Committee approves strike-all amendment to business-organization bill; Secretary of State directed to study statutory harmonization

The Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development voted on March 19, 2025 to report favorably on a strike-all committee amendment to the short-form business-organization bill (page 243, draft 1.3). The amendment makes editorial and structural changes, preserves the bill's current title, and directs the Secretary of State to study statutory revisions to harmonize laws governing business organizations and related titles in the Vermont Statutes Annotated.

Rick Sable of the Office of Legislative Counsel described the amendment as a committee amendment created because the measure was introduced in short form and therefore required a strike-all amendment to present full statutory language. "We have an updated draft of the amendment," Sable said, explaining that the amendment includes reorganizing section numbers and adding a study task for the Secretary of State. He said the title redesignation language that had been proposed was removed from the amendment and would be considered during the Secretary of State's study.

The amendment tasks the Secretary of State to "conduct the study, this public engagement process with interested partners to study, consider, and address the [not specified] issues," and to submit an interim report to the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development and to the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs on or before Nov. 15, 2025, and a final report on or before Dec. 1, 2026. Sable said the interim report should provide the General Assembly with any recommended actions to pursue for the 2026 legislative session.

Committee members moved and seconded a motion to report favorably on page 243, draft 1.3. The motion was seconded by Representative Nicholas. The committee recorded the following yes votes on the motion: Representative Bosch (yes); Representative Boutin (yes); Representative Carys Duncan (yes); Representative Cooper (yes); Representative Micklus (yes); Representative Olson (yes); Representative Priestley (yes); Representative White (yes); Representative Cranning (yes); Representative Markup (yes). The motion passed and the item was forwarded; staff directed the reporter to provide clean copies and to send the materials to the appropriate committees for possible scheduling and consideration.

Committee members and staff discussed logistics: the clerk and committee staff will receive clean copies, and the committee indicated the measures could be moved to Appropriations or scheduled for floor action in the coming days. The amendment leaves substantive statutory changes to the Secretary of State's study and any follow-up legislation the General Assembly may choose to adopt.