Meetings
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[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: August. Yeah. Got a note. Will the senate please come to order? Our devotional exercises will be conducted by the reverend Scudder Parker of Middlesex. Welcome.
[Scudder Parker (Middlesex; guest, former reverend)]: It's the no longer reverend, Parker. So greetings. It's wonderful to be here again. It's been quite a while since I was here before. I'm going to read a poem from a book of poetry that was published, my second volume, about a year ago called The Poem of the World, and this is the first entitled poem of that volume. This is different than most of what you'll be doing the rest of the day. The poem of the world reveals itself like a dough's hoof tapping ice till she can drink. Startles like the rust of purple on this fall's forsythia leaves, though it may have used that small voice every year unheard. It blinks like red and blue potatoes dug this morning, drying in the sun, testing their startled, untrained eyes. It's the unexpected tickle, the fit of shared laughter in our urgency of touching that becomes another way of making love. It is an ocean beach of pebbles that suddenly starts singing, each stone its own tink, together a glorious indifferent song. And it's the voice of each bird I have only heard as morning chorus, landing with its own song and bright, perfect body in my brain. It is even now I begin to notice them, the subtraction of birds, taking summer with them, too busy to announce their leaving. The palm of the world wants me to wake in my own body. It is astonished I might let these supple bones grow brittle. It is the sudden thing I trust.
[Senator Alison Clarkson (Windsor)]: Thank you.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are there any announcements? Senator from Windham.
[Senator Nader Hashim (Windham)]: Mister president, I move to relieve senate judiciary of h eight forty one, a bill related to miscellaneous animal welfare procedures, and have the bill recommitted to the senate the senate committee on government operations.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Windham is moved that h eight forty one be relieved of the committee of judiciary and committed to the committee of government operations. Are you ready for the question? If so, all in favor, aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. The ayes have it, and we have committed h eight forty one to government operations. We have house bills for reference. We have eight sixty seven, an act relating to legislative operations and government accountability introduced by representative Boyden. It passed the house on 03/27/2026. Listen to the first reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H 67, an act act relating to legislative operations and government accountability.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the bill's first reading, it's referred to the committee on government operations. H five sixty seven, an act relating to unclaimed property, state retirement systems, and capital debt introduced by representative Vyhovsky of Virgins. It passed the house on 03/27/2026. Listen to the bill's first reading.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H five sixty seven, an act relating to unclaimed property, state retirement systems, and capital debt.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the bill's first reading. It's referred to the committee on government operations. H six fifty, an act relating to educational technology products introduced by representative Arsenal. It passed the house 03/27/2026. Somebody got ahead of themselves. That actually says 2027 on it. Please listen to the first reading.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H six fifty, an act relating to educational technology products.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the first reading of the bill. It is referred to the committee on education. H seven seventy two, an act relating to resident residential rental agreements, eviction procedures, and creation of the positive rental payment credit reporting pilot program introduced by representative Mahali. It passed the house on 03/27/2026. Listen to the first reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H seven seventy two. An act relating to residential rental agreements, eviction procedures, and the creation of the positive rental payment credit reporting pilot program.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the bill's first reading. It is referred to the committee on judiciary. H nine thirty three, an act relating to miscellaneous administrative and policy changes to the tax law introduced by the committee on ways and means. It passed the house on 03/27/2026. Listen to the first reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H nine thirty three, an act relating to miscellaneous administrative and policy changes to the tax laws.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the bill's first reading. It's referred to the committee on finance. H nine thirty seven, an act relating to miscellaneous judiciary procedures introduced by the committee on judiciary. It passed the house on 03/27/2026. Listen to the first reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H nine thirty seven, an act relating to miscellaneous judiciary procedures.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the bill's first reading. It's referred to the committee on judiciary. H nine forty four, an act relating to fiscal year twenty twenty seven transportation program and miscellaneous changes to laws related to transportation introduced by the committee on transportation. It passed the house on 03/27/2026. Listen to the first reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H nine forty four, an act relating to the fiscal year twenty twenty seven transportation program and miscellaneous changes to the laws related transportation.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the bill's first reading, it's referred to the committee on transportation.
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: Okay. Thank you.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: H nine fifty one, an act relating to making appropriations for the support of government. It was introduced by the committee on appropriations, and it passed the house on 03/26/2026. Listen to the first reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H nine fifty one, an act relating to making appropriations for the support of government.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the bill's first reading. It's referred to the committee on appropriations. Orders of the day. We have s one ninety three for third reading. Are there any amendments to be offered prior to third reading? Senator from Windham.
