Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Great, it looks like it's working. Hi everyone, welcome to House Rules. That is 11/13/2025. On our agenda today, we will be hearing a proposal from legislative council around drafting deadlines, and then we'll have a conversation and possible vote on the resolution that reflects those changes. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Brynn.

[Brynn Hair, Director & Chief Counsel, Office of Legislative Counsel]: Okay, Thank you, everyone. So Brynn Hair, Director and Chief Counsel of Legislative Counsel, here with a proposal to change some of the deadlines that are set forth in your House rules. The proposal includes three changes, three deadline changes. The first is the change to the house request deadline. The second is the change to the deadline for changes to drafts. And the third is the approve for introduction deadline. So I'm making this request for three reasons. So I'm hoping you'll humor me and give me a chance to talk about the reasons why I'm putting this forward. The first is for quality control. The second is for management of the volume of requests that we receive. And the third is for member service. So I think that this proposal strike the balance here that will impact the quality of the bill drafts we're able to produce for you all while also maintaining your chamber's efficiency and your ability to introduce bills and time to make it to crossover. So my request is to move back first the House request deadline. Right now, under the current rule, the deadline for request for a bill is the December. And so this proposal would move that, shift that back to December 5, a date certain. So that would provide a few more weekdays for members to request drafts from legislative council after the Thanksgiving holiday. I think that quite a few people are often traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday, and if we move that date shift that date back, it won't like, for for example, this year, falls on a Monday, so it's December 1, which is a Monday, would be the request deadline. So this would shift it back a few days and give members, you know, up to five more weekdays to request their drafts. So that is the first change that's proposed. The second is the shifting back the change or shifting back the deadline for approval as to contents of a bill. Right now, that deadline is the Friday before the opening of session, which this year falls on January 2. So the proposal is to shift that date back by about two weeks to January 15, a date certain. And the rationale here is this is going to provide legislative staff an additional two weeks to connect with members and finish their bill drafting, and it importantly provides that additional two weeks when the members are back in the building. So I think it will be much easier for staff to connect with members, much easier for members to connect with staff to get those drafts wrapped up if the deadline is shifted back to once you're already in session and back in the building. And the third amendment is to push back the deadline for approved for introduction. Currently in rule, that approved for introduction deadline is Wednesday in the second week of the session, which this year falls on January 14. So it would be to push back that deadline to January 31. So that gives the members about two weeks to find co sponsors for their bills and officially get them signed off for introduction. So with that said, here is the rationale behind this request. So as you all know, the really sort of complex ideas that are presented by members require adequate time for legal analysis, careful drafting, ensuring technical accuracy. Historically, our attorneys and alleged counsel have really struggled to reach members over the December holidays, and I'm certain God forbid, I imagine that sometimes happens in the reverse, that members have trouble reaching staff. So this year, as I mentioned, the deadline falls on January 2, which would require getting sign off from members really sort of on New Year's Eve, like right over the New Year's holiday. And there are consequences to that timing. If we're not able to reach members or, you know, like I said, if, god forbid, members can't reach us, that really compromises legislative council's ability to draft in a way that meets members' intent. So that really is the sort of quality control piece. The second piece is about volume management. Our office typically in the last several biennia receive on average around 500 requests for bills in the second year of the biennium, and historically about 30 to 37% of those requests are received just in the days prior to the deadline, the drafting request deadline. So that means that we're drafting more than a third of our bills in the four weeks prior to the beginning of session. And as you all know, that those four weeks include the winter holidays. And the winter holidays do tend to be a time when attorneys try to take some time off to be with their families. So pushing that second deadline, the approval of the contents, back to January 15, like I said before, allows a little cushion of time for staff to meet with the members and finalize your drafts once you're all back in the building and easier for us to trace down. And then lastly, the last piece is really just about member service. You all deserve the highest quality work products from our office, and your staff also deserve the time they need to create that high quality work. So the additional time is just gonna allow attorneys a little bit more time to better understand members' intent and create bill drafts that reflect that intent. So it is my hope that this proposal strikes a balance in meeting the needs of the members and also meeting the needs of staff and that it will really improve the quality of service and drafting that you receive from legislative council. And the last thing I would like to say, if you'll humor me for another minute, is just that the sort of most difficult challenging time in the biennial cycle for staff is December and January at the second year of the biennium, and that especially in January is a challenge because, as you know, your committees really hit the ground running in January of the second year. So what that means for attorneys is that we tend to be the attorneys tend to be booked in committee during the day, and that leaves really only the evening and the nighttime for them to both do draft amendments that the committees are proposing during the day and also finish drafting the new bill request. So one of my primary goals as the director is to reduce burnout and turnover among your attorney staff. This is a you know, legislative council is a very unique job with a unique skill set, and I think that the members are really best served by experienced attorneys, seasoned attorneys that have experience in the building, staffing their subject matter area. And every time we lose an attorney, we have to rebuild that experience in the subject matter area. So my my goal and my hope is to is to strike this balance so attorneys really have the time they need and are and are feel like they have the time they need to do their job to the best of their ability. So with that, I will pause. Or actually, it might it might be helpful to just turn to the second page of the of the proposal and and show you that there are a couple of changes on the second page as well that are not substantive changes, but rather changes that are really for conformity to the rest

