Meetings
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[Senator Seth Bongartz]: I voted against this bill to begin with.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator will come to order. In lieu of a devotional, we'll take a moment of silence. Thank you. Are there any announcements? Senator from Rutland.
[Senator Brian Collamore]: Thank you, mister president. I move that the committee on government operations be relieved of s three twenty two, which is an act relating to removing the power of Vermont corporations to spend money on election activities, and that the bill be committed to the committee on judiciary.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Rutland has moved that the committee on government operations be relieved of s three twenty two, an act relating to removing the power of Vermont corporations to spend money on election activities, and that the bill be committed to the committee on judiciary. Are you ready for that question? If so, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. The ayes have it, and you have moved s three twenty two to the committee on judiciary. We now have a house bill for reference, h five twenty seven, sponsored by representative Sebelius of Dover. Please listen to the first reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H five twenty seven, an act relating to extending the sunset of 30 VSA section two forty eight a.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now the bill has been read the first time and is referred to the committee on finance. That brings us to the orders of the day. We have up for action s 18, an act relating to reducing chloride contamination of state waters, for third reading. Are there any amendments prior to third reading? Senator from Washington.
[Senator Andrew Perchlik]: Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Hardy and I do have an amendment to take a look at which I believe is in the calendar. It is two instances of amendment and the first instance just to clarify comes in section three. Section three as I'm sure you're all thoroughly remembering is a section asking ANR to do a report on covered salt piles and the very last line that section, asked them to, as a part of their study, include a proposed annual amount of funding that would be required to meet the timelines for covering or movement and as I was, preparing this report I thought that might imply that we are in fact requiring that these salt piles be covered and that is not in fact the case. And so asked for it to be reworded into that leads us to the language in lieu thereof, which is including an estimate of the time necessary to cover or move all facilities requiring cover or movement and an estimated annual amount of funding that would be needed for cover or movement. So just to make it clear that we're not requiring that at this point. And then the second instance of amendment is in regard to the fee report. I realize it's this big paragraph, really the only piece of it that is being changed here is that in addition to asking them to come back with some estimation of commercial salt applicator fees. This includes municipal as well. And so that is the amendment. It's pretty clarifying and technical And I, we did take a straw poll in committee on this in natural resources, and it was, unanimously, approved. Thank you.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: The question, senator from Mattos.
[Senator Christopher Mattos]: Thank you, mister president. I just wanted to, weigh in on behalf of the senate finance committee. We also looked at this amendment and, we took an official vote, although we didn't need to apparently, and it was six zero one and we're all fine with it. Thank you.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Thank you senator. Question now is shall the bill be amended as proposed by the senator from Washington and others? Are you ready for that question? If so, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. Nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it, and you have amended the bill as proposed by the senator from Washington and others. Question now is, shall the got it. Are there any other amendments prior to third reading? Seeing none, please listen to the third reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: S two eighteen, an act relating to reducing chloride contamination of state waters.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Question now is shall the bill pass in concurrence with proposal of amendment? Are you ready for that question? If senator from Washington.
