Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Speaker 0]: Okay, we're live.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you. Good afternoon. House Government Operations and Military Affairs here to discuss the committee omnibus bill on the military. And we have

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Council)]: Sophie here from Ledge Council. She's here. Good afternoon. Sophie Sedatney for the Office of Legislative Council. On the agenda, you have me walking through H-eight eleven first, so did you want me to do that?

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Yes, please, because we're going to focus just on that today, since the chair is not here, we'll just look at the changes that have been made.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Council)]: Is it okay if I go ahead and share my screen?

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Yes, please.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Council)]: So, this is a 21 page bill, but it will not take me twenty one minutes to go through it. This started off as a short form bill, and it was really around just making sure there was that cross reference for the election of the adjutant general, so that folks looking in title 20 could find the reference to where the when and where the election and how that happens in title two. And then when I was in here last time, there was a discussion around cleaning up the current statutory language around adjutant general, because through the statute, the reference is to the adjutant and inspector general. And so what this bill does is go through all the sections in the statute that mention adjutant and inspector general. And then there's some little minor cleanups where there was he or she, any of that sort of gender language. There were a couple of other spots just where language has gotten tightened up. So, I don't think you want me to walk through every single time where that happened. It would get very boring. So, again and they're in chronological order through the statute. So it starts off with 10 VSA section 10, and, again, this is where the cross reference will be to. This is the current language around the election. I'm just gonna fast forward to section five because that's where where this originally started. And so here in, '20 VSA section three sixty three is that, cross reference, again, to title two, and that was really what the purpose of the original statute was. And then up to you what you want me to do, but if you want me to walk through all the others, but literally it's just taking out the and inspector, where all the places where that was in the statute. If you would just touch on which statutes

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: they affect, that would be great. If you could just go through those so we're aware of where all these statutes are. You don't have to say the number, but just the title of them. So you're aware of how many references to the adjutant general there are across our statutes. Right. Well, are 40 secondtions, I believe, if

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Council)]: I remember correctly. Well, 40 with the effective So 39 secondtions. So, title, I'm not going to do it on the screen, because you'll probably start to feel motion sick. So, section one and section two are entitled two, so that's the title that deals with the legislature, so again, that's to do with the fact that the legislature appoints elects the adjutant general. Section three is in title 16, which is the education piece, and again, that's just a reference under the Vermont National Guard Tuition Benefit Program in section three. And then section four, just want to make sure I tell you correctly, so section four through section 39, they're all in Title 20.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Well, 39 references down. Well, some of them

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Council)]: had way more, obviously in any given statute it may reference the adjective So, multiple

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: great. I was not able to write fast enough to, but that's Okay. So some of the things that are affected are awards and medals.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Council)]: Yeah, I can go through if that would be helpful. That's fine. Section four is Section three sixty one, Military Department and National Guard. Again, just that provides that the Adjutant General basically oversees the military department, and then has the authority to adopt rules. Section five is the one we just looked at, which is three sixty three in Title 20, that's the one we put in the cross reference, because it's the one that states that the adjutant general shall be biennially elected. And then there were several references within that particular section to adjutant general. Section three sixty five, which is section six of the bill on page five, is discharges to officers. Discharges to commissioned officers may be granted by the governor under rules adopted by the Adjutant General. I will say, as I went through this, a lot of them were references to rules that the Adjutant General would be adopting. Section three sixty nine, which is section seven of the bill, is the awards and medals. Section eight just changes the title, so of the chapter, one of the subchapters, one of the chapters within title 20, just to take out again the adjutant and inspector general and correct that. Section nine goes through the duties, generally, of the adjutant general. Section 10 is forms. And again, this is to do with communication with the federal government. Section 11, evidence of neglect or default in making returns. Section 12 is publication of laws, so again, this is making sure the adjutant general is informing everybody about the laws related to the National Guard. Section 13 deals with the records that the Adjutant General is required to keep, and section 14, the war records and files, again, that the Adjutant General is responsible for. Section 15 deals with the sexual assault and harassment provision, which again is the Adjutant General's responsible for reporting to the General Assembly regarding complaints on an annual basis. Section 16 deals with the provost marshal, and the appointments. Under that, the adjutant general may appoint someone to serve as the provost marshal. Section 17 is duties generally, but this has to do with the preservation, safekeeping, and cleaning of ordnance arms, accoutrements, ammunitions, munitions of war, and implements of every description. So this is more, I think, what the inspector general would have done originally, which, again, that came out the last when there was a last modernization of the statutes. Section 18 is deals with instructions to commanding officers. Section 19, provision for pay to make sure folks get their pay. Section 20 deals with the Board of Armoury Commissioners and who's a member of the Board of Armoury Commissioners. Section 21 looks at when and by whom the National Guard is called out. Section 22 deals with the duties of officers. Section 23 is the duties of enlisted members. Section 24 is damaged or destroyed property, and section 25 deals with the storage of property. And then section 26 gets into court marshals. Section 27 deals with expenses of military courts. And then section 28 talks about the rules of the National Guard. Again, there were several references around the creation of rules. Section 29 deals with commanding officer nonjudicial discipline as does section 30. Section 31 deals with appeals from nonjudicial discipline decisions. Section 32 deals with the adjutant general's duties as to veterans' affairs. Section 33 deals with the recipients in office space. Section 34 deals with cooperation with local organizations. Section 35 deals with acceptance of gifts, services, and facilities. Section 36 deals with the Vermont Veterans Fund. 37 deals with the Veterans Memorial Cemetery Advisory Board. 38 deals with aid to veterans in need, and then 39 deals with veteran education.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Well, thank you. That is a really good rundown of all of the things that are in our jurisdiction in terms of the military affairs part of our committee. So that's helpful. Did you learn at all through this how we missed removing an inspector from the statutes the last time we did the modernization? Because there was a whole conversation about it, I'm not recalling the reason.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Council)]: So I did ask Damian, who was the legislative council at the time, and to the best of his recollection, is it kind of came up, it was a conversation towards the end, and it was sort of, people just didn't have the appetite to go back. I mean, given the extensive nature of it, they just didn't have the appetite to take it on then. But, yeah, I mean, as far as I could tell historically, it was because that those two roles were separate. And then at some point, the two roles were combined. So that was sort of the historical reason for it. But there didn't seem to be any concerns around removing the end inspection. But that was my main concern, like, why wouldn't they have done it when the modernisation happened? But I think it just sort of came up. Again, that was what Damien shared. It sort of came up towards the end, and people were just like, we need to move the bill on. We're just not ready to That take this sounds

