February 23, 2021 This document was prepared by members of the Vermont House Democratic caucus to help the public understand the work in our committees during the first half of the 2021 legislative session. The page numbers link to the appropriate page. (posted by Rep. Scott Campbell, St. Johnsbury) Table of Contents Agriculture & Forestry – John O’Brien 2 Appropriations – Maida Townsend 3 Commerce & Economic Development – Michael Nigro 4 Education – Jana Brown & Kathleen James 6 Energy & Technology – Katherine Sims 7 Government Operations – Peter Anthony & Mike Mrowicki 9 Health Care – Leslie Goldman 10 Human Services – Dane Whitman 11 Judiciary – Will Notte 12 Natural Resources, Fish & Wildlife – Larry Satcowitz & Kari Dolan 13 Transportation – Becca White, Gabrielle Stebbins & Diane Lanpher 13 Ways & Means – Carol Ode 15 1 Agriculture & Forestry – John O’Brien Working Lands & Farm to School While new bills, like babies, o/en a0ract much oo-ing and ah-ing, it’s good policy for commi0ees to check in with the “legacies” of past legisla?on. Early in the session, the House Commi0ee on Agriculture and Forestry heard “what have you been up to?” tes?mony on two programs it helped create and cul?vate: the Working Lands Enterprise Ini?a?ve (WLEI) and the Farm to School program (F2S). Working Lands (which provides grants and consul?ng for rural economic development projects) is such a success that the Governor has proposed adding $3 million in a one-?me appropria?on to next year’s WLEI budget. F2S, which advocates for, and coordinates, geng local food into our schools, is an on-going win-win-win (farmers benefit economically, healthy students are more focused, schools achieve be0er results); the only restric?on on expanding its success is financial, as there are never enough dollars for deserving programs. Ag & Food: Road Map for the Future Eighteen months in the making, with input from over 1,500 Vermonters, the Vermont Agriculture & Food System Strategic Plan 2021-2030 debuted last week with much fanfare and apprecia?on. A collabora?on between the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund’s Farm to Plate team (F2P) and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM), the work provides, as Secretary Tebbe0s summarized, “a road map to the future.” “The Big Book,” all 200 spiral-bound pages of it, is made up of 54 product, market and issue briefs. For the next decade, this go-to resource will be the dog-eared “Ag bible” for policymakers and stakeholders, not to men?on a good read for select boards and planning commissions, and a must-have for town libraries. Let’s just say you want to know what the bo0lenecks in hop produc?on are. It’s there. Or you want to dig into Vermont food opportuni?es in major metropolitan markets. It’s there. Or you want to see what the experts recommend for food security, or farm succession, or racial equity in the Vermont food system. It’s all there. Not to men?on strategic goals, priority strategies, and credits for the 52 lead authors and 111 expert contributors. Available online at: vfarmtoplate.com/plan/ or, if you ask the F2Pers nicely, as a hard copy. Agritourism ProtecDon: Over to the Senate If House Ag is a proponent of regenera?ve agriculture, it’s equally commi0ed to regenera?ve legisla?on. Year a/er year, only about 17% of proposed bills become law. When the two-year legisla?ve cycle concludes—the so-called “biennium”—all bills that have been proposed, but not passed, die. At the start of the next biennium, those bills that didn’t cross the finish line need to be re-introduced, and, if they merit due diligence, the commi0ees go back to work on them. The House just passed H.89, a re-working of last year’s H.794 (which died in the Senate). This bill codifies limi?ng liability for agritourism, similar to the exis?ng statute that insulates, but does not immunize, the equine industry from negligence. Animal Welfare: Taking Another Look Also, last year, House Ag shepherded H. 254, an act rela?ng to adequate shelter for livestock, all the way to the Governor, who signed it, and it became a new Vermont statute, Act 116. The law gives law enforcement and humane officers, in the event of a livestock cruelty inves?ga?on, the power to educate and enforce, essen?ally to tell the overextended farmer or backyard hoarder, “These animals need shelter—either constructed or natural—so they won’t suffer in extreme weather.” This year, House Ag is hearing concern from rota?onal grazing farmers who feel that this 2 regenera?ve agriculture prac?ce--even when their livestock are thriving--could land them in viola?on of the new law. The upshot: House Ag may revisit H.254/Act 116 and give