Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: The senate please come to order. We'll observe a moment of silence in lieu of a devotional. Thank you. Are there any announcements? Seeing none, we have house bills for reference. H seven twenty seven, an act relating to sustainable data center deployment. Introduced by representative Cecilia of Dover, it passed the house on 03/21/2026. Listen to the first reading of the bill.

[John H. Bloomer Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H seven twenty seven, an act relating to sustainable data center deployment.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the first reading of the bill, it's referred to the committee on finance. H nine thirty five, an act relating to emergency management introduced by the committee on government operations and military affairs. It passed the house on 03/31/2026. Listen to the first reading of the bill.

[John H. Bloomer Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H nine thirty five, an act relating to emergency management.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the first reading of the bill. It's referred to the committee on government operations. H nine thirty eight, an act relating to establishing the Vermont homelessness response continuum introduced by the committee on human services. It passed the house on 03/31/2026. Listen to the first reading of the bill.

[John H. Bloomer Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H nine thirty eight, an act relating to establishing the Vermont homelessness response continuum.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Now you've heard the bill's first reading. It's referred to the committee on health and welfare. Orders of the day. We have h six ninety four for third reading. Are there any amendments prior to third reading? Listen to the third 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 of the town of Bennington concerning the town manager.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: The question is, shall the bill pass in concurrence? Are you ready for the question? If so, all in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. The ayes have it, and we have passed h six ninety four. We have on the calendar for action h 84 introduced on 01/24/2025. It was referred to the committee on health and welfare, which reports it's considered the bill and recommends that it ought to pass in concurrence. Listen to the second reading of the bill.

[John H. Bloomer Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H 84, an act relating to allowing telehealth appointments to be recorded with patient and provider consent.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Recognize the senator from Chittenden, senator Gulick, for the report of the committee on health and welfare.

[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick]: Mister president,

[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick]: this is the

[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick]: rare bill that came to our committee and left in the same exact form as it came to us, so that was exciting. Health and welfare wanted to be the committee with the first bill after crossover, but my neighbor to the left of me, Senator Gulick, scampered up the steps faster than I did. So she gets number one and we get number two, which is okay. This is age 84. It is an act relating to allowing telehealth appointments to be recorded with patient and provider consent. Right now, healthcare services are delivered through telemedicine cannot be recorded. This is a problem because it means that healthcare providers must manually take notes whilst also listening to their patients, assessing their health, and trying to communicate with them. This practice has resulted in hours of extra administrative burden for healthcare providers and it has caused high levels of burnout amongst our practitioners. According to the Vermont Medical Society, fifty seven percent of practitioners say the EHR, the electronic health record, is a top source of burnout. What this bill does is it allows healthcare providers to record a telemedicine consultation with the patient's consent and then through the telemedicine, send the recording off to create a summary and then the healthcare practitioner would read that summary and go through it and make sure it's accurate and then share that recording with the patient. So that is how it works. The tools that are used in this process are HIPAA regulated. They're often an app on a phone but they could be on a computer or on a different device. And this process is also helpful because currently if you're a patient and you're in a telehealth visit, you're actually not supposed to be recording it yourself. So this will also allow patients to legally record their own visits. If you look at the bill, it's pretty straightforward I believe, if you look at the bill you will see that in section one there is an amendment that amends 18 BSA chapter nine thousand three and sixty one. This is the chapter that is titled Healthcare Providers Delivering Healthcare Services Through Telemedicine or by STORE and Forward Means. What STORE and FORWARD is, according to the Center for Connected Health Policy, it is the transmission of a member's medical information, for example, an image, a video, a laboratory or medical record, or another document or source of information from an originating site to the healthcare provider at a distant location, a distant site. So this is commonly used for teledermatology, for example for skin conditions, teleradiology, x rays, CT scans, and telo ophthalmology, for example retinal images. It would add to this chapter one line and you can see it on the bill that you were handed unless both the patient and the provider consent to the recording. So, thus far it has not been allowed there was a prohibition on this but we're adding that language to allow. It would then amend section two, chapter nine thousand three and sixty two, which is healthcare providers delivering healthcare services by audio only telephone, and it would do the same thing. It would just add that one line unless both the patient and the provider consent to the recording. The effective date is on passage. We voted it out of committee five-zero-zero. The witnesses were ledge counsel, the sponsor of the bill, Daisy Rebecca, Amy Johnson of Vermont Care Partners, Devin Green of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, Anne Morris, who's the Associate Dean of Primary Care at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, and Jessa Barter of the Vermont Medical Society. With that five zero zero vote out of health and welfare, we ask that the senate concur. Thank you, mister president.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are you ready for the question? Senator from Chittenden Central.

[Senator Tanya Vyhovsky]: Thank you. Might I inquire of the presenter of the bill?

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: The presenters interrogated.

[Senator Tanya Vyhovsky]: Is the usage of the recording limited to note taking or could it be used for training purposes or other purposes? Yes, it could be used for other purposes. Okay

[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick]: and how long can the recordings be kept and stored? So that was a question that I asked in committee and I believe my understanding is that it's not in statute but there is a best practice And it is typically for three, I believe it's three months after a patient's deceased, demise, death, or ten years after the patient has seen a practitioner.

