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Senate committee reviews H.67 changes, draft adds annual reporting and 2033 sunset
Summary
Legislative Council staff reviewed draft 2.2 of H.67 before the Senate Committee on Government Operations, highlighting annual reporting to the sister House committee, a prospective repeal date of 07/01/2033, minor renumbering, and an intended title change; committee scheduling and a related House amendment (H.907) were also discussed.
Legislative Council staff walked the Senate Committee on Government Operations through draft 2.2 of H.67 on May 21, identifying a handful of drafting changes and a planned sunset for the new chapter.
"My name is Tim Dunwood, the legislative council," said Tim Dunwood, summarizing edits to the bill and noting the committee should have the draft on hand. He told members the draft clarifies which ad-hoc oversight committees report and that, in his review, only one of the ad-hoc bodies consistently files a report.
Dunwood said the bill sets an annual reporting requirement: "for this to be established committee on annual basis, we'll report to this committee and its sister committee in the house," establishing the frequency and recipients of the reports. He also told the panel the draft contains a prospective repeal provision: the chapter created by the bill would be repealed on 07/01/2033.
On technical drafting, Dunwood said the rule-adoption language (now in section 7) did not substantially change existing statute and that the newly numbered subsection f remained unaltered from earlier versions. He added the bill's title would be amended after passage to read "act relating to government accountability" to better match the drafting.
Committee members offered no substantive questions after the presentation; one committee member said the group had "done good work." Members then discussed follow-up: who should appear as witnesses and when to schedule additional testimony.
Dunwood also flagged a related House vehicle, H.907, and said Representative Marcotte planned to offer an amendment to add "sister-states" language; he reported that the House committee had voted unanimously to advance the amendment. A committee member recalled that an earlier sister-state provision had been vetoed by the governor because it curtailed executive authority; members said the current drafting aims to avoid that outcome.
The committee did not take formal votes on H.67 during the session and set next steps, including further testimony and a brief by Drew Hazleton, chair of the Vermont EMS advisory committee, scheduled for the following day. The meeting adjourned without action on the bill.
What's next: the committee will accept additional testimony and follow the House amendment process on H.907 before any final Senate action.