[Senator Nader Hashim (Windham)]: Thank you, mister president. The amendment that I am posing is on page twelve eighty seven of today's calendar. It is essentially a typo that was caught by alleged counsel. In section four, you'll notice in the bill that it refers to the commissioner of general services, which as far as I know is not a thing that exists. They do have a commissioner of buildings and general services. So the amendment proposed to strike out commissioner of general services and replace it with commissioner of buildings and general services. That is all the ruling does, and I ask for the senate's support.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Question is, shall the bill be amended as offered by the senator from Windham? Are you ready for the question? If so, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed nay. The ayes have it and we have amended the bill. The question now is listen to the third reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: S one ninety three, an act relating to establishing a forensic facility for certain criminal justice involved persons.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now the question is, shall the bill pass? Are you ready for the question?
[Senator Seth Bongartz (Bennington)]: Roll call.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Roll call has been requested and when the vote is taken, it shall be by roll. Are you ready for the question? If so, the secretary shall call the roll.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: Senator Hashim.
[Senator Nader Hashim (Windham)]: Yes. Senator Hinsdale.
[Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale (Chittenden)]: Yes. Senator Mogg.
[Senator Alison Clarkson (Windsor)]: Yes. Senator Major.
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: Yes. Senator Matos. Yes. Senator Morley. Yes. Senator Norris.
[Senator Robert Norris]: Yes. Senator White?
[Senator Rebecca 'Becca' White]: Yes. Senator Blue? Yes.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Those voting yes, 29. Those voting no, one. And we have passed s one ninety three. We now have s one ninety eight. Are there any amendments prior to third reading? Seeing none, listen to the third reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: S one ninety eight, an act relating to the regulation and taxation of tobacco products and tobacco substitutes.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Question is, shall the bill pass? Are you ready for the question? Senator from Chittenden.
[Senator Virginia 'Ginny' Lyons (Chittenden)]: Mr. President, during second reading a question was raised that I said I would respond to a third reading. Question was about what is currently mandated on vape devices to be disclosed on the packaging as I recall and heard from it. Since second reading, I did reach out to advocates and including the campaign for tobacco free kids who responded with saying that if the nicotine products were approved as cessation devices by the FDA, they would have to accurately indicate concentrations, but they are not. In a test of products several years ago, Essex at the time indicated labels were often inaccurate. Just to elaborate a little bit further, because I think this is an important point and it gets to the heart of the bill, is that right now there's really two federal code of federal regulations that apply to vaping devices. The most strictly regulated aspect of vape packaging is the health warning. Under 21 CFR eleven forty three point three all covered tobacco products, which includes these, I want to say since 2016, but I don't know. It might have been more recent than that. The text must say, Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. And there are specifics that it must be 30% of the principal display panels and the 12 font held, vected, or aerial bold, and it must be black text and white background. What's the not confusing part, but the opportunity that this report might inform, the future legislature on this topic or the House if they dig deeper into it, is that the disclosure of nicotine strength, which is what I think the thrust of the question was, is that federal Interestingly, federal law does not have a specific formatting mandate for the nicotine concentration. Instead, it's regulated through misbranding and premarket authorization requirements. So there's an accuracy mandate under Section nine zero three of the FD and C Act. A product is misbranded if the labeling is false or misleading. If a manufacturer labels a product as 3% nicotine, but it contains 5% nicotine, the FDA can issue warning letters and seizures, and that's what the study realized that that was found in a few cases. So just because it says 5%, it does not it doesn't mean that it's been independently verified, and that's where a lot of interest and advocacy is on this topic so that it conforms to more strict packaging constraints. And I think that's what we as a country across all the different states are looking at and what this report might help get us to a better place in the coming months. Hope that answers the question, Mr. President.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are you ready for the question? Question is, shall the bill pass? If so, all in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Aye. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it and we passed s one ninety eight. We now have s two fourteen. Are there any amendments prior to third reading? Listen to the third reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: S two fourteen an act relating to the provision of pre kindergarten education in geographically isolated school districts.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Question is shall the bill pass? Are you ready for the question? If so, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Ayes have it and we passed s two fourteen. We have on the calendar for action h six ninety four. It was introduced on 01/15/2026. It was referred to the committee on government operations, which reports it is considered the bill and recommends that the bill ought to pass in concurrence. Listen to the second reading of the bill.
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H six ninety four, an act relating to approval of amendments to the charter town of Bennington concerning the town manager.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Recognize the senator from Orleans, senator Morley, for the report of the committee on government operations.
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: Thank you, mister president. Single one, one page bill. And under, section one's charter amendment approval, the general assembly approves the amendments to the charter of the town of Bennington as set forth in this act. Mhmm. The voters approved the proposal amendment on 03/04/2025, and the vote was I forgot this one other time when I did this. So the vote was 1,231 in favor, 799 against. Section two of the bill, removal. Unless expressly modified by contract or ninety days written notice from the select board, the town manager may be removed without cause by majority of the select board. And what what we learned there was I was
[Senator Nader Hashim (Windham)]: I think we all
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: had the same thing in our minds was what happened? Something really, really bad must have happened in Bennington.
