House Commerce Committee reports favorably on strike‑all to S.117, removes expedited OSHA rulemaking language

The Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development on April 29, 2025 voted to report favorably on a strike‑all amendment to S.117 that removes expedited rulemaking provisions for the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration and renames the bill to address wages, unemployment compensation and workers' compensation.

Committee legislative counsel Sophie told members the amendments "are just at the very beginning and at the very end," and that "the first is removal of the four provisions connected to safety and health rulemaking." She said the removed language had created an expedited process for the state OSHA office to adopt federal OSHA rules verbatim and had included a three‑year provisional repeal. Sophie told the committee that the Department of Labor and the Secretary of State's office plan to continue working on the matter over the summer, and that those provisions "may be coming back next session."

The strike‑all amendment also updates the bill's effective date to July of this year and changes the bill title to remove the rulemaking reference and add workers' compensation. After the counsel's explanation, a member moved to report the strike‑all amendment favorably; the motion was seconded by Representative Cooper and the committee approved the amendment. Several members answered in the affirmative during the voice/roll call: Representative Bosch, Representative Cooper, Representative Duke, Representative Mickless and Representative Olsen.

Committee staff said they will produce a clean copy of version 5.1 and send it to the clerk's office and to staff contacts Craig and Anna Grace for processing. No further substantive amendments were recorded in the transcript and members were told staff and relevant agencies will continue work over the summer.

The action advances the revised S.117 out of committee but, according to counsel, does not foreclose the return of rulemaking language in a future session while the Department of Labor and Secretary of State resolve outstanding concerns.