[Senator Andrew Perchlik]: Thank you, mister president. There were a couple of questions that I wanted to address that came on second reading and so I do have a handout to go with my explanation for the answers to the questions. Just to start, one of the questions was about participation in the New Hampshire program. A few words about that. The New Hampshire program started ten years ago with just commercial applicators and then recently included municipal certification program. As of the twenty twenty three-twenty four winter there were seven twelve commercial SALT folks who participated in the training representing 177 companies and then as of twenty twenty five-twenty six this winter they're up to seven thirty two, and so that's one answer. And then the other, question had to do with, data and so we have some delightful data to pass out to you. So as that's being passed out, I will just say that as a part of my remarks the other day, did mention that all bodies of water are seeing increases in salts contamination in that. I will confess this is a bit of an overstatement but it is honestly how I remembered it. So I'm grateful to have the opportunity to go back and look at the data to see what it says. Do think it speaks for itself though I am going to go through some of it since there was a question about it. I think it is more apt or more accurate to say that there are bodies of water across the state that are experiencing increases in chloride and certainly all bodies of water that have rows in their watershed are certainly at risk for increasing chloride. To start off, starting with the Big Lake, looking at Lake Champlain, there were three points at which we have data for salinity measurement and you can see going so this graph comes from DEC from Department of Environment and Conservation. Going back to roughly the early 90s and you can see that the trends especially as of late are that they're increasing. Turning the page, we have data from major Vermont tributaries going into Lake Champlain, Windhamski, Lamoille and Missisquoi. And you can see again that the data there has increasing trends. On the next page, this graph comes to us from the Lake Champlain Committee. These are, believe, the tributaries leading into Lake Champlain, not just from Vermont, but also from New York. You can see again the upward trends of salinity there. Moving on, again this is from DEC. Moving on from the tributaries to the lakes, you can see that there are a variety of lakes and ponds identified across the state that are above the threshold that we consider. 50 milligrams per liter is the threshold at which we start to see detrimental impact to aquatic life and going up to two thirty at a chronic rate two thirty milligrams per liter is considered toxic to aquatic life and then above eight sixty is considered acutely toxic. So really quite terrible. And then moving on to the next map you can see there's the explanation there of acute and the chronic thresholds and with some finer detail lakes and ponds are locations that have been identified as having problems with chloride, and you can see that there's quite a bit in Chittenden County and again correlated with asphalt, but that's coming up. There's a graph about that as well. The next one, chloride impaired waters. You can see that there were a couple that were identified previously including a Sunny Side Brook in Colchester, Muddy Brook in Williston, and then moving on there are more that are are also that well I'm sorry these are these are chloride impaired waters so these have identified as having quite a threshold or above the threshold of having a problem. And then moving on from there, there's a little bit of more raw data. You can see the bottom corner there, photo left, that's the Federation of Vermont Lakes and Ponds. You can see the distribution of how these lakes across the state are doing in terms of salt levels and with the box graphs there so you can see how much that varies. There is a database that keeps track of all this data and so that's on the next page. You can see that on the far right there are a bunch of arrows pointed upwards. That's to say that all of these lakes are seeing increases in the amount of chloride in them. And then finally on the last graph we have a graph of the amount of chloride in the lake, correlated with with, the amount of density of of road paving within a watershed. The more the more pavement that you have in watershed you can see that there is at least a correlation with the amount of chloride that ends up in that lake. Again correlation is not the same thing necessarily as causation, but I think there's a pretty strong case to be made there that there's a relationship. All that is to say there's probably more data than you have wanted about, chloride in Vermont's lakes and ponds. Thank you very much.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Thank you, senator. Senator from Maryland.
[Senator Scott Beck]: Thank you, mister president. If I may interrogate the report or the bill The
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: reporter will be interrogated.
[Senator Scott Beck]: I'd like to thank the chair of natural resources for the data package. I did have one question on the second to last slide. I'm really quite curious where a tickle naked is. It's got my curiosity.
[Senator Andrew Perchlik]: Is a great question and something that we did talk about, but I did not recall. Perhaps one of you knows. Oh, I'm not gonna make any
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Why don't we end the interrogation?
[Senator Scott Beck]: You. Mr. President is in my district. It's in Reigate.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Thank you so much. Crowdsourcing. The question now is shall the bill pass? Senator Senator from Addison.
[Senator Brian Collamore]: May I inquire the presenter of the bill?
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Presenter will be interrogated.
[Senator Ann Cummings]: Mister president,
[Senator Brian Collamore]: I see that from 2005 to 2015, we actually can see a dip in in the what salt is doing to the waters. Did they give a reason for that? So if we do cut down, will will it get better? Is my question for the person.
[Senator Andrew Perchlik]: That is a great question. So are you is the senator asking about the dip on the
[Senator Ann Cummings]: first graph? Correct.
