Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Okay. Welcome back, folks. Just wanted to give you an update on where we're headed a little bit, both on this bill and on priorities for the session and just, I guess, overall, a little bit of shifts in things from the way we have done things in the past. So first off, on this bill, just to let you know, we will be hearing from the Department for Financial Regulation because there's health insurance requirements in here. We are also reaching out to MVP and to Blue Cross Blue Shield to see if they have any comments on the bill in terms of any particular impact on their organizations. I have actually already reached out to the Office Office of Professional Regulation to see if we can as you might recall, one of the witnesses said that I think it was from the health department that they had been coordinating with DFR and other folks. And I mean, OPR and DFR, too many Rs and Os and all that kind of stuff. So Meredith had said that, I believe. So I'm going to try to see if we can combine whatever changes might be necessary in the Secretary of State's statutes for Office of Professional Regulation into this bill. And the reason I say that is because we sort of have the risk of, okay, what if one bill makes it through and the other bill doesn't make it through? And then you have conflicting information in two different parts of statute. So I think it would be systemically better if they were all included in one bill, even if that bill then meant that it had to go to government operations to review that section of the bill. I've also asked Chair Lalonde if he wants to do a drive by of the immunity section of the bill, because that protections from civil and criminal immunity are the jurisdiction of our judiciary committee. So I'm waiting to hear back from him on that. We will probably also be hearing from a couple of witnesses that have contacted me. We'll be posting their information as public comment, but I've also offered them the ability to have fifteen minutes before the committee if they want to give testimony. They are people in opposition to the bill. So you'll be seeing things posted on today's committee page. And again, I'm offering them the ability to step in and have an opportunity to address the committee if they would like to. So in terms of assignment, I've asked Representative Eastes to be the reporter of this bill. So he will be the person sort of shepherding it along after we get through it. I am hopeful that we'll be able to reach whatever we need to do on the bill by the end of next week. And so we'll move to markup and a vote definitely by the end of next week. And so that's update on this bill, where we're headed with this bill, and what I hope to get out of that.

[Zon Eastes (Member)]: Can I ask a question? Of course. I didn't pick up from the reference that was made with respect to OPR. What aspects of this may implicate OPR?

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: The Office of Professional Regulation, they have the board, I don't know exactly what the official term is, but the physicians and licensure and certification. So there's, I don't know what the exact references are, but when the health department went through the different aspects, they found references. They brought it to the attention of OPR. OPR, I think maybe it was a timing issue. They didn't have their stuff together enough to get this in to this bill. But as I said, I think that it will be better if we can combine them. They've had some time now because the health department had sent this in to Ledge Council, I don't know, maybe six weeks ago or so, something like that. So if we're able to do that, I think that's the best course of action. If for some reason we're not, then Zon, I'll just be asking you to flag that bill when it comes in to make sure to work with government operations to make sure that the bill gets heard. It's not just we can leave it off by the wayside kind of thing. Because it might appear not to be anything too dramatic. And they might think, well, I don't know what to think. But I also mention it to the chair. So that's that on that. Okay. Second, we are going to be hearing from tomorrow. We're going to be and Thursday, we're going to be switching to budget adjustment. And I would encourage you, particularly those folks who have different departments, to go to the Joint Fiscal Office and or the Appropriations Committee to look at the presentations that were given back in December. It's probably easiest to find it on the Joint fiscal office because you can, as Anne noted, she could do a little search for budget adjustment and the documents came up. So it'd be helpful if you could look at your departments. All three departments had some issues with budget not issues, but requests and budget adjustment. So we're going to be hearing from those departments. Likewise, and this is what's a little bit different than what we have had in the past, we are allowing time on Thursday to hear briefly from organizations who have expressed a need for additional support midyear. And we are allowing between fifteen and thirty minutes per organization. And you'll see that on Thursday's agenda. So those are folks who did not make it into the governor's recommend for budget adjustment. And so we will make decisions hopefully by the end of business on Friday about what we will say to the appropriations committee about budget adjustment. Okay? So we are moving along. Right? And the reason that we are doing this is, one, we are trying to be respectful of the appropriations committee process, and yet we want to have our input considered. And again, it won't be a time to ask about base funding. It's a time to just ask about the changes that they are requesting. And for the community partners that come we're really looking to understand why it is critical for if they believe they excuse me, let me back up why they believe it's critical to be considered in budget adjustment as opposed to waiting to the FY 'twenty seven budget. So there's a relatively short, but there's a handful of organizations that have asked to be considered. And then there are some technical amendments that all in Dale. So that's in Dan and Todd's area. Last year, you might recall, we made recommendations to fully implement the Medicaid rate study that was done back in 'twenty three. And there were unintended consequences of that. And the joint fiscal office didn't there was a lot of information that didn't get shared under the previous business administrator for the Agency of Human Services. And so what ended up happening is that there were a group of residential care providers that actually got a decrease in their rate, which was not legislative intent. So that is something that we will hear about. And there were adult day providers through what I believe was an omission by Joint Fiscal Office. They were not included in the 2% cost of living increase that we gave to all other home and community based providers. I'm not sure why. We didn't catch it here. Joint fiscal didn't catch it. And so those two things I consider to be technical corrections. But I don't believe that they are included in administration's proposal. And they will be presenting to us how they came to these? They who? The department. Yes. They'll explain why they did what they did. Correct? Around the tier Those one and would be questions that we can ask them. Okay. Yes. I just didn't know if that was gonna happen in the committee setting or if you wanted us to No, BAA is gonna be all in the committee setting. So folks, if you have questions, obviously, can touch base with people that you have for contacts there. But I just want you to understand the schedule that we're working on is by close of business on Friday, I want to be able to have our recommendation. So that means that we'll hear from people, we'll have committee discussion, and we'll come to some recommendations by the end of Friday. This Friday. This Friday, Exactly. The other thing that we're going to start to do, Ray is doing a great job. We have received a number of reports, a number of reports that we've asked for. Ray is putting together a spreadsheet that identifies the report, the author, and actually a brief synopsis of each report. Right, that's what I said. Wow, she told me the draft. I said, wow, okay, she exceeded my expectations on that one.

