Senate Government Operations advances H.463, 101‑page technical corrections bill

The Senate Committee on Government Operations on Thursday, April 10 voted to report H.463, a 101‑page technical corrections bill for the 2025 legislative session, after staff from the Office of Legislative Council walked members through the measure’s revisions.

Ben Dobrowski of the Office of Legislative Council gave the walkthrough and told the committee the measure contains 58 sections across 101 pages and is primarily composed of housekeeping changes designed to update archaic language, remove gendered pronouns and conform statutory text to the office’s drafting style. The committee agreed to place the bill on the calendar for committee action next Tuesday and to put it on notice the following Wednesday.

The bill, described in the committee as a technical‑corrections package, makes repeated, non‑policy edits across state statutes. Items cited by the presenter included changing instances of “regulations” to “rules” to reflect Vermont drafting conventions, replacing archaic words and constructions (for example, replacing “wherein” with “where”), adjusting capitalization, and standardizing spellings (for example, using insure with an “e” consistently). Dobrowski said, “There are 58 sections to this bill,” summarizing the scope of the corrections.

Committee members and counsel said a substantial share of the bill updates gendered language to gender‑neutral forms and reduces legalese to improve readability. Senator Allison Clarkson and other members noted that many revisions fall into those two categories — neutralizing pronouns and moving toward plainer statutory language — and said that plain‑language changes improve public accessibility to the law. Dobrowski said his office will provide a section‑by‑section summary to the committee before the next action.

The committee also highlighted a single wording change flagged by the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO). On page 97 of the bill, the phrase “comprehensive annual financial report” is changed to “annual comprehensive financial report.” The change was made after JFO advised that the common acronym for the former phrase is offensive in South Africa; the committee discussed the concern and the change was described as non‑substantive and limited to the statutory terminology. A committee member characterized the original acronym as “an offensive word in South Africa.”

Members discussed process details for handling the measure in committee, including a potential minor amendment consisting of a one‑word insertion that was identified by Representative Bob Hooper. The committee scheduled the bill for committee vote next Tuesday; the presenter was given a week to supply a section‑by‑section to members.

By voice vote the committee reported the bill out; members said the Government Operations (HGO) committee vote was unanimous (11) when taken in the prior instance referenced during the discussion. The committee noted there will be an amendment to be taken up when the bill returns for final committee action.

The committee did not discuss substantive policy changes tied to H.463; members described several items previously pulled from prior technical bills when those items were found to be substantive rather than technical. The presenter and members emphasized that any item identified as substantive would be removed or treated separately.

The committee meeting concluded with scheduling and a reminder of other items on the committee calendar for upcoming meetings.