Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: Will the house please come to order and members kindly take their seats? Good morning. The devotional today will be led by representative Amy Sheldon of Middlebury.

[Representative Amy Sheldon]: Good morning, everyone. Good morning. This is, one of my very favorite readings, and it's called fear of transformation. Sometimes I feel that my life is a series of trapeze swings. I'm either hanging on to a trapeze bar swinging along, or for a few moments in my life, I'm hurtling across space in between trapeze bars. Most of the time, I spend my life hanging on for dear life to my trapeze bar of the moment. It carries me along a certain steady rate of swing, and I have the feeling that I'm in control of my life. I know most of the right questions and even some of the right answers. But once in a while, as I'm merrily or not so merrily swinging along, I look ahead of me into the distance, and and what do I see? I see another trapeze bar swinging toward me. It's empty. And I know in the place in me that knows that this new trapeze bar has my name on it. It is my next step, my growth, my my aliveness going to get me. In my heart of hearts, I know that for me to grow, I must release my grip on the present well known bar to move to the new one. Each time it happens to me, I hope, know, I pray that I won't have to grab the new one. But in my knowing place, I know that I must totally release my grasp on the old bar, and for some moment in time, I must hurdle across space before I can grab onto the new bar. Each time, I'm filled with terror. It doesn't matter that in all my previous hurdles across the void of unknowing, I've always made it. Each time, I'm afraid I will miss, that I will be crushed on unseen rocks in the bottomless chasm between the bars, but I do it anyway. Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics called the faith experience. No guarantees, no net, no insurance policy, but you do it anyway because somehow to keep hanging on to that old bar is no longer on the list of alternatives. And so for an eternity that can last a microsecond or a thousand lifetimes, I soar across the dark void of the past is gone. The future is not yet here. It's called transition. I've come to believe that it's the only place that real change occurs. I mean real change, not the pseudo change that only lasts until the next time my old buttons get punched. I've noticed that in our culture, this transition zone is looked as looked upon as a no thing, a no place between places. Sure. The old trapeze bar was real, and the new one coming towards me, I hope that's real too. But the void in between, that's just a scary, confusing, disorienting nowhere that must be gotten through as fast as and as unconsciously as possible. What a waste. I have a sneaking suspicion that the transition zone is the only real thing, and the bars are illusions we dream up to avoid the void where the real change, the real growth occurs. Whether or not my hunch is true, it remains that the transition zones in our lives are incredibly rich places. They should be honored, even savored. Yes. With all the pain and fear and feelings of being out of control that can, but not necessarily accompany transitions. They are still the most alive, most growth filled, passionate, expansive moments in our lives. And so transformation of fear may have nothing to do with making fear go away, but rather with giving ourselves permission to hang out in the transition between trapeze bars, transforming our need to grab that new bar, any bar, is allowing ourselves to dwell in the only place where change really happens. It can be terrifying. It can also be enlightening in the true sense of the word. Hurdling through the void, we just may learn how to fly. From the Eccene book of days. And may all of you who are transitioning enjoy it.

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: Are there any announcements? Member from wealth I mean, member from Brownington. It's gonna be a day.

[Unidentified Member from Brownington (Representative)]: Nine year olds have traveled seventy five minutes from the land of lakes and mountains, from the town of a thousand residents, the town of Orleans, located between beautiful Crystal Lake to the South and the legendary Lake Willoughby to the North. These girls and boys have embarked on their class trip to join us in these hallowed halls of the Vermont State House. They're under the direction of one of our outstanding Orleans County teachers, Rebecca Courier. Madam Speaker, help me welcome the fourth graders from Orleans Graduate School.

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: Will the guest member from Brownington please rise and be recognized? Members, the chair has two updates for you. First, this is a reminder to clean out everything from your fridges before you leave tonight. And our cleaning staff would greatly appreciate that. And we will be having a caucus of the whole here in the house chamber at 11:15 to get an update on the budget, the education bill, and the yield bill. This also may be our last set of announcements for the day. So are there any further announcements? Member from Burlington.