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: That doesn't mean you

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: don't read the report.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: So the reason I'm mentioning is that is because the very first one is the supervision, supervised visitation report from Act 27. And so I would encourage you, we are taking testimony on that on, is that Thursday? Thursday. Yeah. The department is needing to reschedule, so I'm not sure when they are gonna be here. But we will be hearing from the Vermont Network. So I would encourage you to read that report prior to Thursday. Okay? You'll highlight it? Okay, thank you. So we will be taking under our oversight and accountability section. Remember last year, each week on Tuesdays, had an oversight and accountability section. We're going to be looking at those reports. And we're starting with that supervised visitation one. And I'll be upfront about why we're starting with that one, is setting the stage for a recommendation that actually the DCF team of Anne and Brenda made last year with regard to it's why we're getting this report is because only parts of the state have supervised visitation. And that means parents and children are not able to safely see each other in cases where there are issues. And that seems to be an equity issue. Well, the judiciary also The judiciary, Judge Zonay has been contacted. He has had surgery. So he is going to be weighing in on this. And we're asking him, We're not sure if he's going to be able to be here in person or on Zoom. He might

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: write something. I'm not sure he cares.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: But we are asking Judge Zonay. And so this is actually laying the groundwork for potential budget for FY27, but it's also tied to that report. So I'm just being upfront about that. And that is what we're gonna do for this week. As you might have seen, H91 was referred back to committee. And Representative Maguire and I are co sponsoring a bill that he has done all the legwork on. And I think that people probably figured out we will take another stab at trying to come up with some predictable and responsive solutions to homelessness in the state. How that will all sugar out, we don't know yet. But that will be something that we will spend a chunk of time on this year. I think that it's probably helpful for you all to know that the department has actually implemented a few of the items that are actually in H91. We

[Zon Eastes (Member)]: Had an influence.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Yeah, whatever, I'm not exactly sure. That was good to see. Those are things, however, that we would still need to put in statute so that it's predictable and dependable. So the Vermonters know what to expect from state government or what not to expect also. So that's probably just as important. There are a couple of bills in the Senate that we will take up, but that Senator Lyons is going to do first in her committee. One is on recovery residences. So I know there are a few folks here who signed on to Dan's bill and Eric's and whoever else, I think other, I don't know. 33 people. Well, that's awesome. But Senator Lyons is going to take that up first and then send it over to us. So there's this planning between our two committees about who does what first. And the other thing Senator Lyons is going to take up first that we took some initial testimony on at the end of last year is the childcare licensure. That's an issue with the or a topic with the Office of Professional Regulation and the childcare industry and the Department for Children and Families. So Senator Lyons is going to take that up first in the Senate, and then that will come to us after crossover, most likely. So those would be two significant bills that we will spend quite a bit of time on after the town meeting breaks. So just wanted to let you know where they're at and why you might not see us take up a bill that you thought that we're going to take up the topic. Yeah. Anne, did you have something you want to say? Well, add

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: ons, but and I you may mention because I'm sorry I was late getting back from the break, but because Jubilee and I worked on our homework over the summer and did have some transition youth suggestions

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: for legislation that we worked on

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: and can report back on. And I guess I have a question on one of the things that we talked about last year about trying to do this year is the student's inclusion of kids in placements issues.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Mental agenda or otherwise. Yeah, I actually have a mental agenda of several child welfare. Great. Yeah, Todd.

[Todd Nielsen (Member)]: I have a housekeeping question.

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: Yeah.

[Todd Nielsen (Member)]: I could not find age five forty five anywhere. I searched all over for it. Instead of my wife.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: It's right on our committee page. It wasn't there until It wasn't right. It wasn't there until

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: because it will.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Let me explain. Okay. So it was under bill introductions this morning, or actually it was posted yesterday, under Bill Introductions on the front page. And so it doesn't get you can't search for it in the search function until after it's assigned to a committee.

