MONTPELIER – I am writing to provide an update to the end of the 2025 legislative session. Friday, May 30, shortly before midnight, the House gavelled out without receiving a final bill on H. 454, the education transformation plan.
The Committee of Conference, made up of members appointed from both the House and the Senate, was unable to come to a final agreement. They will continue to work on the bill for the next two weeks, and the House will be called back into session on June 16 and 17, hopefully to receive and vote on their final report. Until then, this process remains temporarily suspended. Please continue to write to the members of the Committee of Conference if you have thoughts you’d like to share about the education bill.
The House Committee on Education also remains hopeful that we will be able to pass H.54, the state-wide cellphone-free bill that we have been receiving much testimony on this year. H.54 requires schools to create or adopt policies that would prohibit the use of cellphones and other personal electronic devices by students throughout the entire school day. There is wide bipartisan support for this measure, and I anticipate that when we finally adjourn for this year in a few weeks, this bill will be passed into law.
There are many other bills that have already been passed this year, all of which can be found on the General Assembly website. The last week has been a whirlwind, and a lot has happened.
Here are just a few of the latest updates: We have worked to reduce homelessness and provide more permanent housing to Vermonters as we phase out the inefficient and inadequate motel/hotel program that we have been relying on for too long. We have created programs to create more low, middle and mixed-income housing, working towards the very end of the session to negotiate removing unnecessary barriers that will now allow more rural communities to participate in these programs. We passed laws to tighten our election processes and protect voters from fraudulent or AI-created information.
I will be providing a much more thorough end-of-year report when the session officially adjourns in mid-June (I hope) that will go into detail about specific key bills that passed this year.
Leanne Harple represents Orleans-4 House District which includes to towns of Albany, Craftsbury, Glover and Greensboro.
Rep. Leanne Harple
Leanne Harple represents Orleans-4, the towns of Albany, Craftsbury, Glover and Greensboro.
