Vermont Senate Health & Welfare Committee reviews draft resolution opposing recent federal public‑health actions

The Senate Health & Welfare Committee on May 30 reviewed a draft senate resolution opposing what the draft describes as recent federal actions that threaten public health, and discussed edits and potential sponsors.

The draft, described to the committee by Jen Harvey of the Office of Legislative Council, lists several federal actions the drafters said could affect public health, including a January 20, 2025, executive order withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), staffing reductions in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that the draft characterizes as eliminating “approximately 20,000 employees,” and program cuts at federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products. Harvey said the document is “the most recent version we have looked at” and indicated the draft would be updated to reflect later events.

Committee members asked the drafters to narrow or remove some examples and to check the local relevance of some federal impacts. Harvey described wording edits already made: examples originally listing “falls and drowning” were removed, and language describing impacts on tobacco‑prevention efforts was softened from “devastating” to “negative.” Harvey also summarized language in the draft about NIH grant restrictions and cuts to federal grants that support school mental‑health services; the draft cites an approximate $1,000,000,000 reduction in federal school mental‑health grants.

Several senators questioned whether some federal actions named in the draft would directly affect Vermont. One senator objected to language asserting that a U.S. withdrawal from WHO would itself “jeopardize the health” of Vermonters, saying, “I don't think that would self jeopardize health” of Vermont specifically. Another senator argued for the linkage between global vaccination work and local disease prevention, saying that reduced WHO activity abroad could allow outbreaks to spread across borders.

The committee also discussed possible sponsors; senators mentioned by name as interested in association with the draft included Senator Gulick and Senator Cummings. Committee members instructed staff to update the draft language and the draft number was confirmed as 4.1 for the working copy. There was no formal committee vote on this draft during the meeting.

Next steps discussed included updating the draft to reflect more recent events, circulating it for sponsorship and, if requested, placing it on the calendar for immediate consideration. Committee staff said they would prepare a sign‑up sheet and circulate the revised draft to members for signatures and for placement on the senate calendar if a sponsor requests immediate consideration.

Documents and examples cited in the discussion were identified in the draft text and attributed there to public reports and federal announcements; the committee discussion did not adopt any new statutory or regulatory text and did not direct implementation actions beyond revising the draft and seeking sponsors for floor consideration.