Meetings
Transcript: Select text below to play or share a clip
[Committee Assistant/Staff]: We are live.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: This is the conference committee on h seven ninety, the budget adjustment act of 2026. And we're so our third meeting. And we have some new language from the house conference. Mhmm.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Yep. So, I think we're just down to well, yeah, I think we're just down to this because we will give you the payment reform, and we'll just need to see if that we were okay with that. And then this is the, housing assistance, and we met with, Philip's met with the administration and others, while we were on break. So we actually have a revised version that you have in front of you. It's time stamped 10:06AM, with the highlights changes. Some of them were there before, but some of them were not. So that that
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: The bolded ones are the new ones. Right?
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: That's right. Bolded highlighted ones are the new ones. So, we wanted to clarify that, that the section eight housing vouchers would otherwise be lost as a result of federal action. Just making it more generic. And then we are already talked about, b, their housing authority and prior written approval. And then what we are asking in section D starting on line 20, that we want the housing authorities to submit the report on the financial need, but we also are putting the burden on them to include evidence that the request reforms to applicable HUD requirements and is a necessary and proper expense. So that was originally we were asking DCF to do that, but they aren't the experts. The housing authorities are the experts. So it seemed to make sense to move that up there. On or before May 1, DCF in consultation with Department of Housing and Community Development, and there will be other people that will be helping. We may have our very own James Duffy supporting them. There's James and others who have some, you know, developed some expertise over the course of this last, year, maybe supporting them. And so we also clarified that, the guidelines that DCF needs to create must, ensure that the funds are distributed based on need. I thought it would be equitably, but based on need. So it could be proportional, whatever. So those are those were the key changes, the ones that are in bold.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Okay.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: I talked to, Sarah Clark from the secretary from the administration. They were concerned about the May 1 deadline for DCF because they're also working on the, shelter initiative, same people. And so what we agreed on was that we're gonna keep the May 1. And if we need to change that date, we have section c in the budget itself where we can change the data for some reason. But this this will keep the, sort of pressure on to make sure that we're moving forward and because we wanna have this done before we adjourn.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: So, you know, waiting till May 15 could be too late, and we really wanna understand all that ahead of time. And then if there are any other changes that we would have to make, we always have the budget and the section c of the budget. So
[Sen. Richard Westman (Member)]: can I yeah? And so if we don't have written approval from HUD, by the time the budget comes out, we could always change this.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. But this getting this in the BAA is important because it's it helps the housing authorities and signals to them that we're serious and that, they can start to make some plans knowing that that this is what's happening.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And even without the written approval, they can do they can use some of the money
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: that's Right. B one Exactly.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Member)]: To prevent the retirement of a voucher. Right. My only worry is then that HUD right now is paralyzed too.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Yeah. Which will be a problem Right. No matter what we do.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Member)]: They but they're paralyzed too. Yeah.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Yeah. Well, the first thing we're gonna wanna see is they've been told the amount, but but the housing authorities have told us that they're gonna actually get the funding in March.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Well, I'm I'm okay with this language. Are you okay? No. I'm good. Okay.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: I'm fine. Okay. I will accept that. Helpful. Thank you. Yeah.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah. Thanks for your work on that. So this that's Thanks to JFO. Row 13 is closed out. Yes. I don't think we we needed more time with the housing assistance, but the dates that you did, but we're also okay okay with that.
[Committee Assistant/Staff]: Mhmm.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: We didn't have a cost of
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: The the payment reform?
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Is the other piece? That was okay?
[Joint Fiscal Office Analyst (JFO)]: Yes. Yes.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Okay.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: That was '13.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Member)]: Okay. 1312. Mhmm.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And then 16, we don't need anymore. Do we need that section? I don't know anything about that section.
[Committee Assistant/Staff]: What's
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: that? This is to add 9.5 global commitment for one time payment reform.
[Committee Assistant/Staff]: Oh, that's the spending authority.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Yeah. Oh, that's the spending authority. Okay. So if we agree on the language, then we agree on the spending authority? That's kinda how it works. Okay. Alright. It out of fall. I think we've checked off all our boxes.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Then there was some discussion. I don't know, Emily, if you had further discussions with the secretary of the senate about whether this be a conference report or instances of amendment? Did you hear about this?
