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House concurs with Senate amendments to bill on abuse of a dead body after debate on penalties
Summary
The Vermont House concurred in a Senate amendment to H.41, an act relating to abuse of a dead body, after a floor explanation and questions about lowering a felony to a civil penalty and protections for funeral providers and families.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday concurred in the Senate proposal of amendment to H.41, an act relating to abuse of the dead body, after floor remarks explaining changes to penalty language and committee votes.
The bill’s sponsor on the floor, the member from West, described the change as a narrowing of criminal exposure for clerical or administrative errors by funeral providers and for families using green-burial options. The member from West said the revised language makes unauthorized burial, transport, or removal subject to a civil penalty of not more than $1,000 rather than a five-year felony in every case.
The sponsor said the committee initially voted the bill out with the intended civil-penalty language and that, after the Senate made its amendment, the House Judiciary Committee re-took a straw poll and recorded a 10–1 vote in favor of the updated wording. “If somebody moves a body with nefarious reasons, with criminal reasons, they can still be charged with a serious penal felony of obstruction of justice,” the member from West said, adding that other statutes remain available to prosecute criminal conduct.
In floor remarks the member from West read the bill’s Section 2 text concerning unauthorized burial and removal: “A person who buries and tombs, transports, or removes the dead body of a person without a burial transit permit so to do or in any other manner or at any other time or place than as specified in such permit shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than a thousand dollars.” That reading framed the discussion on whether the change appropriately balances enforcement and clerical error risks.
The sponsor also addressed rumors that a named women’s-health organization had influenced the change, saying the organization did not testify to the committee before the bill left the House and that, when the organization later did appear after the Senate amendment, it stated it had no objections. The sponsor explained the committee’s vote was 11–0 when it originally advanced the measure and that the later straw poll on the amended language was 10–1.
After floor discussion, the House recessed to voice votes and the clerk announced that the ayes had it; the body concurred in the Senate proposal of amendment. The transcript does not record a roll-call tally for the concurrence vote.
The passage on the floor leaves the bill with the Senate amendment incorporated; the transcript does not record subsequent implementation steps or an effective date.
Votes at a glance H.41 (abuse of the dead body) — Concurred in Senate proposal of amendment (voice vote); floor discussion centered on replacing a potential five-year felony in some cases with a civil penalty (maximum $1,000), committee votes reported as 11–0 and a later straw poll 10–1.
