By Michael Bielawski
This week lawmakers in the House will look at gun serialization, new limits on development conserving water runoff, and more. Agendas published weekly on the Legislature’s website are subject to change. The agenda for all the committees can be seen here.
Gun serial numbers – S. 209 (Tuesday, House Committee on Judiciary) Sponsored by Sen. Richard Sears Jr., D-Bennington, and others.
This deals with “prohibiting unserialized firearms and unserialized firearms frames and receivers.” Lawmakers have been hearing from gun experts that serialized guns have played little to no role in solving crimes because criminals rarely leave traceable guns behind, but maintaining the databases does cost much time and money.
This week ten people are invited or scheduled to speak including more gun rights advocates such as Eric Davis, president of Gun Owners of Vermont. For the gun-control side that will include Greg Lickenbrock who is Senior Firearms Analyst for Everytown for Gun Safety.
No carbon investments for pensions? – Vermont Pension Investment Commission (Friday, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs)
There’s an effort by lawmakers to get VPIC to divest from anything that causes carbon dioxide emissions. Lawmakers were warned by former Treasury Secretary Beth Pearce in 2026 that “Legislating investment decisions is bad practice. It’s bad public policy, it’s bad investment policy.”
During that same period, a study commission concluded, “The largest measurable explicit costs of divestment to VPIC would be ongoing increased management fees. Management fees would increase under each of these three divestment scenarios because VPIC commingled funds, where the bulk of VPIC’s fossil fuel were held, would have to be restructured into materially higher-cost SMA funds.”
H.197 and S.42 are two bills this session each dealing with this issue.
Rules about water runoff – Three-Acre Stormwater Permitting Rule (Thursday, House Committee on Corrections and Institutions)
Kevin Burke who is the Stormwater Program Manager for the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Watershed Management Division will speak. Water runoff is a controversial matter both in rural and urban landscapes in Vermont, especially after the massive flooding of past July.
An analysis of this proposal by All4inc.com states, “The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation has implemented several changes to the operational stormwater permitting program, including requiring stormwater management for large areas of impervious surfaces.”
It further states, “Existing sites that have three or more acres of impervious surface and that do not currently have coverage under previous iterations of the operational general permit will receive (or will already have received) a letter from the Vermont DEC indicating the need to seek coverage within a specified period of time.”
No permit needed for grid battery storage under 100KW – S.305 (Wednesday, House Committee on Education) Sponsored by Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy.
This bill deals with “notice requirements and energy storage facilities.” It states, “A certificate….shall only be required for a stationary facility exporting to the grid an energy storage facility that has a capacity of 100 kW or greater, unless the [Public Utilities] Commission establishes a larger threshold by rule.”
Large storage of energy is considered a developing technology that intermittent forms of energy such as wind and solar may rely on in the future.
Free speech and collective bargaining – S. 102 (Wednesday, House Committee on General and Housing) Sponsored by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, and others.
This deals with “employment protections and collective bargaining rights.”
It is to “establish a good cause standard for termination of employment, require employers to provide severance pay to terminated employees, and permit employees or representative organizations to bring an enforcement action on behalf of the State for violations of the good cause termination requirement. This bill also proposes to prohibit employers from taking adverse employment actions against an employee in relation to the employee’s exercise of free speech rights.”
Public meetings without a location? – S. 55 (Wednesday, House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs) Sponsered by Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, and others.
This is for “authorizing public bodies to meet electronically under Vermont’s Open Meeting Law.”
Media figures have told lawmakers already that this would be an offense to citizens’ right to a physical location for a public meeting. There are seven professionals including lawyers, media figures, and municipal representatives have been invited and/or are scheduled to speak. There will also be Lauren Hibbert who is the Deputy Secretary of State.
A clean start for convicts? – S.195 (Wednesday, House Committee on Corrections and Institutions) Sen. Brian Collamore, R-Rutland, and others.
This deals with criminal records and how they are considered when imposing conditions of release. It seeks to make it easier for those getting released.
It states, “Any person charged with an offense, other than a person held without bail under section 7553 or 7553a of this title, shall at his or her the person’s appearance before a judicial officer be ordered released pending trial in accordance with this section.”
Vermont to have five sister states? – S. 30 (Wednesday, House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development) Sponsored by Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-East Middlebury, and others.
This act creates a “Sister State Program” to be run by the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, among other entities.
Vermont will promote relationships with up to five states at once that “fosters understanding and collaboration between residents, governments, businesses, and community organizations in Vermont and residents, governments, businesses, and community organizations in the Sister State.”
Extra gas money for work – S.102 (Thursday, House Committee on General and Housing) Sponsored by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, and others.
Workers who drive for work-related purposes would be guaranteed gas money for those trips according to this bill.
This would “require all employees who use a personal vehicle for work to be reimbursed by their employer for each mile driven for a work-related purpose, which does not include an employee’s regular commute between the employee’s residence and place of work.”
If an employer doesn’t do it they can face a $5,000 fine.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle