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Committee hears H414 to create Vermont Commission on Aging to implement Age Strong Vermont plan
Summary
H414 would establish a Vermont Commission on Aging to coordinate and oversee implementation of the Age Strong Vermont plan; lawmakers discussed membership, oversight, and whether the commission should be independent of state employment to serve an advocacy role after the dissolution of COVE.
The House Committee on Human Services heard H414, a short-form bill to create a Vermont Commission on Aging that would implement and oversee the Age Strong Vermont plan, a statewide strategic effort to address issues affecting older Vermonters.
The sponsor said the commission would provide a high-level, cross-agency view of aging issues—including transportation, kinship caregiving and other services—so state agencies and community partners are not working in isolation. "We created the Age Strong Vermont plan . . . what this bill does is kind of bring everybody together, under a commission," the bill sponsor said.
Committee members described prior work that led to the plan: a study committee, a year of implementation for Age Strong Vermont and the Older Vermonters Act, and summer meetings convened by AARP and the Vermont Community Foundation to design next steps. Several members expressed concern about the proposed membership and composition. One member noted that the bill as drafted appeared to include many state employees, and questioned whether a commission that is primarily state employees could perform an independent advocacy or watchdog role in the way nonprofit advocacy organizations had before COVE's reduction in capacity.
Members suggested alternatives: folding the commission function into existing law such as the Older Vermonters Act or making the commission more independent of state employment. The sponsor said the commission was modeled on New Hampshire's commission on aging and on other Vermont commissions such as the Commission on Women and the Vermont Commission on Children and Families, and that the committee could refine membership and duties during the committee process.
No formal action was taken; members said they expect further refinements, including clarifying membership, oversight and reporting, and ensuring the commission's role complements rather than duplicates existing advisory boards and agencies.