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: of the rule.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Great. Representative McCoy?

[Patricia McCoy (Member)]: Oh, yes. I just wanna double check and make sure because there's no date in here. This once we approve this, it will be it will be effective now. So this year, we're not going to follow the December 1, we would follow the December 5 deadline?

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: So this, what we're doing will require a resolution to be passed. So that's what you have in front of you. We don't have that much power. I thought we might, but we don't. What this means, and remember, this isn't just for next session, when this passes, this is for moving forward until the committee decides to change it again. So the current rules will hold until we have our vote on the resolution. So January 6 is our first day, so we'll introduce it on the sixth, then, as we typically do, and then take it up for action on the following day, which would be January 7. So to be clear for members, our current rules will hold until we pass this on the seventh, so that last deadline would apply, would be the one thing that makes this time around, and then next biennium, they'll have these full date change in place. Does that make sense?

[Patricia McCoy (Member)]: Yeah. So the, so the December 1 deadline holds, and then if it's passed when we're in the house, the oh, and the January 2 one will hold as well. Correct. Okay. So it is just last one. Okay. Yeah. Great.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Do we wanna just do a quick walkthrough of the resolution perhaps? Would that be helpful for members just to see what the looks like in the form of the resolution, these changes?

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: Betsy, do you mind doing Sure, a quick

[BetsyAnn Wrask (House Clerk)]: I can do a share screen. Yeah, that would be great. Can you see this okay? Maybe not. How about now? All right.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Okay, great.

[BetsyAnn Wrask (House Clerk)]: Great. This is just your standard House resolution format. This is a draft now. If you do approve this, I would change the sponsorship to be the committee on rules and this is just an amendment to your house rules for the introduction deadlines that are set forth in house rule 40. You just see that it begins with subsection A which is your rules for the first year of the biennial which would not change under this draft. And so they're just shown with those three asterisks. So then you move on to the changes that the director just described for the second year, the biennium, which provides that during that second year, except with the prior consent of this committee, member has to follow the following deadlines for standard form bill drafts. Submitting their draft request to Legg Council by December 5 instead of the December. Not requesting any changes in the bill contents after January 15. Right now your rule is the Friday before session. Approving the bill for public release with any co sponsors by January 31. Right now that's Wednesday in the second week of session. The languages are just shown here at number two at the bottom. That's for your charter deadline. Charter bill deadlines would not change. As we move on to page two, subdivision three, that is just a stylistic change. That's for your short form bills. Right now the language is just that a member needs to submit their request for a short form bill to let counsel by quote, the February. This is just for stylistic conformity with the changes made above. So just say January 15, it's cleaner, easier to read and understand. And then similarly, just a stylistic change. Subsection C is your committee bill deadline. So it's just breaking it up into subdivisions so that one is in regard to the first year, the biennium, and two is in regard to the second year, but no changes to those committee bill deadlines. Great. All right, thank you. Thank you. All right.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Any questions, feedback? Representative Bartholomew?

