Senate Government Operations committee advances bill to create Office of New Americans

The Senate Committee on Government Operations on March 13 voted to report S.56, draft 3.1, favorably, advancing legislation to create a study group to consider establishing an Office of New Americans in Vermont.

The bill as amended explicitly names the Secretary of State’s office as a consulting entity (replacing a narrower reference to the Office of Professional Regulation) and adds a requirement that at least one member appointed to the study group be a person with lived experience as a new American. Committee members also agreed to replace one organizational listing with a Brattleboro-based nomination and to keep appointment authority with the governor.

Lauren Hibbert, deputy secretary of state, told the committee the office supports new Americans across licensing, business formation and voter registration. “We really support the creation of a study group to contemplate creating an Office of New Americans,” Hibbert said, and urged the committee to name the full Secretary of State’s office as a consulting entity rather than limiting the bill to the Office of Professional Regulation. Hibbert described how the office’s divisions assist new Americans with business registrations, attendance at naturalization ceremonies and requests for certified copies of birth and marriage records.

Senator Wade raised the practical drafting change that became the amendment: replacing the bill’s reference to the Office of Professional Regulation with the Secretary of State’s office. “So if I’m understanding you correctly, we would… change Office of Professional Regulation to the Secretary of State,” the senator said during the discussion, and the committee accepted that suggestion.

Members discussed how appointments will be made under the bill. Committee staff and members clarified that appointing authorities will be state actors (the governor), not nonprofits directly, and agreed language will require one of the governor‑appointed members to have lived experience as a new American without increasing the committee’s size. The committee also accepted a recommendation to substitute a local Brattleboro organization in place of a national organization in the bill’s membership list.

After incorporating the agreed changes into draft 3.1, the committee voted to report S.56, draft 3.1, favorably. The motion to report the draft passed on a roll-call recorded in the transcript with members answering in the affirmative.

What the bill would do: the recorded amendments do not change the bill’s core purpose — creating a study group to evaluate and recommend the structure and functions of a potential Office of New Americans — but modify who is explicitly named as a consulting entity and add a lived‑experience appointment requirement. Drafting authority for final language was left with legislative counsel and staff to prepare the printed 3.1 version.

Next steps: Committee staff said the printed draft 3.1 will be transmitted and the committee’s report filed; the bill will proceed to further consideration in the Senate process with the committee’s recommendations included.