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House Judiciary Committee backs amendment to H.44 adding sheriff association seat to impaired-driving task force
Summary
The House Judiciary Committee voted to find favorable an Appropriations Committee amendment to H.44 that would add the president of the Vermont Sheriffs’ Association (or a designee) to a task force on impaired-driving processing, after staff said the Department of Public Safety supported the inclusion.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday found favorable an Appropriations Committee amendment to H.44 that would add the president of the Vermont Sheriffs’ Association, or a designee, to the task force on impaired-driving processing.
Ben Novogratzky, of the Office of Legislative Counsel, told the committee the amendment "is relatively simple. It just replaces subsection b of section 5, which is the task force about impaired driving processing. It replaces that, to add another member to the committee, which would just be the president of the Vermont Sheriff's Association or designee." The change replaces the existing text of subsection b of section 5 in H.44.
The amendment increases the task force membership to seven, a member said, producing an odd-numbered panel the committee said would aid deliberations. A committee member explained that Appropriations moved the amendment because Government Operations wanted confirmation that the Vermont Department of Public Safety supported participation; the member said Commissioner Morrison told staff the agency "was absolutely fine and wanted to be on this task force." The member also said testimony from Mark Anderson prompted a request to include sheriffs.
Chair Malone, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, called for a motion and asked members to vote. The motion to find the amendment favorable passed by voice/hand vote; Chair Malone characterized the tally as "everybody minus one," which he described as "10-0-1." He noted that straw polls do not count for remote votes.
Committee staff and members discussed procedure: if the committee report is adopted with the Appropriations amendment rolled into it, that amended report would be forwarded to the House floor as the committee's recommendation.
No funding changes, implementation timeline, or additional statutory references were discussed during the committee’s consideration. The amendment was described and voted on; the full bill and any further floor consideration remain to be scheduled.