[Todd Nielsen (Member)]: I even though I didn't mean to cut you up. Even though it's on the wall, I couldn't find it in here.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Right now, you should be able to find it. I didn't I'm not from my nap. It was taken days ago when I got our attention. No. Two days ago, you wouldn't have been able to find it.

[Todd Nielsen (Member)]: Oh, so it's not me.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: No. It is not him. No. No worries. It's The the

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: list of

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: bills to introduced, but

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: not till yesterday. And they're gone from that now because they got introduced. And so it's moving. It keeps moving.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Thank you. Yeah. So you didn't there was no issue with your looking for it. It wasn't there until yesterday.

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: Brenda? What does a nonprofit have to have for certification documentation, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, to get state funds if they don't have a nine ninety on file?

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: I don't know the answer to that question.

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: Me either. I've been trying my best, everybody. Nobody seems to have an answer yet. Our money's being given away. I don't know.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: I guess I've No paper trail. I would because the administration

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: should

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: be able I was just gonna say.

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: Administration should be able

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: to The yeah. I've tried everybody. Yeah. General, secretary of state, everybody. Nobody has So, an

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: they would have the requirements. I don't know what to You don't either.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: I will encourage you to contact the Deputy Secretary of Administration, Sean Brown.

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: I haven't done that one. Okay.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: And ask him for the contracting requirements. For state government, because there's a bulletin.

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: There's two different bulletins, one for grants, one

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: for contracts.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Thank you. And you want for grants.

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: I want for grants. Anne, who is he again? I got his Deputy

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Secretary of Administration. You so much. Works in the governor's Maybe finally, I got a name. He should be able to send you a copy. Probably, if you went to the secretary of administration's website and you put in, I think it's Bolton 4 0.3, don't ask me why that's sticking in my head, but ask him. He can give you an official answer.

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: Him asked just sent me an IRS tracking to go to too. So

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: In terms of requirements for No. To get any answers. But I'll agree. I'm gonna

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: go that. I'll do both. I'll do him first. Then I'll go to the IRS.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Those are the requirements for having a state contract.

[Doug Bishop (Member)]: Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Okay, are there any other questions about what the schedule is going to look like, where we're headed, anything like that? So the big things we're going to be focusing on in each department, we're going to be having an opioid settlement conversation. There's lots of stuff going on in that realm. And Eric has been serving as our rep on that committee. I'm not sure he is thanking me for that recommendation. Yes, I am. So we're going to have some discussions about that. You may recall last year, we enabled the committee to give their recommendations and the department to give their recommendations separately because up till now, they have pretty much aligned. However, this year, that's not the case. And so we won't be having that discussion. And we will be having a separate bill like we did last year for the Opioid Settlement Fund. It will travel separately. Eric has put in a what do call it? Short form. Short form bill. So that's an appropriation bill we'll have to get done before crossover as well.

[Zon Eastes (Member)]: Are those two sets of recommendations publicly available at this point?

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: I don't know the answer to that question. I haven't received them yet.

[Eric Maguire (Member)]: Eric might I don't know. The OSAC website may be updated because the meeting that we had on Monday, which is public meeting, we did provide and voted on our recommendations. Yeah.

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: Okay. Was gonna say I've already heard from a group that got left out that's upset. Oh, yeah.

[Zon Eastes (Member)]: Yes. So

[Anne B. Donahue (Ranking Member)]: so so somebody's getting an idea of what's on it or not.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: And and I

[Zon Eastes (Member)]: don't know if I understood you correctly, madam. Were you saying that the department or the commissioner has set their list as well or that they have the ability to and we should be seeing two lists?

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: I have not received it yet. But they will be sending a separate list. Okay. And so we'll that's that's one of the bills that has to get done before crossover. It has to go to appropriations because that'll be in the context of the budget. So I'm just trying to think of other things. At Dale, there have been I don't know if other folks have been being reached out, but I have heard from other colleagues in the State House about payment reform at Dale and some not so smooth implementation going on around payment reform that we heard quite a bit of testimony on last year. So we'll be having them in to give us an update. We'll be talking to providers about the impact that it's having on them as well as to families and individuals around how the conflict free case management implementation is going, or not as the case may be. And then we have our first Medicaid rate report coming in from Act 14, age 13, Act 14. So we're going to have a busy year. Let's just say we're going to have a busy year. And we're going to try to be as efficient as possible. And again, as I offered last year, if you have specific witnesses on a specific topic that we're going to take up, just let me know. And we can send them an invitation. They can also be invited to submit written testimony, which I want to be clear about is just as valid as any other testimony. We have two letters that we've received on H545 that Laurie will be posting, if she hasn't already because she's speedy, that think one that everybody received and one that it looked like only I received, but everybody might have received it also. But we want to make sure it's in the official record. So that will be there. And anything else? Anybody have any thoughts, questions? Alright. I'll see y'all back here tomorrow morning. Alright.

[Zon Eastes (Member)]: Thank you.

[Theresa Wood (Chair)]: Drive safely if you're driving.