with recommendations by November 2025. Membership includes the attorney general (or designee), the chief superior judge (or designee), the defender general, a state's attorney, an appointee from Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Vermont State Police, a police chief and a federal firearms licensee (FFL), among others; the bill also lists numerous additional consultees such as the commissioner of corrections, victim advocates and the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs. Fitzpatrick said the group "doesn't create any more situations where firearms have to be surrendered" but aims to set a uniform process for existing scenarios.

- Compensation and fiscal impact: Joint Fiscal Office staff told the committee that only the firearms-surrender working group includes explicit compensation language for nonstate members. "We estimate that would be about $1,500 to the attorney general's office budget. It's de minimis," said Chris Group of the Joint Fiscal Office. The bill caps the working group's meetings at six and uses standard state reimbursement language for non-employee members.

- Other study groups and reports: The bill also creates or continues several other study efforts, including a victim-notification task force to study methods for notifying crime victims of rights and proceedings, an adult involuntary-guardianship working group (asked for by the Probate Judges Association) to examine differences between probate and family-division guardianship processes, a requirement for a progress report about county courthouse capital requests and a child-and-parent legal representation task force chaired by the chief justice to study representation systems for children. Several of these groups will report back to the judiciary committees and related oversight bodies; most carry no compensation language.

- Statutory and technical changes: S.109 includes multiple technical and substantive statute edits highlighted by Fitzpatrick: changing the statutory mechanism so the General Assembly determines the number of superior judges (rather than a fixed number in statute), clarifying judicial-bureau language (the bureau that handles civil offenses such as traffic tickets), updating remote access for attorneys to criminal, family and probate case records, correcting an optional Uniform Power of Attorney Act form and adding a provision to expunge convictions if the legislature later repeals a crime (an example discussed was the outdated switchblade-possession crime, which produced about seven cases in the past 25 years, per Fitzpatrick).

- Related budget items: Committee members and Joint Fiscal staff noted other budget-linked items in the bill. The committee discussed a provision preserving the current $80 marriage-license fee (rather than reverting to $60) and was told that maintaining the $80 fee preserves roughly $70,000 annually for a domestic-violence special fund that also benefits town clerks.

Committee action and next steps

Committee members moved to report the bill to the floor with amendments discussed in committee. The committee agreed to change the label for the firearms project from "task force" to "working group" in the bill language and to add a consultative role for Fish and Wildlife if appropriate. The Appropriations Committee recorded a vote to report S.109 to the full House with a tally of 10 yes, 0 no and 1 abstention; the committee secretary called the roll during the meeting.

The bill now proceeds to the House floor, where committee members said they expect further consideration and a fuller debate on the floor. The firearms-surrender working group must file its report by November 2025, per the bill's language.