New bills introduced in the Vermont Senate would ban 3-D gun printing and animal testing, protect unrestricted abortion, create a public employee health care plan, and more.
A few hundred Vermonters on Saturday attended the local Women’s March, while others traveled Washington, D.C., to join the much larger national rally in the nation’s capital.
This week, many committees are concluding the two-week overture of introductory briefings, and are beginning the first movement: review of bills referred to them by the full House for study and possible action.
Senate bill, S.25, “an act relating to the right to have an abortion,” says the bill is necessary due to concerns that the “recent shift in composition” on U.S. Supreme Court will invalidate the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
Bills introduced this past week in the Vermont House include a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure, a 10-cent charge for plastic grocery bags, a school merger slow-down, sports betting legalization, and an increase in the tobacco tax.
U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., has been appointed to the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, putting him in the middle of that committee’s probe into suspected ties between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
A group of lawmakers led by Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, presented two bills this afternoon that would act as a moratorium on enforcement of Act 46 regarding forced school mergers.
The governors of Vermont and New Hampshire announced a twin-state family leave plan that would offer benefits to 18,500 state employees and give private businesses the option to join in at a cost affordable to employees.
Rep. Curt McCormack, an avid bike rider who doesn’t drive a car, has been named chair of the House Transportation Committee. He confirmed that his committee will try to develop more public transportation and other alternatives to cars, such as bike paths.
The multi-million dollar projects are the latest to get attention because of their approach to financing — increasing the city’s sales tax from 7 percent to 8 percent via a local option tax on food, lodging and alcohol.
A report on racially motivated harassment of former state Rep. Kiah Morris issued Monday by Attorney General T.J. Donovan found incidents of harassment but nothing that met the threshold of a criminal offense under current state law.
A slew of bills being introduced in the General Assembly aim to address guns, home school teachers, relief-from-abuse orders, smoking and more.