[Senator Andrew Perchlik]: Thank you. That is helpful. I don't recall any, explanation for why that dip occurred, so I would be speculating on why that dip occurred at this, at this juncture, but we did take testimony on if, if we cut down the salt, will it get better? And the answer to that was that that in the long term, yes, but salinity or I'm sorry, salts, chloride has a tendency to, linger in, in the soil. It's not like phosphorus that bonds to material that ends up getting flushed out and so it may be a long journey to a point where we start to see it get better just because of the nature chemistry of the chloride and its, interaction with soil and water. Question
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: again, shall the bill pass? Are you ready for that question? If so, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. Nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. And you have passed S two eighteen, an act relating to reducing chloride contamination of state waters. We have on the calendar now S 23, an act relating to the use of synthetic media in election. The committee of conference has submitted the report as found in today's calendar on page one thirty one. Question is, shall the senate accept and adopt the report of the committee on of conference? I would recognize the senator from Roe.
[Senator Brian Collamore]: Thank you, mister president. A bit of time ago, there was a song called the long and winding road. S 23 could fall easily into that category. This is an act related to the use of synthetic media and elections originally passed the senate before crossover last year. The house passed a proposal of amendment to the very end of this last session, And earlier this year, senators will remember we passed a proposal of an amendment to the house's proposal of amendment. The house then requested a committee of conference. So the committee met a couple of times. We only had a few differences to settle between the two chambers, the definition section and the section on how the disclaimer is worded and delivered were the two outstanding issues. The committee of conference came to a compromise and is presenting a strike all report so the chamber, if you so choose, can view the entire legislation. It was a strike all, but, really, there are two sections that have to deal with what we walked through. And we wanted to, highlight those. The two sections are section two zero three one, which defines two terms, deceptive and fraudulent synthetic media means synthetic media that appears to a reasonable person to be a realistic representation of either a political candidate that injures the reputation of a political candidate or an individual that attempts to unduly influence the outcome of an election, including a public question by providing material false information to voters. This updated definition reflects a compromise between the two versions proposed by the House and Senate. The two chambers disagree in the scope of what would be included as deceptive and fraudulent. The house would have limited that to the political candidate section only. The senate would have expanded the scope to depicting all individuals, and as you can see, since we have both there, it was a win for the senate. Synthetic media is defined as an image, audio recording, or a video recording of an individual's appearance, speech, or conduct that has been created or intentionally manipulated with the use of digital technology, including AI. Again, the two chambers only had a small disagreement about the scope of that definition. The committee of conference decided to allow the representation to be of any individual instead of only a political candidate. Section two zero three two sets forth the disclosure required when publishing a synthetic media message within ninety days of an election. A disclosure is required when a person publishes or distributes synthetic media that the person knows is deceptive and fraudulent, we made within the ninety day period. The disclosure must be the following, quote, this media has been manipulated or generated by digital technology and depicts speech or conduct that did not occur. The chambers had disagreed on the exact wording, but what I just said is what we came to as an agreement. If the media image is an, an image or video, the disclosure has to be in a size that's easily readable by the average viewer. For audio recordings, the disclosure must be read in a pitch and pace that can be easily heard by the average listener. Both must be made in a way that is inclusive to the greatest extent possible of people with disabilities. Those were the only two disagreements. The, six members of the committee of conference all signed off on the report are hoping that the senate will adopt the report. Thank you, mister president.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Thank you, senator from Rutland. Question now is shall the senate accept and adopt the report of the committee on conference? Senator from Addison.
[Senator Andrew Perchlik]: Thank you, mister president.
[Senator Christopher Mattos]: I just wanna express my gratitude to the government operations committee, the chair and the vice chair and others who stuck with this bill at on its long and winding road. I think this is important to have in place for this upcoming election season, and I really hope that we, don't see this needed in our state but if we do see it needed we now hopefully will have the law to take care of it. Thank you Mr. President.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Rowan.
[Senator Seth Bongartz]: Thank you, mister president. If I may interrogate the, senior representative of the committee
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Chair of government operations.
[Senator Seth Bongartz]: I'm chair of government Yes, sir.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: The chair will be interrogated.