[Representative Brian Cina]: Madam speaker, as we face the end of the session and the transition from this session to the next one, it's an opportunity for us to reflect on what works and what doesn't work about the processes of this body. And I've been talking with members of of all of our caucuses, the Democrats, Republicans, progressives, and independents, and have come up with a set of proposed rules changes for the future. And I'm going to be emailing these out to the whole body. And if any members are interested in talking more about ways we can improve our process through changing the rules, we may have a little meeting during one of the breaks today. So we may ask to make an announcement or we may send out an email or something. And if not today, maybe another time soon. And if anyone has any questions about these rules changes, please reach back out. Thank you.

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: Are there any further announcements? Seeing oh, member from Brattleboro.

[Representative Mollie S. Burke]: Thank you, madam speaker. I just wanted to say a few words upon my departure from this body. It is difficult to leave this very special place. A place of action, excitement, challenge, and disappointment. A place of conflict and reconciliation. I can't imagine any other place like this. The connections we have here and make here are special and significant. Madam speaker, I want to thank you for your leadership, for holding this body together, for your kindness and empathy. There are many people who keep both this building and the institution of the legislature running smoothly. I'm so grateful to them. I'm also grateful for the opportunity to serve here, to be part of this wonders wondrous democratic experience to serve my town and my state. There are challenges out in the wider world that are affecting us here. We now need a security system for the public to enter the building. We no longer list our home addresses on the legislative website. There's certain there's a certain sadness about this. Yet we are still a body where friendships can transcend party, where there is room for compromise and collegiality, for humor, and respectful disagreement. My fervent hope is that we can nurture these qualities and that Vermont can continue to be a model for dialogue and discussion, avoiding rancor and anger. I will miss this place deeply, and I will miss all of you. My life has been profoundly impacted by my eighteen years here, and the impact will continue to reverberate with my departure. Thank you, madam speaker.

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: Are there any further announcements? Member from Montpelier?

[Representative Conor Casey]: First of all, madam speaker, Mollie Burke is an absolute treasurer, and I'm I'm going miss her so much. I have some less sentimental remarks. This might be my last time speaking on the floor. And I wanna say I I have no regrets, in my time here. I don't regret hanging up a, big mouth Billy Bass in the men's room near the urinals so that I would sing to everybody coming in. I don't regret putting 20 pound weights in Manila folders and handing them to pages to make them stronger. I don't regret sending threatening notes, from the chair of senate institutions to my own chair, telling her the capital bill is awful, to her. Rage. I do a little bit regret, my token session where I made the clerk of the house say the pledge of allegiance and then recited a one man play, and I am sorry about that. But I would regret if I didn't stand up today and tell you that a crime has been committed and we do need justice by the end of the day. Couple months ago, I walked into house corrections and institutions, and there was a rancid smell, the worst thing I've ever smelled. Now, typically, this would be like curdled milk or a leftover cake or something. This was bad, and it was even worse the next day. I crawled on the ground to investigate, smelling shoes, smelling my committee members. I went home and showered twice a couple days because I thought it was me. And then after three weeks of excruciating putrid smell, I bumped my head on the desk as I was getting up for the shoes and discovered we have pen drawers on some of those. I never knew we did. In the pen drawer was a moldy, disgusting, offensive glob of cheese on a note that said, say cheese. It was the worst thing I've ever seen. I pulled open the neighboring pen drawer of the member from Barrytown, and again, a glob of cheese that said cheese on it. It was a bipartisan cheesing, madam speaker. This injustice cannot stand. We only have one day left of the session. And I'm gonna tell you, the craven who did this and did not come forward has until the end of the day, or I will recite James Joyce's Ulysses in its entirety at the end of the night. They have until the end of the day, madam speaker, because here's a message to them. I will find this sounds like I'm saying it to you, madam speaker, I'm not. I will find you, madam speaker, and hunt you down, but not you, madam speaker. And we have to solve this by the end of the day. So thank you very much. Yeah.

