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Senate committee approves S.69 as amended, adds financial‑institution exemption
Summary
The Senate Committee on Institutions and IT voted to approve S.69 as amended (draft 1.4). The amendment narrows the bill’s scope, clarifies small‑business thresholds and adds an exemption for banks and certain financial institutions.
The Senate Committee on Institutions and IT voted Thursday, Feb. 27, to approve S.69 as amended by draft 1.4, advancing the bill out of committee for floor consideration.
The committee approved a motion by Senator Sandra Plunkett to "approve S.69 as amended by draft number 1.4," seconded by Senator Major. Senators Plunkett, Major and Wendy Harrison recorded votes in favor; Senator Russell Williams registered a vote against. The clerk reported that the bill "is favorable with amendment."
The amendment adopted in committee narrows the bill’s scope from the introduced version and adds several clarifying exclusions. Committee staff described new language that (1) defines HIPAA for the bill’s purposes, (2) establishes an applicability test that distinguishes covered businesses based on thresholds tied to the number of consumers and revenue sources, and (3) carries over an exclusions section that shields very small processors. The committee also removed an earlier video‑game exemption and added an explicit exemption for banks and other financial institutions because those entities are governed by federal law.
Committee members and staff emphasized the change in how covered businesses are defined: the amendment breaks the covered‑business definition into subparts (a–e) and adds a new subpart that treats a business as covered only if a majority of its annual revenue derives from online services. Staff warned that the new revenue‑based language could leave some businesses that nonetheless engage in the bill’s prohibited practices outside the bill’s reach.
The exclusions carried forward in the amendment include carveouts for entities that (a) controlled or processed the personal data of not more than 25,000 consumers in the prior calendar year while processing such data solely to complete payment transactions, or (b) processed personal data for not more than 50,000 consumers and had prior‑year gross revenue of no more than $1,000,000. Committee members said those thresholds were included in response to concerns from small Vermont businesses.
A formal report will be prepared for the bill and the committee’s chair indicated the clerk will transmit the amended bill to the floor for further action.
The committee recessed after the vote and moved on to a separate bill walkthrough without further committee action on S.69 at that meeting.
