Balint comment prompts question to state nursing home regulators
By Guy Page
The Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living (DAIL) revealed this week that a number of Vermont’s nursing homes failed to meet state and federal staffing requirements over the past year.
In a recent town hall visit to a Newport, Rep. Becca Balint sparked debate with a blunt comment about the state’s labor shortage, saying, “If we don’t have avenues for people to come here legally to work or to build a home here… we’re not gonna have anyone around to wipe our a**es because we don’t have enough people” (‘Potty Politics,’ June 1 Compass Vermont).
The remark, picked up from VDC by Fox News, an quoting former GOP candidates Mark Coester and Paul Bean, was apparently intended to underscore the urgent need for immigration reform and workforce development, drew mixed reactions. It earned praise from some for its honesty and urgency, while others criticized it as crass or both dismissive and denigrating towards immigrants.
The comment has reignited broader discussions on social media around Vermont’s aging population, shrinking workforce, and the role of legal immigration in sustaining rural communities. It does not appear to have been covered by many – if any – statewide media outlets other than VDC and Compass Vermont.
Yesterday, Tuesday June 3, VDC asked state officials about worker staffing in the state’s nursing homes. Rebecca Silbernagel, Principal Assistant to the commissioner of DAIL, responded with the following information.
Between June 1, 2024, and June 1, 2025, four out of the state’s 36 licensed nursing homes — 11.1% — were cited for violating Vermont’s more stringent staffing standards. Six facilities, or 16.7%, were found to be out of compliance with federal staffing regulations. All four of the homes cited for violating state rules were also included in the federal count.
While DAIL does not track specific staff numbers, the agency’s Division of Licensing and Protection surveys nursing homes to ensure sufficient care hours are being provided. Facilities can be cited when direct care hours fall short of legally mandated thresholds.
State requirements mandate that nursing homes provide a minimum of three hours of direct care per resident per day, averaged weekly. Of that, at least two hours must be provided by licensed nursing assistants (LNAs) or equivalent staff, excluding administrative duties or meal preparation.
Federal regulations, under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, require that facilities maintain “sufficient nursing staff” with the appropriate skills to meet the physical, mental, and psychosocial needs of residents, based on individualized care plans and facility assessments.
As with most businesses, staff shortages are due in part to revenue shortages. In January, 2023, a 30-bed Newport nursing home closed due to low insurance reimbursement rates. At the time, the Visiting Nurses Association of Vermont reported that:
- Vermont has the oldest population in the nation. (As of 2025 Vermont has the second-oldest population, with Maine #1.)
- Vermont’s long-term care facilities are woefully understaffed.
- Vermont’ long-term care facilities are at maximum capacity. Contributing factors to the scarcity of beds are many.
- Vermont’s long-term care facilities are severely underfunded. Part of the problem is low insurance reimbursement rates; another is the nursing shortage requiring heavy reliance on expensive ‘traveler’ nurses.
“We are past the point of preventing a crisis in care,” Jill Mazza Olson, executive director of Visiting Nurses Associations of Vermont, said in a January 5, 2023 statement.
A 2021 Agency of Human Services report on health care worker shortages recommends recruiting workers from out-of-state but does not specifically call for more immigrant workers, legal or illegal.