it a tweak. The Commi0ee is also going to resurrect H.940, sister legisla?on to the adequate shelter bill. H. 940 died last year when COVID bills were, understandably, given top priority. This bill will clarify who can be a humane officer: going forward, it can only be a law enforcement officer, a humane society employee, or an animal control officer who has passed the updated training requirements on animal welfare and cruelty. Just because you answer the phone at a humane society or you know that Hamburg is a breed of chicken, doesn’t make you a humane officer. AppropriaDons – Maida Townsend Fiscal Year 2022 Budget (259 words) House Appropria?ons is currently working on the FY2022 budget, which covers the programs of state government and its community partner organiza?ons from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. The commi0ee is on target to present its proposed budget to the full House in the middle of March. Balancing the extraordinary infusion of federal and state revenues that will not be sustained over ?me while mee?ng the extraordinary need of Vermonters as they endure the pandemic are the principal challenges of developing the budget. In a typical year, there is a structural gap between revenues and expenditures. This year, when we have 10 ?mes the usual number of people living in temporary housing, when we have five ?mes the usual number of unemployed people, when every downtown and rural community has businesses that are struggling on a day-to-day basis, the challenge is making strategic use of non-recurring money that will help Vermont build back be0er. The commi0ee is going deep into the numbers, hearing budget tes?mony from all state-related en??es from all three branches of government. They are looking at performance accountability in new and old ini?a?ves. They have sought input from the public, hearing from 73 Vermonters in oral tes?mony and 29 in wri0en tes?mony. They have sought recommenda?ons from each of the legisla?ve policy commi0ees. The goals? To cra/ a fiscally responsible budget that supports and strengthens Vermont communi?es and families. To protect and li/ up the most vulnerable Vermonters. To move us beyond a maintenance budget only, across all 14 coun?es, and leave no one behind. Federal Support: Dollars Flowing from DC Since the early weeks of the pandemic in 2020, the COVID-related dollars flowing to Vermont from Washington have been substan?al. As of mid-January 2021, the federal infusion equaled approximately 20 percent of our state’s economy. It is es?mated to yet reach as much as 30 percent. As of early December, approximately $5 billion had come to Vermont, much passing directly to agencies and departments for specified COVID relief purposes. Within this amount was the $1.25 billion that became the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF), from which the legislature had authority to appropriate dollars to target specific support of Vermonters and their communi?es. Alloca?ons ranged from assistance to dairy and non-dairy farms, working lands, state parks and other public lands to connec?vity, health care stabiliza?on, and child care and adult days; from a variety of economic business sectors, both for-profit and nonprofit, to UVM and the VT State Colleges system; from municipali?es and pre-K-12 school districts to all manner of housing and jus?ce-related en??es. 3 Because use of CRF dollars had to follow strict federal guidance, un?l Washington unexpectedly changed that guidance at the very end of 2020, por?ons of alloca?ons were reverted, reallocated, transferred. The bo0om line is that, as of early February, $6.3 million was back in the CRF. The House Appropria?ons Commi0ee is considering carefully so as to allocate those dollars to the greatest immediate needs. Note that all of this federal help, with even more on the way, is one-?me money. Once we are at the be0er side of the pandemic, Vermont must stand on its own in support of Vermonters coping with residual and on-going economic, emo?onal, and social hardship. Budget Adjustment FY2021 Budget Adjustment typically occurs midway through the fiscal year. It is a recalibra?on, a truing up so as to maintain the state budget in balance. It is fiscal discipline. It is also an opportunity to adjust for the unforeseen. Here is just a sampling: ● There was a massive mix-up regarding 1099 tax forms sent out by the unemployment unit at the Department of Labor. The FY2021 Budget Adjustment Act (BAA) includes language to enable the most solid measure of valida?on of informa?on possible in replacing tax documents sent to unemployment recipients. ● VSNIP is Vermont’s low-cost spay neuter assistance program.