Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Good

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: morning, everyone. Welcome to US Government Operations and Military Affairs. It is Thursday, May 28, 09:10 in the morning, and we are having more discussion about the Senate proposal of amendment on H-nine 35, an act relating to emergency management. Robert As Hangu is the reporter of the bill, I will hand off to her for this discussion.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Okay, great. Thank you very much. So we heard the Senate proposal of amendments yesterday from the bill reporter and heard from counsel. I wanted to add one last thing because I was unclear about the very last section that they added on emergency rules. I received clarification from ANR, Department of Environmental Conservation, Deputy Commissioner Kaman last night. And this is what I learned. And I should remember this because the miscellaneous environment bill came to us, H-six 32. And in that bill, we took a position on sections seventeen and eighteen, which was establishing emergency rules. And it basically says to authorize a state agency to use the emergency rulemaking process instead of the normal process if an amendment to a federal statute, rule, or policy will materially conflict with or threaten the ability of the agency to implement a statutory or regulatory program required under Vermont law. So if there's an emergency and there's a reason why you can't go into the river, this is a good example in our situation, then the agency is empowered to make rules to allow for that to happen. And that goes through LCAR. Emergency rules are only valid for one hundred and eighty days and LCAR can object to the proposed emergency rule on the basis that it doesn't qualify for emergency rulemaking. This is really after Hurricane Irene and the use of bulldozers and excavators in the rivers, that type of thing. This also will repeal the new emergency rulemaking authority on 07/01/2028. So that was in that miscellaneous environment bill, which ended up getting stuck on the wall in house environment and not passed. And this is something that the agency feels that we really need. So the Senate put this on, and that's where that came from. I just wanted to be really clear and transparent about that. So with that, I think any questions on any of the amendments? VL, you're pondering.

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: No, I'm just going through one more.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Pinsonault, was that a No, was just Did we talk about the communication funding? Ah, yes. We glossed over it with Chris Rutland from JFO. Basically, Senate appropriations at the very last minute took out whatever would be remaining of the funds from the original $11,000,000 appropriation over two years to DPS for the public safety communications work. And the remaining money in our calculations was going to be $2,540,000 Senate appropriations took out the ability for the task force and DPS to come back and ask for that money. But they are looking at awarding that money to a pilot project in Washington County. And that conversation is now happening in the Budget Committee Conference. So it's my understanding that that conversation is moving forward. I've seen some language today that needs to be commented on to bring that to fruition in the Budget committee at conference. So I'm in favor of concurring with the Senate proposals of amendment, all of them, in H935 and deferring to the budget conferees for the remainder of that. And I will say on the record, I'm not crazy about the appropriation of that money for one particular pilot project, but I don't think at this point I have much to say in it, so we'll just move forward. It is something that Department of Public Safety is somewhat comfortable with knowing that it fits with the statewide plan. It's just a matter of funding it in its entirety. There is no money to bring this plan to fruition. So where the remaining money comes from is gonna be up to a future legislature. So it's kind of like, really wanna throw this money at a project that you know you can't finish, but maybe they can do part of it. And that technicality, I don't really understand or know exactly what they're gonna be able to do with that. But Senate GovOps heard from them, and now the budget folks are listening to them as well, meaning Central Vermont, Regional Planning Commission, who would be the fiscal agent for this, and Capital Fire, which is a mutual aid group of, I believe, 15 different entities who would be working together. Rutland Waters Evans. I just want to thank you

[Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: for all the hard work you did on this. You have been eagle eyed, fun and around, making sure everybody's staying on the same page. It's impressive. Appreciate your hard work.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you. It was frustrating and fun, but we're coming to the end of it. So it'd be great to get this passed in the house. So barring any further comments, questions, discussion, I will call for a favorable thumbs on this Senate proposal of amendment. Sandy? Seven eight.

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Tippy got it.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: You're on speaker. Three. Okay, thank you very much, all of you. And with that, Nick, I think we can go off live.