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Senator corrects obsolete verification form in floor amendment affecting emergency housing benefit
Summary
Senators adopted a floor amendment that removes a reference to an obsolete COVID-era form and directs a state department to create a verification form for the vulnerable-household category of an emergency housing benefit; the sponsor emphasized the change is time-sensitive.
During floor consideration following committee reports, Senator from Caledonia (speaker 5) offered an amendment to correct language in previously enacted budget adjustment legislation that had referenced a pandemic-era form which no longer exists. The senator said the Legislature intended not to rely on a self-declaration form and therefore the amendment ‘‘provides clarity around the intent, correct, and eliminate the reference to a form, an obsolete form, and just, indicate that it would be a form developed, by the department’’ that would include the clinician’s credentials and contact information.
The sponsor said the verification could be completed by a physician, a mental health clinician or other certified health-care providers, and would be used to confirm that a household meets the vulnerable category that qualifies for the emergency housing benefit. The sponsor described the amendment as time-sensitive given the budget and effective-date context.
Senator from Addison (speaker 6) asked whether the amendment would allow people with a health condition or disability to maintain their housing under the emergency housing program. Senator from Caledonia replied the amendment ‘‘would’’ allow that and that the eligibility test is less restrictive than requiring a federal definition of disability.
The presiding officer called a voice vote on the amendment. The Senate floor transcript records the presiding officer’s declaration that the amendment was adopted; no roll-call tally or recorded individual votes are in the excerpt. The transcript does not explicitly state the bill number the amendment formally amends on the floor; the amendment was offered during the H 543 proceedings as recorded in the excerpt, but the amendment text concerns emergency housing verification language and appears to correct prior budget adjustment language rather than the social work licensure compact text itself.