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: familiar to me, but I'm really glad you asked, because that's been a burning question in my mind, and I just haven't seen Damian around. So thank you very much for that. Any questions for Sophie before we wrap up this portion of the bill?

[Speaker 0]: It's just Rev Coffin? Just the one, because I'm trying to refresh my memory, and I thought it was your testimony. The inspector general is actually a federal position.

[Sophie Sedatney (Office of Legislative Council)]: Was the testimony you had last time, was that that's actually a federal position. I think historically, it wasn't. Historically, there was you know, when it was just a state militia, there was an inspector general, and there was an adjutant general, and then those roles got combined. But certainly, that was not something I have personal knowledge of, but there is listed on the National Guard website for Vermont an individual who holds the position of inspector general.

[Speaker 0]: I was just trying to refresh my memory, so my notes were all shot.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: And, work Morgan, you have

[Speaker 0]: Yeah. I think it just harkens back to the day when Gajenden was also considered the quartermaster or the quartermaster work for her. And, as a result of all that collective stuff that you are responsible or accountable for that comes from federal monies, they had that duty of like VL said, there was a federal nexus of they would come in and audit or inspect and go, you guys got problems. You're missing this or you're missing that, and as well as processes. So I think it just harkens back to those days where that's done a little bit differently, VL was only doing it's different. So it's just a little historical. I believe that's my recollection of the whole process. Perhaps Joan.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: And I also just wanted to say that it seems like a small change, but it's really important because the inspector general, I'll just read it off. They serve as a confidential advisor and impartial fact finder, including for the attorney general and command team. So it's kind of like having her person who's in charge of harassment investigations also be the CEO of a company. Because the inspector general, because they're federal, kind of like, they have to be impartial and if something goes on with the attorney general themselves, like they have to be a separate person. It can't be the same person. And that's why they split it up, that came directly from, I learned about this, because I brought up on record from our National Guard who was watching it, watching the caucus of the hole, and like, woah.

[Speaker 0]: We have IG functions within the guard, but they are, they are more to up channel, like if there's a complaint. There's some issue.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: They have to be impartial and like separate. So, it seems like a small thing, but it's a big thing, and I appreciate you doing this.

[Speaker 0]: It's important to clarify, Yeah.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you for bringing that to us. I do remember now that we didn't do it last time we modernized. So we have this draft of H-eight 11, and my understanding is that some of the other pieces that we've been working on will be next week rolled into this, and it will be a committee bill. There are a couple of military bills that are out there, veterans related bills, that are going to be standalone bills because they're a little bit complex to put into this bill, and we don't really need to muddy the waters. We want to keep it clean. So, we'll be back in touch about that. But for now, does anybody have any concerns with this draft? No. All right. Good straightforward and thank you very much for being with us and if nobody else has any further business we can go offline.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you so much.