[Senator Virginia 'Ginny' Lyons (Chittenden)]: Well, it
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: really wasn't. They'd had a long standing Manager down there for like I think they testified thirty something years and he got done and they're moving forward with now a they want to put in this charter a contract agreement. So that when they hire somebody new, they actually have a contract in in place. And so that's all that this is doing. Other municipalities do the same thing. And that's the extent of this bill. Thank you, Mr. President. Oh, and House Scubbops voted ten zero one.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: 10? Good.
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: House Scubbops.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Oh, House, sorry. We don't normally report House votes, but thank you, Senator.
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: Voted ten zero one. The house, voted my voice on the floor. Senate senate Gubbuffs voted out five zero when we heard
[Senator Seth Bongartz (Bennington)]: from Tucker Anderson, alleged counsel,
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: rep Sandra, Pinsdale representative. Thank you.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: For a minute, I thought you'd been demoted back to the house. Thank you, senator. The question is, shall the bill be read a third time? Are you ready for the question? If so, I'll senator from Bennington.
[Senator Seth Bongartz (Bennington)]: Thank you, mister president. And I thank the senate Gabbop's committee on this. It's it's a it's a very small charter amendment. But to put it in a little more context, our Charter Review Committee did spend a number of months talking about a number of different articles and they had agreed on six and ultimately we do have this one here today. Provide a little more context for why this was important to us in Bennington is, Stu Heard was our town manager for frankly most of my life and he was a town manager that was well I will say well loved and I know a number of people say the opposite of that but it was very clear that that Stu was coming close to his retirement and unfortunately he did not get to retire because he died before. He was able to retire and before this became an issue because we were just we were concerned that well we have this removal provision. How are we going to get a town manager that could come anywhere near Stuart Heard? And so we and we had agreed upon this to have their you know, the new town manager can contract to do something differently. We do have a new town manager right now. I don't know, frankly, if he entered into a different contract for the removal, but this is something that is very small, very important, and and symbolizes actually quite a loss for Bennington. Alright. Thank you, mister president.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are you ready for the question? Question is, shall the bill be read a third time? If so, all in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. The ayes have it, and you've ordered third reading of h six ninety four. That completes the orders of the day. Senator from Chittenden.
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: Thank you, mister president. Pending announcements, I move that the senate stand and adjournment until 1PM, Thursday, 04/02/2020.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are there any announcements? Senator from Windsor.
[Senator Rebecca 'Becca' White (Windsor)]: There is no climate solutions caucus meeting this week, but this Friday, April 3 from twelve to 2PM, out front of the state house will be mini truck day. All of you, I believe, voted positively for the DMV miscellaneous bill, which included language to codify the mini truck. So if you'd like to know what exactly you voted on,
[John H. Bloomer, Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: you can
[Senator Rebecca 'Becca' White (Windsor)]: go out and measure an individual mini truck if you'd like. 12 to two mini cupcakes will be weather. We're doing it no matter what the weather. So please, you're all invited. The governor has a Subaru sandbar he may be looking at and may be visiting as well.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are there further announcements? Senator from Windham.
[Senator Wendy Harrison (Windham)]: Thank you, mister president. Senate institutions will meet at 02:30 today.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Washington.
[Senator Ann Cummings (Washington)]: Senate appropriations will meet at 01:30.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Washington.
[Senator Ann Cummings (Washington)]: Thank you, mister president. Senate finance will meet at 01:30.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Rutland. Thank
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: you, mister president.
[Senator Seth Bongartz (Bennington)]: Government operations will meet at two.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Bennington.
[Senator John Morley III (Orleans)]: Mister president, the education committee will meet at 01:30.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are there any further announcements? Senator from Windsor.
[Senator Alison Clarkson (Windsor)]: I was waiting I've been waiting all day for my April fools, and I thought maybe the April fools looked at h seven seven two went to judiciary instead of to senate economic development, housing, and general affairs. But I'm getting the feeling that wasn't an April fools joke, but it's something we will discuss as we go forward. However, it is no April fool's joke. There is Farmers Night tonight, and it's we're because it's poetry month, April is poetry month, and we are beginning launching it. It's also fair housing month. So we launched fair housing month this morning with a joint joint hearing. And tonight, we're gonna celebrate poetry by having Nadine Budville, who's David's daughter, and the trustee for the David Budville Frame Trust come and we're gonna have a lovely evening of celebrating David's poetry, The Poetry of a Place and Its People. Join David Budville's daughter and literary executor Naderine Budville along with actors Abby Page and Mark Roberts for dramatic reading and discussion of the poetry that became David Budbill's Judevine. And I encourage you all to come particularly well. You can have loved David and you could have loved loved public. So anyway, 07:30 in the house chamber.
[Lt. Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are there any further announcements? Seeing none, the senator from Chittenden Central has moved that the senate stand in adjournment until 1PM, Thursday, 04/02/2026. Are you ready for the question? If so, all in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Ayes have it, and we'll stand in adjournment until 1PM, Thursday, 04/02/2020