Committee approves H.67 amendments, shifts focus to legislative oversight and removes auditor pilot

A House Government Operations & Military Affairs committee on March 11 approved amendments to H.67 that narrow and redefine the powers of a proposed Joint Government Oversight and Accountability Committee and remove a pilot audit provision, voting to report the bill as amended by a voice/roll call that the chair summarized as 10-0-1.

The changes approved by the committee replace the phrase "government oversight" with "legislative oversight" in the bill's duty section, add a clause directing the new committee to examine "any failure to properly implement policy," remove a sentence that would have allowed the committee to take issues referred by resolution from either chamber, and strike section 6, which would have required the auditor of accounts to submit an annual audit report to the new committee. Tim Devlin, counsel, summarized the package and the specific text changes for members.

Why this matters: H.67 would establish a standing Joint Government Oversight and Accountability Committee to examine state programs and policies. The amendments narrow the committee's statutory remit to legislative oversight and remove mechanisms that previously would have let other legislative actors compel committee review or required the auditor of accounts to run a specific pilot audit program.

Tim Devlin, counsel, told the panel the current draft is "not a strike all amendment," and advised members to compare the amended draft side-by-side with the introduced bill to see how the changes interact. He identified where the edits appear in the draft's pagination: the creation of the committee and the altered statutory section appear halfway through page 2 and on page 4 (the duties section cited as 2 VSA 972 in the draft), and the section stricken is on page 8 (section 6).

A committee member who spoke in favor of the amendments explained the reasoning for removing the resolution referral language and the auditor pilot: "we just thought that those were more, political decisions of, a certain party or a certain subset of members could get behind a resolution," and that focusing the statute on "the performance of policy and programs" would keep the committee's work less political. That member also described concern that the auditor is an elected official and that the committee's authority should focus on program performance rather than politically driven referrals or audits.

The panel discussed renumbering the remaining sections after striking section 6. A member said the amended draft was ready for a vote; the committee moved to report H.67 as amended. The chair called the roll; members answered in the affirmative and the clerk summarized the result as 10-0-1. The motion to report the bill as amended carried.

What the amendments change (as described to the committee): the duties provision would read that the committee "shall exercise legislative oversight" rather than "government oversight"; an additional phrase would require the committee to examine "any failure to properly implement policy" along with failures of government oversight; the sentence permitting the committee to consider issues "referred to the committee pursuant to a resolution adopted by either chamber" is removed; and the annual audit pilot (section 6) directing the auditor of accounts to report during periodic audits is stricken.

The committee did not detail next steps on the floor calendar during the recorded discussion; members said the draft was "ready as is" and moved to advance H.67 as amended out of committee.

Ending: The committee's action advances the amended H.67 to the next stage in the legislative process. The record of the committee's amendments and the vote will be included with the committee report submitted to the chamber for consideration.