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Yes.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Okay.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Yes. And and I believe that it's still sort of a conference report, but it's not a strike all.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Okay.
[Committee Assistant/Staff]: Maybe somebody else can
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: explain that.
[Joint Fiscal Office Analyst (JFO)]: Yes. Go ahead. So it could be a conference report.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: So it could be Instead of
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: a strike all, it's gonna be
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: It's a
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: We have to accede or something, some funny verb.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Right.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: And then there'll be five instances of amendment or six or however many instances of amendment. Right. Right. Right. That's the five.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah. Okay. Let's look at it.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: That's the last thing we have
[Sen. Richard Westman (Member)]: to do.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Because we We could sign it.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Member)]: Real quick.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Sure. Kinda. Yeah.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: you want Oh, good. I'll do the head of the conference.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And you can sit a therapist or you need to explain it. Okay. Screw that chair up.
[Joint Fiscal Office Analyst (JFO)]: Greetings and JFO. So yes, this is the committee's conference report. It has six instances of amendment. So you'll see the lead in language states that the committee of conference respectfully reports that it has met and considered the same and recommends that the house a seat to the Senate proposal of amendment and that the Senate proposal of amendment be further amended as follows. In the first instance of amendment, this is a change to the numbers section. This is just reflecting that Meals on Wheels production. The second instance of amendment is the totals for Human Services. So again, that's reflecting the Meals on Wheels reduction. Just the two sections need to change to reflect that. The third instance of amendment is reflecting the change to the Vermonters feeding Vermonters appropriation increase. So you'll see the number is increasing from 860,000 to 885,000. The fourth instance of amendment is the housing assistance language that the committee just accepted. On page five, the fifth instance of amendment is the Disabilities Services payment reform language that committee accepted. And on page eight toward the bottom or page seven toward the bottom and continuing on page eight, the sixth instance of amendment is just reflecting the Meals on Wheels change in that language section. You'll see now it says 55,000.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: What about the 9 and a half million? We don't have any
[Joint Fiscal Office Analyst (JFO)]: Good change needed for that.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Okay. Okay.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: So on these the food bank and so, like, the senate's position wasn't 500,000. So this changes we don't need to show on the instance of amendment. We're still we're still amending the Seven. Act 27. So we keep with that. We don't mention what the senate did. Correct.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Makes the floor report easier.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Member)]: Yeah. It's
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: a very slimmer document.
[Committee Assistant/Staff]: Yeah. But that's that's cool.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And I and I assume that it's as still a conference report, they can only be voted up and down. There's no possibility of Correct.
[Joint Fiscal Office Analyst (JFO)]: They can't vote sideways or anything like that.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Member)]: Or to make a can't make
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: prior amendment. JFO checked with both, Bloomer and Betsy Anne about that.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: So they're
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: two first. Of agreed. That's the case.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: So you have whatever we call that document? The signature is chefs. Do we oh, we we sign it in work. How what order do we sign
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: it? I think you do it, and then I do it, and then and then go and go around. I think it doesn't matter.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: I knew there was an order. I didn't There
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: is some order.
[Committee Assistant/Staff]: You got a some
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: protocol somewhere. Yeah.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Oh, everything will fall apart if we don't go north. Alright.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Pass it to you. So we don't actually have to vote. We just vote with our signatures?
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: I guess so.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: I don't know. No.
[Sen. Richard Westman (Member)]: You have we have to sign.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: We just have to sign.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Signing is voting. Like, if don't sign it, you're voting now.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: To get back in shape for committees of conference. This is a good easy in.
[Joint Fiscal Office Analyst (JFO)]: Yeah.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: I go first or second. I have no stake in that or in the old house.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: This allows him to do a big hand, Hancock signature.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Yeah. There you go. And that goes back with we're in the house. And then we're back to shape.
[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And do we
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: We'll shave. And shave. How do we do this? Come on.
[Committee Assistant/Staff]: Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: You. Mhmm.
[Committee Assistant/Staff]: Good job. Thank you. Thank you. Morning, Patricia. Good
[Sen. Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: morning.