Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Welcome back. Are order of business for the day, we're gonna pull up a letter that legislative council has drafted for us to go to House of Court of Nations and we're just going to take a straw poll on it after she reads through it and it's very short. And then I will sign it as well as you will see there will be another signatory on it as well. And it's my impression that I believe they've already taken their vote on this letter, the added committee. So we said they support. Yes. And if it's a majority, if there are majority votes, then we will send this. Can I ask, just because we don't have everybody on there, is Debra? Okay.

[Jennifer (Jen) Carbee, Office of Legislative Counsel]: We'll have good afternoon. Jen Carby from the Office of Legislative Counsel. This is a draft memo from the chair of this committee to the chair of the Appropriations Committee with for fiscal year twenty twenty six budget adjustment recommendations. It starts out in a way that will look familiar to those of you who've been through this before. You say you appreciate the opportunity to review and provide recommendations to House Appropriations on the Governor's fiscal year twenty twenty six budget adjustment proposals. We support the healthcare related provisions in the Governor's recommended Budget Adjustment Act. And then it says the Committee would like to register our concern, however, about a new appropriation for the Department of Vermont Health Access to lease space as part of the Governor's Return to Office initiative being included in the Budget Adjustment Act rather than in the fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget. The committee believes that both the initiative and related funding should have been proposed in the fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget to give the General Assembly an opportunity to evaluate the policy proposal and its funding needs rather than the administration committing to a policy outside the legislative session and then expend expecting the General Assembly to provide an appropriation after the lease contracts had already been signed.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Well written. Yeah. Beautiful.

[Jennifer (Jen) Carbee, Office of Legislative Counsel]: Addition to the governor's budget adjustment proposals, the Committee on Healthcare and the Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry both recommend providing an appropriation of $167,700 updated, to support Bridges to Health in transitioning from its current home at the University of Vermont Extension to a new partnership with Vermont's free and referral clinics. Bridges to Health provides health programming to migrant and immigrant workers and families who live in Vermont, are not otherwise supported by state or federal programs, and face barriers to healthcare. That's just based on some of their submissions and information. And that's it.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Any discussion on it?

[Rep. Brian Cina (Member)]: We are referring to another committee. Are they also going to be listed on this or is that same language going to be in their letter? Because we're saying we both are recommending this.

[Jennifer (Jen) Carbee, Office of Legislative Counsel]: I don't know that they're doing a

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: letter. Same letter and it will be signed by both myself and was representative. Did I do Okay.

[Rep. Brian Cina (Member)]: Almost double the last question.

[Jennifer (Jen) Carbee, Office of Legislative Counsel]: His name on here somewhere? Or Yeah. I I mean, a copy of him maybe

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: since He's he's seen it. He's got a copy of that.

[Jennifer (Jen) Carbee, Office of Legislative Counsel]: Well, I just mean more so that you're not speaking with him without it looking like he is on board. I'm reluctant to say that it's from him because it's all about health care and your concerns about certain aspects that were not in their purview.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: See David Derby at the bottom?

[Jennifer (Jen) Carbee, Office of Legislative Counsel]: Once we yeah. Either there or up here

[Rep. Brian Cina (Member)]: They're doing your own memo.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Okay, so we can edit it just for that. Because it's saying both recommend. I don't believe they were sending a letter at all. And so he had asked because their committee had taken up testimony on this. And since we were recommending it, as well as his committee was recommending it, he just said, can we be a little section on your letter? Which is why we referenced them in just that paragraph on bridges. So we'll figure out the signatory thing. Appropriations can always ask questions. I'm not

[Rep. Brian Cina (Member)]: trying to complicate it. I

[Rep. Debra Powers (Member)]: to just Yeah,

[Rep. Brian Cina (Member)]: thank you.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Anything else? Yes, Debra.

[Rep. Debra Powers (Member)]: I think the first pilot let up, talking about the government and so on, I don't think we need to do that and the budget adjustment letter. I would like to see more harmony than what we seem to be singing about an activity that took place. That's how I feel. I come in here and work together, not to Yep, criticize each

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: I just felt that with the interest that the committee had when Commissioner Groves was in here, and that there were many, many questions regarding that, that I thought that we should probably state our opinion. I'm going to ask for a vote or a straw poll and if the majority, then I'm going to sub mask. Okay, absolutely. I totally understand. And I wanted to say one thing, I was remembering this yesterday. Remember that House Health Care is a policy committee. We are not a money committee. I was thinking about that when we were asking questions today about fees and stuff in the H577. And I have this memory of, oh, wait a minute. That's what ways and means does. That's what appropriations does. And what this letter is, is this is simply a policy committee stating to the appropriations committee what our opinion is, but it is the appropriations committee to actually determine whether they spend anything. So we can make our recommendations all we want and we can toss them in the trash.

[Rep. Brian Cina (Member)]: That being said, the policy piece here that is concerning to me is the governor has made decisions by signing contracts with landlords that are policy That's not just a money decision, that's a policy decision that the agency of human services workers are going to return to the office. That was a policy decision that we're being cornered into in the budget adjustment. Even though I know we all don't agree on it, I do support the language pushing back policy wise and saying, we would rather have had a discussion about this policy change versus you signing contracts and making a money decision, it now corners us into a policy decision in the budget adjustment. I wish we were all harmonized, and I can respect that there's differences. Do support leaving it in to make the point, because they always are trying to do the same thing. Then they're always saying to us, Oh, that's a policy decision in the budget, but then contracts were signed, which kind of corners us. So anyway, thank you for hearing me out.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: I think that having it in this letter, all we were pointing out was that we want to have a robust discussion about the policy, the budget is the appropriate place to put it, not the BAA retroactively. And that was, I thought that the language that Jen came up with really pointed that out, that distinction. We're not disagreeing with the policy, we're disagreeing with having it be in the process of having it be in the BAA without any discussion of the policy. In the letter, that's what we're In the letter.

[Rep. Lori Houghton (Member)]: Yeah. Daisy, I feel like that the language, the way that Jen wrote it, is very respectful and appropriate. It shows my constituents that I'm doing due diligence in terms of providing oversight. And I absolutely hope it doesn't come across as not collaborative. I think it's very professional and well done. I love the letter. I think it represents my perspective. So I'm gonna put a motion on the table.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: It's just a straw poll, I'm just gonna ask So we for don't have to vote on it? No. No. No.

[Rep. Brian Cina (Member)]: It's a straw poll

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: vote, so there's no motion. I'm looking for the majority.

[Jennifer (Jen) Carbee, Office of Legislative Counsel]: You share it again before you Oh, yes. So just so I did put in a copy here to the That's good. And then we can send it.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Oh, look at that. So just looking for the majority of the committee, if the majority of the committee agrees with the letter, we will send the letter. All those in favor of sending the letter. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and those closed. All those? Opposed? Three. All right.

[Rep. Brian Cina (Member)]: And then one absence would be, is it like 07:31? You don't have to report a poll. Okay.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: What is this, is she? No, she's not. It's struggle, it doesn't. And she still wanna go. But it

[Rep. Brian Cina (Member)]: would be seven-three-one if it was committee vote. Thanks everybody.

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Thank you, Jacqueline. Thank you, Jen, for your work. Thank you. You. So

[Jennifer (Jen) Carbee, Office of Legislative Counsel]: I will send it to you and Tasha with a copy to representative Berbe, and then you will send it Representative to

[Rep. Alyssa Black (Chair)]: Shai and Yeah. So I'll work on