[Senator Seth Bongartz]: Yep. Thank you, mister president. If I may, just given the the current volatility of politics in our in our era, I was wondering if if the conference committee had any thought about expanding from the ninety day prior to election limit to some other more, larger scope, so that we would all understand when we're looking at media, if media is synthetic or organic? Thank you, mister president.
[Senator Brian Collamore]: That is a great question, mister president. The answer is no. We didn't. The only two issues, again, were the scope of who would be involved, whether it was only a political candidate or whether whether it was any individual, and then the ability of folks with a disability to be able to do that. So, no, that ninety day, was never a topic of conversation in the committee. Thank
[Senator Seth Bongartz]: you, mister president, and I and I thank the, the chair of government office.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Question again. Shall the senate accept and adopt the report of the committee of conference? Are you ready for that question? If so, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? The ayes have it, and you have adopted the report of the committee of conference on s 23. That completes the orders of the day. Senator from Chittenden Southeast.
[Senator Ann Cummings]: Thank you, mister president. Pending announcements, I move that the senate stand in adjournment until Thursday, February 19 at 01:00.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Thank you for that motion. I will begin the announcements by reminding senators we do have a joint assembly tomorrow. So we will be adjourning until 01:00, but we will all meet here at 10:25. And then after they are ready for us, we'll proceed to the joint assembly. Are there any further announcements?
[Senator Andrew Perchlik]: The
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from, Windsor.
[Senator Rebecca 'Becca' White]: Thank you, mister president. Today, the Vermont Energy all of the energy committees across the state are in the building. If you haven't had the opportunity to run into them, please do so. Say hello. And tomorrow, the Climate Solutions Caucus will be meeting at our regular time. If the joint assembly runs long, we will still have pizza. We will still be there, but we will have a shortened meeting. And we are being joined by the Vermont Interfaith Action and Light organization who represent faith leaders dedicated to climate action. So also folks from around the state who may be from your communities with free pizza in Room 10 tomorrow after the joint assembly.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Windham.
[Senator Andrew Perchlik]: Thank you, Mr. President. Senate institutions will meet at 01:30.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Washington.
[Senator Ann Cummings]: Thank you, Mr. President. Senate finance will meet at 01:30.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: The, middle senator from Washington.
[Senator Brian Collamore]: The, the president of the preparations committee will be meeting at 01:30.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Rowland.
[Senator Brian Collamore]: Thank you, mister president. It's unanimous. 01:30 for the government operations committee.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Bennington.
[Senator Seth Bongartz]: Mister president, not quite unanimous. The senate education committee will be at 01:45.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: And the senator from Windsor.
[Senator Alison Clarkson]: Yes. Mister president, may I first ask you a question? I believe there was a reference, a bill that was going to be referred during announcements. We
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: we did not do that today, senator. That that will be at a later date.
[Senator Alison Clarkson]: Oh, we can't do it in both announcements before and after session.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator, are you referring to an education bill?
[Senator Alison Clarkson]: I'm referring to a bill that was to be referred during announcements to, Senate Economic Development from education.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: I believe we're doing that tomorrow, senator.
[Senator Alison Clarkson]: Okay. Then I will announce Farmers Light tonight because we have the Vermont Youth Orchestra coming to play at 07:30. For those of you who missed last week you really missed a fabulous concert and this week promises to be equally terrific they're going to they present sort of eclectic and unforgettable chamber music at these young people remember these are high school primarily high school students. The flute choir is gonna be playing Vivaldi's spring and fiddle tune Ash Ashakan farewell. And the BYO brass quintet is gonna be playing Shakira and Ashostakovich, and their string squad is gonna be playing dances from Spain and Panama. All of these groups will come together to play New England's composer some pieces by Charles Ives. So I urge you all to come. It should be wonderful.
[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are there further announcements? Seeing none, the senator from Chittenden Southeast has moved that the senate stand in adjournment until 1PM, Thursday, 02/19/2026. Are you ready for that question? If so, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? The ayes have it, and the senate will stand in adjournment until 1PM, Thursday, February 19.