Committees trim H.397 funding, revert controversial buyout change before floor vote

Representative Jim Harrison, reporter for the House Committee on Appropriations, told a Government Operations & Military Affairs meeting on March 25 that committees removed three funding items from H.397, the “Act relating to miscellaneous amendments to the statutes governing emergency management and flood response.” “The amendment that you have before you is very simple. It just hits the delete button 3 times,” Harrison said, describing deletions of (1) two new positions in the Division of Emergency Management, (2) funding for the Vermont Community Radio program, and (3) the bill’s appropriations in their entirety.

The deletions reflect budget trimming to fit larger budget negotiations, Harrison said. Committee staff moved one item into the larger budget as one-time funding and reduced another: the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) allocation was cut to $475,000 (one-time), and a $275,000 line for fire apparatus was reduced to a partial or shared funding arrangement tied…