[Senator Tanya Vyhovsky]: So that's the best practice for how long they should be held on to? Yes. Was there any testimony taken as to whether or not these recordings would be subpoenaable in any court cases?

[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick]: There was no testimony taken on that. I thank the presenter.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Are you ready for the question? The 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 84.

[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick]: We

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: have on the calendar for action h five forty introduced on 01/06/2026. It was referred to the committee on judiciary, which reports it is considered the bill and recommends that it ought to pass in concurrence. Listen to the second reading of the bill.

[John H. Bloomer Jr. (Secretary of the Senate)]: H five forty, an act relating to the recommendations of the post adjudication reparative program working group.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Recognize the senator from Chittenden Central, senator Vyhovsky, for the report of the committee on judiciary.

[Senator Tanya Vyhovsky]: Thank you, mister president. H while I was the first one to get a bill to the secretary's office, I'm noticing it wasn't on the calendar first. But h five forty is also a fairly straightforward bill and also a bill that has not been changed in the Senate and is exactly the same as it was when it arrived to us in Senate judiciary. I gonna give you a little bit of background on where h five forty came from. In 2024, we worked on h six forty five, which became act one eighty. And part of that bill was tasked to create the larger task of the bill was to create a uniform community based restorative justice program for people across Vermont to really create geographic justice and geographic access to restorative justice services. One of the aspects of Act 180 was standing up the post adjudication reparative program working group. So this is a narrow subset of people who work, who enter into restorative justice after they have been adjudicated. That working group was comprised of the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections or designee, the Chief Superior Court Judge or designee, and five representatives that were geographically diverse from community justice centers across the state of Vermont. The working group was tasked to define the program and the scope of the program, determine the offenses that would presumptively qualify for the program, establish eligibility for the program, define uniform procedures for the program, assess capacity, and explore ways to achieve financial stability. They were also working in consultation with the Attorney General's Office, the Department of State Attorneys and Sheriffs, the Defender General's Office, and the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services. So what H five forty does is take those some of those recommendations and put them into law. In section one, it is largely a technical change. It takes the language out of this sort of header section and moves it into section into another section that further defines. So it doesn't change anything. It just moves it around in the chapter. Section two eliminates the language for restorative justice to be used in child support cases. What we heard, well, we didn't hear it, but what the task force determined is that they've never seen restorative justice used in instances of child support, and it really actually didn't make sense to use this program in that way. And so it simply crosses out that language of restorative justice applying to child support. And then in Section three, it allows the court to require participation provided that restorative justice is an allowable avenue, which is actually already the law. It is just again, there's a lot of moving and shifting in this bill. And this next aspect is also already the law, but you'll see language that allows restorative justice to be used without a probation sentence if the person but if the person doesn't successfully complete it and they aren't on probation, they are required to come back to court for resentencing. Again, this is already the law. And then the big change in here, the one of the biggest things this actually does is it'll it adds in factors for the courts to consider when they're considering restorative justice. Those factors are whether or not there is an agreement for the referral between the parties, the views of any victims, the impact of the offense on the community, the person's willingness to participate in restorative justice, and if there are any orders of protection, and then, of course, anything else the court wishes to consider. But it lays out that those things should surely be considered. The other thing that this bill does is it tasks the court administrator with creating a standardized referral form to be used in all of the courts in the state of Vermont, and it nudges the Supreme Court by saying that they can adopt procedural rules. Of course, the Supreme Court can adopt procedural rules without us telling them to, and we can't tell them to. But by putting in that they may, it's hopeful that we'll make a little nudge that it might be helpful if they did. And that's really all this bill does. Restorative justice has shown to be a very effective tool in accountability and the reduction in crime in our communities, and this is a small next step in the process of ensuring that all of the victims of crime in Vermont and all of the people who have done harm have access to those services. We and then the effective date of this bill is the last subsection, which is it will be effective on 07/01/2026. Your vote in committee was five zero zero, and we asked for the chamber support.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: The question is, shall the bill be read a third time? Are you ready for the question? If so, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. The ayes have it. You've ordered third reading of h five forty. That completes the orders of the day. Senator from Chittenden. Thank you, mister president. Pending announcements, I move that the senate stand in adjournment until 11:30AM, Friday, 04/03/2026. Are there any announcements? Senator from Washington. Thanks, mister president. Appropriations to meet at 01:30. Senator from Windham.

[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick]: Thank you, mister president. Institutions will meet at 01:30.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Rutland. Government operations will meet at two. Senator from Washington.

[Senator Martine Larocque Gulick]: Thank you, mister president. Senate finance will meet at 01:30.

[Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman (President of the Senate)]: Senator from Bennington. Mister president, 01:30. Are there any further announcements? No. None, the senator from Chittenden Central has moved that the senate stand in adjournment until 11:30AM, Friday, 04/03/2026. Are you ready for the question? If so, all in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Ayes have it. We'll stand in adjournment until 11:30AM, Friday, 04/03/2026.