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: Just to be clear though, because we have specific dates, if those days fall on a weekend, does that effectively mean the deadline is moved up to the previous working day? How does that work?

[Brynn Hair, Director & Chief Counsel, Office of Legislative Counsel]: No. I mean, from my perspective, it means that is the day that the even if it falls on a weekend, that would be the deadline. So attorneys are often working on over the weekends during this these times of the session. So any drafting request that was received on December 5, if December 5 was a Sunday, would be processed and and and treated if it were arrived on a regular workday

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: Okay. For the final. Just to reemphasize what Patty was saying, I I think for this year, if this resolution passes, it would be only the public release date that would be affected this this year. Right? Right.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: The house approved for introduction deadline?

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: Mhmm.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Is that what yours

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: The January 31, I think. Yes. Yes. That's correct. Okay. That's it. Thank you.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Any further discussion?

[Patricia McCoy (Member)]: Just one more thing on what John was asking then. If somebody actually emails legislative council on December 5, and it happens to be on a Sunday, they've met the deadline or December 1 or whatever currently is. That's right. From my perspective, yes. Okay.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Just a reminder, we don't hardly ever use it, or I can't remember us using it while I've been speaker, but this committee house rules does have the ability if someone has an extenuating circumstance on a bill to give them a pass if needed. We don't use that very often, it's just important to know that there is a backup plan in case something happens with an effort. Okay.

[Karen Dolan (Member)]: I was just going to share. I appreciate this proposal and appreciate the thoughtfulness in it. Ledge Council is huge, and I think finding that balance of not burning folks out, but giving space to introduce legislation is key. So thank you for this, and the timing, I think, is very timely.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Thank you, Representative Dolan. All right.

[Brynn Hair, Director & Chief Counsel, Office of Legislative Counsel]: I can do a motion.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Yes. That would be great. Thank you.

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: And I'm

[Brynn Hair, Director & Chief Counsel, Office of Legislative Counsel]: not sure I have it. I will make a motion that we approve house resolution one draft 2.2. Do I have that right?

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Draft 2.2. Yes. Great. Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none. I will call the roll unless there's anything else that anyone wants to nope. Great. I will call the role. Representative Bartholomew?

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: Yes.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Representative Dolan? Yes. Representative Feltis? Yes. Representative Poten? Yes. Representative McCoy? Yes. Representative Tooth is absent, and I am a yes. So the motion passes, six zero one. Thank you everyone. I really do think this is a really helpful tool for our staff and our members and giving some more space on these deadlines. So thank you for your attention to this. Is everyone on board with having this resolution offered by the House Rules Committee? Yes. Great, okay, thank you. And I know it's a way, it's a way, but can we have someone ready to report this?

[Patricia McCoy (Member)]: John?

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: John always does a great job.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: John, Martha, can we sign you up?

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: Sure, why not?

[Brynn Hair, Director & Chief Counsel, Office of Legislative Counsel]: Let me know if you need anything from me, I'd be glad to help.

[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: Thank you.

[Jill Krowinski (Chair)]: Thank you. So yeah, just a reminder, we will send this out to members so they have plenty of time to see this beforehand. It will be introduced, we'll introduce it on January 6 and we'll take a vote on it January 7. If any members have any questions, they're welcome to reach out to me or to Betsy Ann or to Brynn, I'm happy to be a resource. So that concludes our agenda for today. Thanks again, and be in touch if you have any other ideas or feedback on House Rules agenda items. But with that, we are done.