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House amends and advances bill tightening impaired-driving rules, adds task force on processing
Summary
H.44, a multi-section bill amending Vermont impaired-driving laws, was amended, advanced to third reading and includes statutory clarifications, a new criminal refusal provision tied to warrant-based blood draws, reporting changes to the DMV and creation of an impaired-driving processing task force.
Montpelier — The Vermont House passed committee amendments and ordered third reading of H.44 on Feb. 18. The bill makes technical and substantive changes to impaired-driving statutes, clarifies reporting to the Department of Motor Vehicles and creates an impaired-driving processing task force charged with proposing legislative fixes.
Key provisions: H.44 includes technical corrections to family-division jurisdiction language; adds “serious bodily injury” to applicable definitions; creates a criminal-refusal offense tied to noncompliance with a warrant-based evidentiary blood draw; aligns civil license-suspension language with criminal standards; and amends reporting requirements so that the commissioner of motor vehicles receives the affidavits and adjudication orders needed to process potential license suspensions.
Representative Goodnow, speaking for the House Judiciary Committee, summarized the committee’s strike-all amendment and outlined six sections of the bill, including the new subsection requiring compliance with warrant-issued collection of evidentiary blood samples and the creation of a task force to study implied consent processing. Goodnow said the bill closes reporting loopholes and aims to create “proportionate accountability” for noncompliance with warrant-ordered blood draws.
The bill adds a task force to study implied consent and processing during DUI investigations, with membership that includes the chief judge of the superior court, the commissioners of public safety and motor vehicles, the defender general, the director of the department of state's attorneys and sheriffs, a Vermont Police Association representative and (as added by Appropriations) the president of the Vermont Sheriffs Association or designee. The task force must report proposed legislation to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees by Nov. 15, 2025.
The Appropriations Committee described any fiscal impact as de minimis while adding the Vermont Sheriffs Association president as a task force member. The Judiciary Committee reported favorably; related committees recorded straw polls and committee tallies reported on the floor as 11 (Judiciary) and 10-0-1 (a separate straw poll). Floor votes to adopt committee amendments and order third reading were taken by voice and recorded as “ayes.”
Representative Goodnow concluded with a committee vote tally of 11 and asked for the body’s support. The bill as amended states an effective date of July 1 of the year specified in the calendar.
