Commerce committee amendment adds agricultural loans to sustainable jobs strategy and creates VEDA disaster recovery loan fund

The House Commerce Committee’s recommended amendment to H.398 would place the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Strategy into statute, explicitly include loans to agricultural enterprises administered under the Vermont Agricultural Credit Program, and create a new Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) disaster recovery loan fund to support businesses and agricultural enterprises after disasters.

Cameron Wood of the Office of Legislative Council walked the committee through the Commerce Committee’s recommended draft. He said the sustainable jobs strategy has not been updated since the Howard Dean administration (1999) and the amendment moves the strategy’s criteria into statute so projects that meet the criteria are clearly eligible for VEDA financing. Wood said the change “takes the current strategy that exists, putting it in statute.”

The amendment also adds language explicitly allowing agricultural loans administered under the Vermont Agricultural Credit Program (chapter 16a) to fall within the sustainable jobs strategy criteria, ensuring agricultural loan projects are eligible for VEDA support under that strategy.

The proposed bill adds a new subchapter creating a disaster recovery loan fund to provide financial assistance after disaster events. The fund would be a revolving loan fund; VEDA would establish policies and procedures for administration and is required to consult with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Agriculture before releasing funds for disasters that are not declared by the governor or president. If a disaster is declared by the governor or president, the consultation requirement does not apply and funds may be released under the statutory standard. The committee inserted language intended to limit loans’ interest rates to levels necessary to cover administrative costs and to keep rates as low as feasible.

Committee members discussed the proposed initial appropriation and funding source. Members indicated the $2,000,000 appropriation discussed for the program would come from a remaining balance in a $7,000,000 BCAP fund that ACCD (Agency of Commerce and Community Development) received; two million dollars was described as remaining and available to seed the VEDA disaster fund while the larger appropriation package is consolidated in the Appropriations Committee.

Members asked about VEDA’s structure. Legislative counsel and committee members explained VEDA (the Vermont Economic Development Authority) is a quasi‑public authority that provides financing programs and has a board that includes five statutory public officials (for example the Secretary of Commerce, Treasurer and Secretary of Agriculture) plus ten governor‑appointed members who serve as resident board members. VEDA typically provides low‑interest loans and can structure programs to buy down rates; the new disaster fund would be a targeted revolving program intended to be deployable for declared and smaller undeclared disasters.

Representative Emily Carus, speaking from the Commerce committee, said the committee specifically wanted agriculture clearly included in the disaster loan fund so smaller farms with insurance gaps could access assistance for localized disasters.

No final floor action was recorded in the transcript; the draft recommended by Commerce was in Appropriations at the time of the committee discussion, and members said the Appropriations Committee would address the appropriation language.

The committee asked VEDA‑related clarifying questions about caps, interest terms and how the authority sets lending parameters; counsel said VEDA typically sets program level caps and terms in its procedures and the statute delegates that operational authority to the authority.