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: Are there any further announcements? Member from Weitzfield.

[Representative Dara Torre]: Madam speaker, I just wanna briefly, recognize that there are three members from the transportation committee retiring this year. And our committee, we think is special because it for many reasons, but it we represent a very wide political spectrum from pretty far left to pretty far right and everything in between. And under the very capable chairmanship of the member from Swanton, I think we have achieved a pretty special camaraderie in the committee where we can speak freely and communicate effectively and respectfully and occasionally have some good laughs. And the three members retiring all contributed to that really pretty wonderful sense of camaraderie that we had. So the member from Winooski who's been here just two years like I have, but was really consistent in making sure she was representing her immigrant community and public transit and kind of making sure that she was pushing policies forward that supported that community. Then the representative from Hinesburg who was a constant voice for towns and remembering how much they are struggling with paying for important maintenance for roads and highways. And he also made sure that we had a very clear understanding of pretty much every issue that came through our committee by just asking consistently scrutinizing questions on a daily basis. And then finally, the member from Brattleboro whose eighteen year commitment to this body is so notable and and in her quiet but extremely effective manner of continuing to push for environmental initiatives in the transportation committee for bike and pedestrian projects, for EVs, and, you know, things that maybe weren't traditionally under transportation. But, you know, reminding us that transportation in Vermont represents 30, at least 30% of our greenhouse gas emissions. So, you know, pushing forward policies that helped us achieve our climate goals and and helped affordability. So I just wanted to say, I think on behalf of our whole committee, thank you to these three members for their contributions and and they will be missed.

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: We wish you all the best members. Member from Burlington.

[Representative Barbara Rachelson]: Madam speaker, we have two members, the member from Georgia and the member from Norwich who are leaving us hopefully only for now. They are both passionate about public education and the education fund. I love them both and will miss them tremendously and our committee will also.

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: We wish you all the best members. Are there any further announcements? Seeing none, orders of the day. Members we will begin with House Bill nine thirty one which is an act relating to miscellaneous changes in education law. The bill passed the senate in concurrence with a proposal of amendment that is printed in today's calendar. Member from Williston.

[Representative Erin Brady]: I will begin on page, thirty nine eighty one of today's calendar and just speak to the additions that the senate made to our miscellaneous education bill this year. The first new section, section five, creates an intercollegiate sexual harm prevention council, in order to advance best practices for prevention of and response to campus sexual harm, and this was, worked out among all of the involved parties and agreed upon. Section six of the additions from the senate, expands the membership of the harass hazing, harassment, and bullying advisory council, And section seven includes $21,000, for increased per diems or per diems for the increased membership. However, it's not anticipated all of that would actually be used as many of the new positions on the council, would be participating as part of their regular job duties. And finally, section eight makes a very small change to energy performance contracting and adds to the list of cost saving measures. Already, we had facility improvement and repair. This adds addition as one of the potential, considerations for cost saving measures. Your house education committee supported the new changes on a vote of eleven zero zero.

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: So the question is shall the house concur in the senate proposal of amendment? Are you ready for the question? If so, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, please say nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it and you have concurred in the senate proposal of amendment. Member from Pulte, can you please offer us a motion to deliver house bill nine thirty one to the governor forthwith?

[Representative Amy Sheldon]: Madam speaker, I make a motion to deliver h nine three one to the governor forthwith.

[Representative Jill Krowinski (Speaker of the House)]: The member from Pultely moves that we deliver house Bill nine thirty one to the governor forthwith. Are you ready for the question? If so, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, please say nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it and you have ordered house bill nine thirty one to be delivered to the governor forthwith. Members, we will have several bills to take up during our next, time that we meet at 1PM. So please keep an eye on your email, for those bills coming in. With that, the house will stand in recess until the fall of the gavel.